The dog ate my homework…
Mar 11 2010
Ernie, really? Your horses were starving because you were taking care of your ailing father?
Ernie Paragallo found guilty despite creative use of lame excuses.
Give me a break. Florence Nightengale, you ain’t. I’m just not seeing you with a bedpan. I bet we have no problem finding pictures of you partying and having a good old time while your horses were starving. You were NOT stuck home with dear old Dad!
Sentencing is May 18th! Feel free to call the court at (518)943-2230 and suggest Judge Pulver throw the book (preferably a couple of heavy legal ones) at Ernie, who does not seem to understand the seriousness of his crimes at all. Don’t forget to mention that this guy is a repeat offender – my blog shows a horse he starved two years before any of this happened!
After the last few days, who else needs a Cocktail?
Here’s a cute one at Shiloh Horse Rescue in Nevada!
48 comments to “The dog ate my homework…”
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Sorry Ernie, that’s not a good excuse. Even if your animals are in the care of someone else, it is YOUR RESPONSIBILITY as the owner to make sure they are being cared for.
I hope they make him pay for the rehab costs of the horses and make sizable donations to the rescues that are taking care of them now.
Wow, how cute is Cocktail?! Someone needs to scoop her up and put her in hunter gear
As for Ernie and his kind…I think it needs to be federal law that any one found guilty of animal abuse/neglect have to pay back double the cost of rehab for the animal(s). If there is a loss of life the judge can set a price for the amount of suffering the animal went through and community service along with jail time.
I hate stupid people…they are really starting to wear on my nerves.
I thought so too…she looks small…I wonder if she is a large pony?
It says Cocktail is 14.3- 15 hands,. Friendly and fun to ride
She is super cute !
How annoying! I told my husband, who is very non-horsey and he said, “If you can’t take the time to check on your own animals, it’s time to sell.” My thoughts exactly.
Even IF (which I don’t believe) helping his father impacted his care – when he looked at his calendar and realized he hadn’t seen the horses in two weeks to a month, he should have realized that now was not the time to own horses.
Why do people think that it’s okay to use that as an excuse? Even if he was in a hospital in traction, he should have realized he wasn’t able to care for that many horses. How the hell do you even get that many? There has got to be something wrong with him mentally. I’m a pet lover, but even I would never have 100+ animals! Not even easy to take care of fish! He would never have been able to give them the car and time they needed.
I remember the original Ernie post. One thing I’ve been meaning to point out – more than once you have used the word “swerved” when I think you meant “shirked”, unless using “swerve” in this context is a local colloquialism.
Anyway, let’s hope that Ernie gets some significant jail time. Unfortunately, although he’s out of racing, he still seems bent on breeding since he is now flying under the name of a stallion business. The Jockey Club needs to prevent any foals sired by Ernie’s stallions from being registered; then maybe he’ll know it’s serious!
If anybody believes Ernie’s excuse, I’ve got a bridge I’d like to sell them. Meantime, that little Cocktail is such a nice type…make a cute little Special Hunter for some really lucky person.
totally off topic,but…..at a show stable where we had one of our horses, they would use a blindfold on our old gelding to trim his ears and bridllepath with clippers. they were gentle and said he was nervous because of former incompetent handling. he eventually did have his trimming done without his eyes being covered. is this an acceptable training technique? i wonder if this could be used on my 2 year old? i successfully clipper trained him from early on, but the vet grabbed his ear while giving an intra-nasal vaccine and he has been weird about that ear ever since. i am not having much success de-sensitizing him again. and, what about that ear grabbing thing? is that normal? well, normal or not, i won’t let it happen again! let me know what you think.
I’ve had good results covering the eyes of a horse that was head shy and think it works fine. I always did it while the barn was quiet and used tons of positive reinforcement along with it, and it wasn’t long before I could handle his head without the blindfold.
I’ve seen people twitch horses by twisting their ears and most if not all of those horses resented having their faces/ears handled as a result. Personally I don’t condone it and would be a little pissed if my vet did that. Maybe working with your 2 year old to get him standing quietly while the vet works on him would prevent this from happening again? We use the intra-nasal strangles vaccine at our barn. To get my horses to stand quietly for it I would stick a drinking straw a couple inches up their nostrils and reward them with a treat for standing still. Another cool trick for a horse that hates paste wormers is squirting applesauce from a large syringe into their mouths. My horses practically suck the wormer out of the tube now without realizing what it is until its too late.
thanks for the answer, i appreciate it. you know, the sad thing is that when the vet decided to “ear twitch” him, he was standing still! he just automatically grabbed his ear to do it. i hate the large animal clinic here, but they are all there is for a 2 hour radius, and they don’t even do colic surgery. i could write a novel on the horrid things these vets have done in the 5 years i have lived here (we have had some doozey arguments), but we are considering moving nearer to a “horsey’ area. i can hardly wait.
I have GOT to try that applesause trick!! Thanks for sharing the tips!
OK, this is as far OT as to make it outer space, but how do you add a funky foto to your profile?
BTW, ERNIE SUX!
FYI:
The one count they couldn’t get him on due to the unavailability of the witness. It was his farm manager who’s mother just happened to be sick and out of the kindness of his heart Ernie bought farm manager a ticket to go home to Guatemala to be with his mother. Sounds pretty convenient to me. See supporting AP news story here:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/R/RAC_BREEDER_HORSES_SEIZED?SITE=ORLAG&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
You know it’s bad when the kill buyer can’t sell the horses you ship to him, some arrive dead and he’s willing to testify against you!!!
Ha! I saw something about him being sentenced earlier today and thought “I’ll bet this is on fugly later…” What a POS. I think the $30,000 fine is a joke, that probably wouldn’t even begin to cover what it is going to cost to rehab the horses that made it and get them rehomed. I mean we are talking about over 100 horses here, right?
I know jails are full and it is pretty much impossible to get a decent amount of jail time for someone who pulls this kind of shit. What if judges could seize all their assets and garnish all future earnings to recoup the cost of caring for the animals they ruined, along with forcing them to live and work on the farms that are in charge of rehabbing the animals? (Strictly supervised of course, I’m thinking along the lines of them being at the mercy of raging, rabid animal activitsts.) Ahh, the torture they could inflict upon these pickle weasels…I’m daydreaming now…happy place…
I will NEVER forget the quote which was essentially “They weren’t starved, they were ugly”.
You fucking gavone, get the hell out of racing.
Slightly off topic here–more directed to March 10th’s FHotD: speaking of natural trainers making themselves look like jokes, has anyone seen Monty Roberts’ video explaining the proper usage of a Dually Halter? He jerks the horses around without warning or real cause, and pretty much makes a joke of himself. Poor horses! I can’t find it on YouTube, but if someone can scare it up, it makes for some interesting watching.
Speaking of idiots and horses, did anyone else see the Heydon’s were sentenced to 6 months each and ordered to pay restitution for the care of their neglested animals…. Nice to see something was done, even if it wasn’t much… They’ll be out before 3 months is up unfortunately….
Yeah, we had it on the blog a week or two ago.
Wow, I’m a little further behind in my reading then I thought… lol… I guess I do remember seeing that now….
texo, your post prompted me to post this little issue we have with our pony. This pony is a parent’s dream, been there-done that, gorgeous mover, novice level eventing, all the bells and whistles. However, he HATES clippers. We purchased this pony from a very reputable barn/trainer and she said he has always been this way. We dont make a big deal out of it, it is just something we live with and work with. He is genuinely SCARED of the noise, the feeling, everything about the clippers. We trace clip him with a little help from mr. ace (such a small dose, I really think it is more for US at this point) but we show him in recognized show/events with little fuzzy ears and a fuzzy muzzle and never think twice. Sometimes I just think there are things that some horses just have issues with and always will. I HATE SNAKES. I will always hate snakes no matter how much someone “works” with me. Why cant horses have things that they just hate and probably always will?
Point here? Not sure, other than to say if they had to blindfold him to get it done, it does not sound like torture and he probably felt secure not seeing those evil flesh eating death devices come at him. You are not alone with clipper issues but with a pony like ours, we consider it the tiniest flaw. As far as the vet grabbing the ear, um, not a fan of that! Keep up the great work and kudos to you for being open minded and seeking advice.
Had a horse like this and used hand clippers and scissors. only ever had one judge say something to me and my reply was god put those there as natural defenses and I find I have alot more problems with this horse when I take them away. Id rather you deduct a few points here then him deduct a nostril or an ear in the field (wasnt because the field was trashy, he was just one of those horses that could cut himself in a rubber room). The Judge was actually very understanding and thanked me for the polite explanation (I was 13 then).
OMFG. This is totally off topic, but look what I found! Over 1000 foals on the ground around the World :-[
http://www.springhollowmorgans.com/statesmans_silhouette/index.html
I’m admittedly no math whiz, but the text says he’s bred an average of 12 mares a year. He’s 20 this year, suspect he probably didn’t breed anything at least until he was 2 and this advertisement appears to be two years old (will be standing in 2009). That would be 16 years of breeding 12 mares as of the time this was written, yes? And by my calculation, that would be 192 foals.
Where did you see he had 1000 foals?
And I happen to like him. A lot. And he’s done something. A lot. So what’s your complaint?
I found where the “over 1000 foals” quote, and I’m pretty sure it’s a typo.
Furthermore, if you note, it looks like his owner is only breeding 3-4 foals a year from her mares. So unlike the BYB with a POS stallion whose only accomplishment in life is dropping 2 testicles, and a dozen mares picked up at the local auction, spitting out a bunch of fugly babies year after year that are never trained, that means that someone else is bringing their mares to him.
Looks to me like someone is doing something right.
It has to be a typo… My guess is one hundred foals. There are just not that many Morgans in the world (only 2500-3500 foals registered per year and the numbers have dropped into the lower range recently as many older breeders retire and there are not a lot of younger ones stepping up into their shoes.) I wonder if *any* Morgan stallions have sired over 1000 foals…. well, maybe the original Justin Morgan or his sons, back in the day when horses were daily work animals…
In any case, this stallion has *done* things. A lot of things. He’s shown very successfully, his offspring have too, he’s sheer eye candy to look at… Maybe, if any stallion deserves to have 1000 foals, this one would be it
My only question is, why the “trotting behind a pickup truck” for rehab line wasn’t mentioned. That sounds kind of dangerous.
-Gryph
No need to jump me for noticing a typo. >.>
Nobody jumping you for noticing a typo. Maybe jumping you for the OMFG! and the :-[ and stirring shit.
What’s your problem with this stallion? And what would it matter to you IF he did sire over 1000 foals?
This is a very nice stallion, very well trained in several different disciplines, in a breed that ISN’T putting tens of thousands of foals on the ground every year. Good mind, good conformation, and siring get that are out there doing SOMETHING.
So why the OMFG and the frown?
On the East of Equinox website, it says: “Courage of Equinox is officially the breed’s most prolific sire, having produced more registered offspring than any other stallion in the history of the breed.”
And ten years after his death, they are offering frozen semen, private treaty, so he may add more.
But the site also says “Well over 400 Equinox prefixed Morgans have been dispersed to all corners of the USA as well as Canada, England, Sweden, Germany, Holland and Australia.” Courage wasn’t E of E’s only stallion, and of course he had many outside breedings, but I can’t see any Morgan stallion coming anywhere close to 1000 get.
They state on their site that they were not excepting outside mares for 2008, so the posting is a couple years old and I didn’t see any pre ’95 offspring. At a dozen a year, a thousand is definately a typo! And the fact that they decided to cut back on breeding in a crappy economy warrants extra props in my book.
Hmmm 177 abuse starved horses the first time and 170 second time…and he only got 33 counts of animal abuse for the second time?…something just doesn’t add up. I think he should have been slapped with 177 accounts of abuse with $1000 fine for each account to help pay for bills and cost for the horses he f*ed up. Maybe that would have stopped the second time.
What a sturdy looking quiet little mare! Hope she finds a great home
And now for super-fun rhyme time!
An Ode to Ernie Paragallo
Ernie, oh Ernie, what an asshat
What makes you think it’s okay to treat horses like that?
Starving your animals really raised my ire
Makes me want to twist off your nipples with needle-nose pliars
You blamed the horses, your dad and the small size of your dick
All that showed is you’re a big giant prick
Your attitude to animals is just plain ugly
And that is why everyone hates you over on fugly
You’re a douche nozzle, a fucktard and in general just bad
I’d geld you myself if I could find your tiny gonads
Your horses are in better hands now, at least the ones that lived
And now you’re going to jail to become Bubba’s bitch
It’s a suitable end to your horrible crimes
My only bitch is you getting three squares on the taxpayer’s dime
I could spend all day insulting your anatomy
But I’d rather go to the barn and keep MY horses happy!
I apologize for subjecting you all to that, but there is nothing good on TV tonight and I was a little bored
ROTFL!
Wonderful poem! You should mail it in to him in prison!
From the article posted above: “Michael Howard, Paragallo’s lawyer, called the verdict disappointing and surprising and said he would appeal the convictions.
“This requires a horse owner to take on a very high level of burden,” he said.”
WTF is he talking about? It can’t be the fine, because this guy can more than afford $33k. So he’s got to be talking about making a horse owner take on the burden of the costs of owning a horse? Or 177 horses…
At any rate, if you can’t afford the burden of 177 horses, don’t have that many. He breeds horses, he knowingly created that many. Surely after all his years in the horse biz, he knows what goes into it.
And another thing…4500 horses? That’s how many he’s actually raced. Holy cow. Where are they now? I’d bet anything that at least 90% of them made it to France. He’s already shown he’s got no qualms about sending two trailer loads to a killer. I wonder how frequently he was sending loads of horses over the years. Seriously, 4500 is just the number that made it to the track. How many never made it that far? How many horses is this man responsible for creating? Talk about overbreeding. I don’t know how long he’s been at it, but if that was spread out over 20 years, that’s still 225 horses a year. That made it to race. This guy absolutely makes me sick.
A high level of burden like…actually being expected to feed them?
Well damn. How unreasonable.
I caught that too and was wondering how anyone could say such a thing when it was HIS CHOICE to own and breed that many horses. Grrrr!
I love Cocktail! For a little horse she covers a LOT of ground at the trot. Anyone coming out the Jacksonville FL way?? I think she’d make a great barrel pony. And to me, the height estimate is always over their true height! She’s a large pony at best. Most people don’t want ponies… they think of ponies as being for kids. So when a horse is at that awkward height of large pony/small horse the “seller” will usually talk them up as being “around 15 hands” opens the door for more people to be interested in purchasing/adopting.
I thought that too – big stride for a little horse. I can see barrels, or pony club pony there. I don’t know how carefully they stick at Shilo or if it’s a guesstimate. It would be worth asking for someone who is interested!
Hey Fugs, right now at the bottom of this page, there is an ad for a saddlepad on Ebay which has the Confederate flag on it. IDK if that bothers you or not, but I thought I’d let you know.
Google ads. I can’t control what they serve but I will write them a note that they need to improve their filtering!
I don’t see a problem with the Confederate flag. It is a part of American history. Albeit, not one of our shining moments to say the least, but still part of it. The only time a symbol or flag of that nature has the power to offend, oppress or do harm is when we give it that power.
You wouldn’t catch me throwing one over my horse’s back but I wouldn’t pay any attention- positive OR negative- to anyone who chose to. That just gives them satisfaction in knowing they have the power to illicit a response.
A huge THANK YOU should go to Christie Scheidy at Another Chance for Horses in Bernville,Pa. She was one of the rescuers called to help the abandoned at a slaughter yard Paragallo mares that led to him being arrested and kicked out of NY racing. She took lots of photos, lots of graphic documentation,got the local TV news station and papers here in Pa. to cover it and then responded ,showed up and continued to testify,send letters and be the face and voice for those horses that was not going to go away,get paid off, or STOP. Also a huge thank you and respect for the judge who told Ernie and his lawyer just how dispicable and disgusting a human being he truly is and saw thru all his lame ass “I was caring for my sick father stories.”
$1,000. for each count is ridiculous, it should be 10 times that much (at least), this fucker had collected “hundreds of thousands of dollars” from the state’s Thoroughbred breeding and development fund.
They dropped one count because the witness was unavailable? Couldn’t the witness send a written statement, a video, something?
Although, if Ernie Paragallo did pay for the guy to go to Guatemala I suspect he may have also paid him to keep his mouth shut. Wouldn’t the farm manager also be guilty, he must have known the horses were starving.
I would like to take on the “very high level of burden” of someone giving me hundreds of thousands of dollars. I promise it WILL go to a horse (or two).
Oh my word, I love Cocktail.. What a wonderful pony! I can’t believe that she was at a feedlot..But, then again I’m always amazed! Someone grab her, she’s awesome! And, kudos to all of the rescuers.. I truly wish these guys would get what they deserve, tied out somewhere, without food or water..but, it hasn’t happened yet! I’m always hopeful though..
I know, she is CUTE CUTE CUTE…I love her little ground-covering trot!
Someone from this blog, go get her ’cause I want to hear her updates!
The scope of such thoughtlessness and cruelty in this world is amazing… and once you think you have even a vague idea, you’re only disillusioned, enraged, and disgusted more. What’s worse is that it’s CONDONED