I recevied a phone call around noon today from a friend, Buck, who works on the PD of a small town very close to where I live. There were 4 horses loose running through town and he is not a horseman. He didnt know what to do to catch them and was worried becuse they were getting close to the highway.
I got dressed( I work nights and was asleep) grabbed a bucket of grain and a lead rope/halter and went down there.

I have NEVER in my life seen such a blatant case of neglectful abuse towards a horse....
all 4 were skin and bones, they looked like Auschwtiz survivors...Two were mares with foals on them, and the foals were weak, malnourished and all 4 had open running sores from the fly bites and from laying in their own excrement. One of the mares had pus running from her vulva, indicating an infection. All had long over grown hoofs, and they were about the sorry-iest looking things I have ever seen. One of the foals had a deep laceration on its leg where it looks liek it got into the barbed wire, and it was dryed and pus-filled and covered with flys...

I caught them one by one and walked them back to the house were Buck said they came from. The fencing ( what there was of it) was rusty barbed wire and old guard rail and was fallen down in at least three places. old vehicles, car parts and trash filled the "lot" were teh horse were kept. there was no hay or grass available to them, just tall weeds and dirt and trash. The water tank( an old bath-tub) was half full of black brackish water( its 100* out right now) and the only shelter was a lean-to shed that was broken down and filled with about 3 feet of manure.

As I am standing there talking to Buck about "whats wrong with this picture", a 15-16 year old kid shows up, and tells us that the horse are his aunts, and he is sooooo glad we caught them, 'cuase sheloves them so much and would have been jus theart broken.........and then he went on to talk about how he'll hobble them wth some rope ( indicating soe old bale twine laying on teh ground) until his aunt gets home to take care of them....

I almost punched that kid right in teh face...

I had to walk off and leave, 'cause if I had said anything I might have lost it and taken it out on the kid......I may have slightly sugested to Buck that he neede to call the county ACO before I left......and that if the kid hobbled them with bale twine I'd kill him with my bare hands...

I should be going back to sleep but am so furious that I cant. I have a very hard to resist urge to go "visit" the aunt......
What teh blazes is wrong with people? I mean, this aint the 1800's is it? IS this a third world country or soemthing???If you cant feed a horse why in the hell would you breed it? How in the world can a person live with tehmselves??? I am running out of words here, I am having difficulty expressing myself right now and staying within the confines of acceptable language for this site...
I am just sick right now.... just sick.........

 

I'd call the PETA on that woman. And any other animal protection club, agency, or whatever. And I'd suggest taking pictures of the horses etc.
I understand you're angry, but now you should direct your energy towards helping the horses and well - maybe this auntie gets annoyed enough with 4.5 million PETA protesters in front of her house..

AlpineRAM

 

Inexcusible. I would call the state police and lodge a complaint of neglect. The state will likely send out the correct animal protection folks and the horses will be removed from the property and placed in a foster environment to regain their health. We just had that happen in Hampton, NH. The police lost their entire mounted force for the season because of neglect at the farm that the twon had kept them over the winter. Not once did any one in authority, or their riders, go pay them a visit to check on them. Going to take them six months or more to regain their health and the more time to get back into shape for patrol. We keep ours in our back yard because we have been burned keeping them elsewhere. I just don't understand how you can hurt a horse like that.

 

Chris the Wife and I attended the local horse auction with a client looking for an older horse for her little girl. What we saw made the wife mad enough to chew nails and spit bullets. They had a bunch of horses in the same condition as you just described. Their feet hadn't been trimmed in no telling how long and the outer hoof wall had cracked all the way through on several. They were no doubt going to be loaded on a semi and hauled to Canada to a slaughter plant. I just don't understand why people wait until an animal is almost dead to decide they can't feed or take care of it before selling or giving the animal to a better home. The local horse rescue wants 300.00 to 500.00 for unbroke horses so no-one will come and get one from them when the auction sells broke horses for 200.00 to 400.00 every other Monday. The Wife is wanting to buy 1 horse a year from the rescue group and train it out and find it a good home. But she knows we have a full schedule every year. We are already booked for the first 3 months of 2008.

 

I am sick just reading this thread, I can't imagine how you felt standing there first hand.

 

There is actually a few farms/ranch's who will take horse's like that get their health back and then just retire them. I have seen a few places like this and basically the horses live in a green pasture for the rest of their life and are well taken care of.

As A child I was always taught "you dont eat until the animals eat" as much as I hated it as a teenage I now understand why. My first horse my parents bought me was very neglected they made me completly bring this horse back to life if the vet needed to be called I had to call and make the appointment and I had to train or re-train the horse.


I would definatly call every single place I could call even maybe the local newspaper or a news station just to make sure these horses get every chance they have.

 

How you could exercise enough restraint to not shoot 'em all on the spot(not the horses, though that might be more humane...I mean the owners!) is beyond me. Not serious of course, but I'm sure something similar was coursing thru your thoughts huh? Yep, like has been said above, perhaps you SHOULD follow-up with a call to the proper authorities; could even be done anonymously but being in your position, I'd be screaming 'And it was me who called, you gotta problem with that!!' But then too, it makes you wonder why someone hadn't seen or reported the abuse beforehand. Guess that's the result of hardly knowing your neighbors these days, and not wanting to appear being nosy and all that. Back in the real horse-n-buggy days, the whole town would know of the slightest abuse toward a horse and turn out to 'horse-whip' the offender in public. My, how much better we've become due to 'progress', eh? And sadly, the poor dumb animals always suffer the most...Chris I know you'll keep your emotions in check better as a professional than we citizens would, and will do your best to correct the situation. Please let us know how it turns out, will you? And don't let it get to you too much...perhaps the owners have much deeper problems than we can imagine...Good luck!! :-)

 

All I can say is there are few more people who I have add to my, "I want to rip their face off" list.

I hope the Equines in this matter in up getting a permanent transfer.

 

thought I saw a college your way that rescued hosses from the humans.

newspaper call on them as above is really THE BEST way, good for the soul too!
no direct involvement was waay beyond professionalism- you are justa good guy who can only hope for the same respect. you already have it from me.
Go make your wife kiss you on the forehead...

some people care for their animals, some people have Court hearings. there is no in-between.....folks never do 'get it' either after being fined. that is why
we, the angry, rescue animals without fanfare; quiet, concerning love and patience. U done well, respected Comache friend- ten- BY- oh (Seneca)

heidi in NY

 

This is a direct result of slaugther houses being closed, sad to say but, you will probably see more neglected animals because people have no easy way out, with out swallowing their pride and saying I can't take care of this animal. They will cling to an animal because they don't want to admitt they failed it.
Just imagine if they closed all the beef slaugther houses you could give a calf away. Same way with horses now if you don't rodeo, race, or ranch they are just a hungry mouth to feed.
And horse people brought this on by supporting closure if slaughter houses.

Jed

 

EXACTALLY!!! I venture to guess there are going to be alot of horses simply set free to roam. Funny how people fail to think beyond today when the pass stupid laws. I should buy a mini track hoe, a rifle and a wood chipper and start a pet disposal business.
I don't necessarily dislike horses, it's horse people that tend to annoy me. However abuse is uncalled for.

 

there are things you can do legally to feed the animals. In Ohio you need to photo the malnurished animals and YOU FEEDING THEM YOUR FEED, you can then send a bill to the owners requesting payment for the feed and your services (must be reasonable, and contact sheriff first). If you must continue feeding the animals and you do not get paid, you can then get the sheriffs dept. involved. With them present you can load the aniamals on a trailer and haul them to the sale barn (also charge going rate for livestock transport) to recoupe your feed bill and some labor, with the balance of the funds being returned to the owners of the animals. I know this because we had to feed some distant neighbors cattle through a winter, when we planted corn in the spring and found the animals there, we contacted the sheriff. He came out and watched us load the animals so it was all on the up and up. Neighbor was mad as all getout, but we finally got paid for the twice a week 8 mile trips on an open station tractor in the winter, and his animals actually looked decent. I am not an animal nut, but dont see any use in letting an animal starve to death.

DuaneW.

 

Chris.... by not hauling off and beating the snot out of that kid you have shown more restraint than i could have.

this just makes me sick to hear something about like this. i would definatly call the local sheriff department.

i got an idea...hows bout we all get together and get a big group and go out to Kansas.

 

I had a similar situation happen to me. Except mine was when I was house shopping. One of the homes I was looking at had 2 horses begging for food, water shut off at the house with empty water tubs, and just all skin and bones trudging through 2 feet of horse manure and mud. Made me sick. The realtor told me that the horses came with the property if I wanted them! Owners had moved 3 months prior

Foundation shifted, no go on the house. But the local animal control got a descriptive phone call a few hours after I left the property.



Some people will give you the shirt off their backs...and then there are these types of selfish, no good, worthless....well, better quit there before I get into trouble.

 

Get your local news sources, TV, print, whoever involved. Unfortunately, we've had similar instances up this way and the local CBS affiliate, KIRO 7 got directly involved, in a big way. It was and is tragic to see such abuse. They put it center stage and didn't pull any punches about the visuals. More importantly, agencies and individuals stepped forward to provide immediate care. The outcome: animals were rescued, some unfortunately were too far gone to save, but others were saved. The owners were held up to the light of day and made accountable for their actions. Make noise in your area about the deplorable conditions. Got a digital camera? Take pictures and send them out to anyone who'll listen. Take your anger and turn it into a weapon for right. At least our local stations are always looking for story leads, how about yours?

Now, go get 'um.