Neglect Case Continues
Sep 14 2011
Follow up on the Millie Montana + nine deaths from neglect….from The Quarter Horse News
Keith Hall Re-Arrested On Felony Animal Cruelty
Written by Mark Thompson
Keith Hall
The owner of 1990 National Cutting Horse Association Open Futurity Champion Millie Montana was re-arrested Tuesday, Sept. 13, on a felony Animal Cruelty charge related to her death.
Keith Hall, Weatherford, Texas, who also spends time in Arizona, was re-arrested by the Parker County Sheriff’s Department for his role in alleged mistreatment of the 1990 Futurity Open Champion and several others. Hall owned the mare until her death, when she was humanely put to rest on Aug. 19 due to severe health problems.
Nine other horses were also found dead or dying on property adjacent to land owned by Hall along Old Brock Road near Weatherford on Aug. 12. Hall was originally charged with one misdemeanor Cruelty To Livestock offense. He has now been charged with nine misdemeanors and one felony count, according to Parker County Sheriff Larry Fow
Eight new misdemeanor Cruelty To Livestock charges and the one felony count remained pending for several days as Hall spent time in Arizona, the sheriff said. Bonds were set at $1,500 for each of the new misdemeanor charges and at $7,500 for the felony count, according to jail records. Jail records also state Hall was booked into the Parker County Jail in Weatherford, Texas, at 8:44 a.m. Tuesday and then released on bond Tuesday at 6:41 p.m.
Hall was booked into the Parker County jail for the second time following a prior Aug. 19 arrest on his first misdemeanor Cruelty To Livestock charge. That charge specifically alleged he failed to provide water and food for nine horses for at least two or more days.
According to a press release from the Parker County Sheriff’s Department, there was no water, hay or food left on the property for the original nine horses that died. A woman also charged with a misdemeanor Cruelty To Animals offense, Linda Phariss, told investigators Hall had not been feeding his horses and he instructed her not to give them any hay until he arrived. Hall reportedly told investigators he does not feed the majority of his horses anything except what they graze from in the pasture, according to a statement filed after Hall’s original Cruelty To Animals misdemeanor charge and arrest.
Millie Montana During Her Last Week
Millie Montana (Montana Doc x Cal Filly Bar x Cal Bar) carried trainer Joe Suiter, Litchfield Park, Ariz., to a victory worth $92,468 with a final-round 221.5 during the 1990 NCHA Futurity Open finals in Fort Worth, Texas. She went on to earn $139,353 during her cutting career. She also won several Amateur and Non-Pro events with Hall riding her, according to Equi-Stat records.
Aug. 12, Parker County authorities responded to reports of distressed horses. They found eight horses already dead from an apparent lack of water and food on property adjoining Hall’s land, according to a report filed after the original investigation. A ninth horse owned by Hall found on the same property was examined by a local veterinarian and humanely put to rest the next day due to liver and renal failure, the report stated.
Aug. 13, Parker County authorities asked well-known local horsewoman and mare care specialist Shelly Burmeister Mowery to check on Millie Montana’s health. The horse’s identity was originally unknown to investigators. They found the 24-year-old mare in a stall near where the other nine horses had been turned out, along with a young foal, with an impure water supply and several health issues. Mowery, a cutting horse owner, non-pro cutter and National Cowgirl Museum Hall of Fame member, had worked as a television reporter during the 1990 NCHA Futurity Open event won by the mare.
She recognized the horse right away. “You don’t forget a Futurity winner,” Mowery said.
Along with her husband, cutting horse trainer Rick Mowery, she provided medical care and a healthy refuge for Millie Montana the last week of the horse’s life. Told by a veterinarian the mare was unlikely to recover and live a good life, the couple arranged to humanely put her to rest and then arranged for her burial.
Hall agreed to the Mowerys taking possession of Millie Montana, according the sheriff.
The NCHA Futurity’s Open Champion horse 21 years ago this fall produced nine foals that earned money as cutters and one that earned money as a working cow horse.
Read more: http://quarterhorsenews.com/index.php/cutting/cutting-outside-the-pen/10684-keith-hall-re-arrested-on-felony-animal-cruelty-charge.html#ixzz1XvsOlrT7
40 comments to “Neglect Case Continues”
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What’s even more sad is that it seems like he’s only getting charged with a felony because she was a champion. I’m guessing he would have paid a fine and gone on his way if she wasn’t.
This is the kind of neglect case that seriously pisses me off. What more does a horse have to give of itself than earning in excess of $100,000 and producing 9 babies to ensure a retirement of compassionate care? I think most people reading about neglect cases visualize the barber wire fence, chickencoop barn with tarps as a roof, lazy, slob of an owner who Facebooks all day and drinks all night. We know they’re out there but then cases like this pop up and we find out that the horse(s) are valuable, money earners owned by someone whom I’m sure can afford to care for them and chooses not to. If you’re done playing with this particular toy, SELL IT! It appears that Hall has 2 residences – and that must make is soooo hard to keep track of his horses and feed stores. I’ll bet he bailed his sorry ass out of jail within an hour. He’s just another turtle looking down from the top of his fence post thinking he got there of his own accord. I can only imagine what kind of lame excuse he’ll make in court.
From the photo on the QH News Website, Millie looked pretty good for a 24 yr old mare. I can only imagine what horrors were going on that caused her to be euth’d within a week with a young foal still at her side. Does anyone know details? I’m reminded of the story of poor Poco Lena, another famous cutting mare thrown away and forgotten.
Yup, 76 years old and found with a controlled substance upon his arrest.
http://weatherforddemocrat.com/local/x2080079083/Arrest-made-in-horse-deaths
I think you are a bit mistaken about Poco Lena.
She was most definitely abandoned by her caretaker immediately following her owner’s tragic death, which resulted in her re-foundering. But she did not die abandoned and neglected. She was much loved and doted on by her final owners and humanely euthanized when her health deteriorated due to repeated founder.
More of these show mongers could take a page from her life story. Sometimes bad things happen. NO horse deserves to be left to starve or thirst to death, but there are those that have absolutely earned a guarantee that it should NEVER happen to them.
You’re correct in that there wasn’t intentional neglect with Polo Lena but how could a horse like her be dropped anywhere without someone thinking of her when they heard about the owner’s fate? I thought I remember reading that she was already suffering from founder prior to the 4 day stint in the trailer. I really breaks my heart to hear about horses who revolutionalize the industry only to be forgotten about when they’re past their prime. And to go on after all the hormones while showing, the founder, and then produce Dry Doc and Doc O’Lena….she deserved the life of a queen but it was already too late by the time Doc Bar’s owners found her. At least they cared and treated her with the dignity she deserved.
Poco Lena was not intentional it was a total mistake the person that dropped her @ the airport did not know of the airplane crash if anyone it to blame for that it would be airport security. Comparing Millies Montana Death to Poco lenas situation is like comparing a murderer to a jaywalker in other words there is no comparison. Please give me a break!!!!!
Poco Lena was not thrown away and forgotten. Her owner had her and another horse delivered to a landing site but his plane crashed and he died. Her and the other horse were discovered after four days with no food and water and she survived. She was taken in by the owners of Doc Bar and nursed back to health. The rest is history. Her case was not intentional neglect.
She didn’t just produce 9 babies, she produced 9 money-earning babies. Unfortunately, none of them were able to send money home to mom.
That is great news and I sincerely hope he receives the strictest penalty allowable by law.
http://www.ksee24.com/news/local/Madera-County-Animal-Services-Seizes-12-Starving-Horses-129552673.html
http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2011/09/starving_horses_found_in_pitts.html
http://www.kltv.com/story/15283066/horse-seizure-in-van-zandt-co
http://abclocal.go.com/kfsn/story?section=news/local&id=8337485&rss=rss-kfsn-article-8337485
http://www.news9.com/story/15318667/starving-horses-in-shawnee-on-road-to-recovery
it is all over the us.
This is so very sad and senseless. Unfortunately, I’m sure NOTHING will happen to him because of this. It never does. Sad.
I am glad that he now faces increased charges. But even if he does receive the maximum possible sentence, it is not nearly enough.
http://www.kcbd.com/story/15446469/pile-of-dead-horses-found-on-east-lubbock-county-property?hpt=us_bn5
Absolutely awful.
I’m finding it hard to judge anyone in Texas right now…there is NO rain. NO grass. And in many places NO hay…so what do you do? And I don’t mean ‘hay is really expensive’, I mean you can’t find so much as a square bale for any money. I know people down there and the drought has long since reached natural disaster proportions. And that’s not counting the fire chaos…I have a friend who was evacuating from the path of the Barnup fire and all of her cows and pigs escaped. The property ended up escaping and the cows came back when they got hungry, but she still hasn’t found her hogs…
It’s just bad all round down there.
You’re right about the sheer awfulness of the situation. But if people can’t feed it (there’s pellets, there’s shipped in food, and yes they are expensive) and can’t sell it (because the market sucks), then I think there’s a responsibility to give it a humane death before it dies of starvation, whether it’s the vet or a bullet in the head. I would never judge anyone who has to resort to those options. Can’t ascribe hoof issues or long-term neglect to the drought though.
I know there’s a lot of legitimate hardship out there. I would just hate for all the jackasses who regularly treat their animals like garbage to get a free pass just because there happens to be a drought and it’s tough for everyone.
I understand that, but if you have a work animal with several years of training on it, you’re going to try and keep it alive as best you can…but what do you do if there IS no hay. You’re making an assumption that enough food to go around is being shipped in. Adjustments may well need to be made if this drought continues, but I can’t blame people for the situation (I’ll blame asshats for being asshats regardless). But I know one person during the last drought who asked the ONLY vet available for advice on getting some horses she was rescuing back up to weight and all he could say was ‘All the stock looks like that’. Sigh. (She did eventually get advice, but she had to get it from another source).
What do you DO?
If you literally cannot find food for them, you euthanize them before they have to know the terrible suffering of starvation. That’s a much bigger kindness than leaving them to suffer and dwindle away for god knows how long and THEN die (or sending them off to auction and the double-deckers). How frightening that these horses’ owners think it’s alright to skip out on food for these animals that have no ability to leave and get their own food, when these people are eating food on a daily basis themselves.
I volunteer at a rescue where they’re getting funds together to borrow and drive a big rig OUT OF STATE to buy a load of hay because hay prices are so bad here (it is literally cheaper to pay for the gas involved in hauling a truckload than to buy hay anywhere nearby). If they can think to organize that on practically a shoestring budget, I say there is always something that can be done.
There’s a scarcity of hay, and that’s understandable, everyone’s going to be a little hungry. But not having hay doesn’t mean you get to skip out on other areas of care; a pile of dead anything (especially the size of five horses) is going to affect whatever else may be living around it by the smell, potential water/ground contamination, and whatever critters it may draw near. Healthy, trimmed hooves would be a good sign of someone who still cares for their animals even if they cannot feed them as much as they may need. In the video there’s a shot of some pretty bad hooves – And to be fair, there’s shots of some hooves that if I could see the bottom of might not be that bad.
The owner says she is graining them, although some still look thin (I’m not a professional in any way, but I would rate some of the horses by the images in the video at a 2 or 1, and some were closer to 2 to 3). I’m not blaming the owner for not doing enough, exactly, because to me it seems like Hay Scarcity + Hard Financial Stress (perhaps why the bodies haven’t been buried yet) has led to falling back on care a bit. I happens and per the video she seems willing to talk/work with the concerned rescue groups, I just hope she takes care of them all (living and dead) before it gets worse.
I can judge, easy — he told someone NOT to feed them! Don’t care what the situation is, that’s intentional neglect/abuse. I hope he gets what is coming to him. Not likely he will in this world, but he will in the next. Just imagine what the denizens of the Rainbow Bridge will do to him!
Of course I feel for all the good people in Texas who can’t give their animals what they would like to — but this slime is not in that category.
Jennifer, Hall had hay and told Linda Phariss not to feed it to the horses. That goes beyond being blindsided by drought conditions.
I wasn’t talking about Hall. Hall is either A. an asshole or B. Going senile and losing it. Wait, that’s not necessarily an either-or.
I’m talking about the other case, and the problems in parts of Texas right now where people *cannot get hay for any money*. Not enough hay is being shipped in to some places and, of course, anyone in Texas who HAS hay is hoarding it for themselves (and can’t be blamed for that).
Any bets Hall will end up being ruled incompetent due to incipient Alzheimers or similar?
Are you serious so feed hay pellets you pick them up @ any feed store. They also Deliver truck loads of hay and pellets all over the country last time i looked Texas was still in the good old USofA. If they can ship hay cubs to Japan they will surly ship the to Texas.
One of Millie’s grandchildren went thru a working horse sale here in Bowling Green this weekend. I think (can’t remember) she fetched a decent price. I’m pretty sure there was a kill buyer there who started out all the bids and was picking up fat, healthy broodies for $50-200. I was sick over it all, didn’t realize that he might be doing this until I was home. I didn’t realize they frequented the better sales, too. A lot of very nice sorrel and bay horses went for 2-600. One went for 8,000 but that was the only one. I just bought two AQHA fillies, 16 months old and just dearly love them for $400 each from a private seller. The lady has a bunch of yearlings and weanlings for sale and a bunch due in the spring. She had a trainer who wasn’t taking real good care of them. Nothing major but just not in 100% tip top shape. I think they would have fetched 100 each at this sale, maybe.
Poor Millie, may you run free at the Rainbow Bridge and find someone there one day who loves you just for you…..
Old Keith will probably get off with a slap on the wrist, but hopefully the cutting horse world, and AQHA in general will NOT forget his name, and what he did! RIP Millie! And thanks to the folks who showed her some pity and kindness in her final days, without looking for a monetary reward somewhere down the line!
Not the way it works, though, is it?
We all know how well AQHA and other organisations (cough* Arabian Society*cough) respond to charges like these. They close ranks and protect the guilty because, basically, not a one of them does not have a skeleton in their closet!
This guy may well be prosecuted to the letter of the law, but it is, at the end of the day, the letter of the law that is at fault.
The maximum penalty he could pay for this is??
Anyone??
Yup. What’s the saying? Pond scum always stick together. Bird of a feather will always flock together. People bound for hell will stick to others bound for hell. This is the main reason why AQHA and the AHA won’t get one red cent for me. I won’t pay for abuse and neglect of helpless animals because people are so greedy they want to win at all cost. Whatever happened to showing just for the hell of it and having fun? Oh wait. I forgot. I’m not a rich ass hole that forgets my horses and lets them literally rot in their stalls and get hung up on devils wire so they can reach a swimming pool of water only to die on said wire…… And than people wonder why I have issues with people……..
The AQHA didn’t do that with Cleve Wells. He was fined $10,000 and suspended him for a year. The NSBA also followed suit.
Thanks for the update. Still hope Hall rots….
So sad – I know it shouldn’t matter if the animal was a champion or not, an animal is an animal and people who own them should care for them – but it is so sad when you hear of a champion who’s life ends this way. Especially since it sounds like she won him a lot of money…people have no respect.
I don’t get it… I’ll probably never get it.
You know what though?
I don’t WANT to get it
It’s always sad to hear about horses being neglected and starved to death, whether they showed or not. But just goes to show you that the rich bastards can be just as bad, if not worse than the BYB’s.
On a lighter note, I’ve missed quite a few posts because I’ve been trying to find a decent owner for an abandoned puppy my mom brought home. She was going to grow too big and she was to active to live in a flat, but I did manage to find a good person to take care of her and I’ve been getting daily updates about her.
I have no problem judging someone for not insuring that their horses have adequate food and water.
If there is no hay in Texas, you buy hay pellets or cubes, or you drive someone where there is hay and buy some. Or get together with other horse owners and order a whole truck load from out of state.
If none of the above options work, then you rehome the horses with someone who will do what it takes to provide for them. You get on the phone and call all the horse people you know, you get on the internet, go to the local feed stores, tack stores, boarding barns, etc BEFORE you are out of feed and say I have these horses and I cannot feed them, I need to find them homes. You beg and plead. If you cant find them homes you put them down before they go without a meal. PERIOD.
These horses did not have WATER! NO EXCUSE. If there was no water on the property, find someone (dont tell me any one of you here would say no if someone asked you for water for their horses) with water, and if you do not have access to a tank or water truck, take all the muck buckets, stock tanks, coolers, anything that will hold water, really, put them in the back of a pickup and line them with garbage bags, fill them up, and then tie the bag shut. Work? Yes. Unreasonable? NO.
Jennifer R, I am sorry for your friend and her cattle and hogs, but that is a completely different situation than this neglect case. These horses weren’t a little ribby, they DIED and their barn was not evacuated.
I am sorry that Texas is having a rough year, but don’t tell me there is NO way to get hay to Texas. Actually, if I believed you, I would send semi trucks down there and sell it with a huge mark up, because SOME people will feed their animals at whatever the cost…
Or you buy a complete feed and feed them that. If push comes to shove you feed them the minimum recommended and make sure they have water. That is the least you can do.
***These horses did not have WATER! NO EXCUSE. If there was no water on the property, find someone (dont tell me any one of you here would say no if someone asked you for water for their horses) with water, and if you do not have access to a tank or water truck, take all the muck buckets, stock tanks, coolers, anything that will hold water, really, put them in the back of a pickup and line them with garbage bags, fill them up, and then tie the bag shut. Work? Yes. Unreasonable? NO.***
I agree! We have a neighbor who we dislike immensely. BUT, when she called to say their pump had quit and she needed water for their horses and could she come over, YES we said okay, do you have barrels? They had three fifty gallon barrels and smaller water jugs for their own use in the house. OF COURSE YOU GIVE THEM WATER!!!! There is no way we would let someone’s livestock, dogs and Horses do without water. Pump was fixed within 24 hours, but they need water right then and they got it!.
I wonder what would happen if we took out the ‘cruel and unusual punishment’ for people who abuse and neglect their animals and treat the people like they did their animals? I bet it would become very rare thing…… Oh wait I forgot this is a country where the rich get off and we don’t make people continue education in jail to break the crime cycle or teach people who have been in jail for a few decades how the world has changed…… Ugh…….
Does anyone know what happened to the foal that was with Millie Montana before she died?
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Oh, wow, the lady in Lubbock thinks the horses may have been poisoned. I wonder if she is related to the 3-Strikes guy.
Correction to SmartChic’s comment: The NSBA did NOTHING to Cleve Wells and allowed him to continue showing. He finally paid his AQHA fine this spring and is back showing in AQHA too.