Equestrian Social Media Awards
Jan 21 2012
Fugly Horse of the Day is a finalist in the Equestrian Social Media Awards! We’re super excited for the blog 
This is a testament to the previous writers who worked hard to build and develop the blog to where it is today: an excellent place for discussion and a meeting of equestrian minds. If you’ve got a minute, please follow the below link and vote for Fugly Blog!
We’d also like to take this chance to remind everyone about the rescue database we’re working to build up. If you, or anyone you know, is involved in the rescue biz and would be willing to answer some questions every once in a while, please email us at fuglyblog@hotmail.com. Your contact info will not be given out to others, rather we’ll forward any inquiries we get to you for you to answer if you’re able to help.
Lucifer was an angel…
Jan 19 2012
One of the readers here sent us an email asking about “Three Angels Farm” and the very recent accident wherein their trailer containing 38 horses overturned on the I-40 west of Nashville.
There are quite a few reports on this incident so please bear with us as we wade through the bullshit and attempt to reel in some facts.
-The trailer is a single level livestock trailer, owned by Three Angels Farm
-38 horses were on board, 3 were euthanized by vets due to injuries sustained in the accident.
-Three Angels Farm is not a rescue – in fact, according to one news video (linked to below), the owner (Dorian Ayache) is a registered livestock dealer (which is defined as “any person who buys, receives, or assembles livestock for resale, either for such person’s own account or that of another person” by Tennessee’s Department of Agriculture).
-According to Animals’ Angels, in July of 2011 a Three Angels Farm single level trailer was at the Mayfield Horse Auction, backed up to the loading ramp.
-Ayache confirmed to WSMV Channel 4 (see below video) that he had previously sent horses to C4 Cattle Inc. in Presidio, TX and that his company has been involved with them (C4 was investigated in 2010 regarding their abandonment of horses that were rejected by Mexican slaughter plants)
-According to Big Bend Now, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) released a report which they stated confirmed that C4 Cattle Inc. “illegally dumped 46 horse carcasses in and along a creek bed in Presidio” – oh and by the way, C4 Cattle Inc. is currently on TCEQ’s list of pending actions (page 210).
Check out this video for a detailed account of the situation: WSMV Channel 4
To say that Ayache is involved with some shady characters over at C4 Cattle Inc. would be a gross understatement.
-Ayache told troopers that the horses were going to a farm (some reports say feedlot) in Oklahoma; meanwhile the driver involved in the accident said he was going to Presidio, Texas.
-WKRN spoke to Ayache on the phone and reported “owner Dorian Ayache told Nashville’s News 2 media reports that the horses were being transported to a slaughterhouse in Texas are untrue. He said the horses were on their way to a range in Oklahoma where they were to be prepped to be sold to horse owners.”
-At this point it is still being investigated whether the proper documentation was in place for the horses.
-According to NewsChannel5.com’s video, the Tennessee Department of Agriculture will not be conducting an investigation into Ayache (by the way, if you watch this video pay special attention to the Ayache quote they show on screen where he nicely contradicts himself)
-The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration told the same news channel that Ayache failed a safety audit in 2010…
-Dr. Monty McInturff, one of the vets on scene, reported to NewsChannel5.com that the horses were, in fact, being transported humanely.
Then what are the issues here? The horses were being transported humanely. Of the horses you can see in the videos, those look to be well fed. So if we leave out the pro vs. anti slaughter angle, isn’t it just an unfortunate accident that actually ended a lot better than it could have been?
Umm. Hold on a sec. WHAT ABOUT AYACHE’S INVOLVEMENT WITH C4 CATTLE INC.?!
This guy has admitted, to a news source, that he has been involved with a company that was reported to have dumped 46 horse carcasses. So let’s err on the side of a lot of caution and say that these horses had been treated relatively well up to and including the accident. They sure as shit weren’t heading to a good place! Remember? C4 is currently under investigation! That is one shady dude, sending these horses off to a morally bankrupt company, where if they’re lucky… Wait. No. There’s no good scenario for them here.
“Three angels” my ass.
And that’s the other thing. Ayache definitely does not operate a rescue organization here. All signs (including the flashing neon ones we could easily envision as we watched the aerial shots of his farm) are pointing to him dealing in horses for the purpose of slaughtering them. So what is with the “Three Angels Farm” name? And why is he so insistent that horses were being sent to Oklahoma to be re-homed, even after the truck driver stated otherwise? We’re wondering how many of these horses were procured under the guise of finding them better homes. Regardless of where you stand in the pro vs. anti debate, presenting yourself as rescue when you are exactly the opposite is incredibly sleazy and possibly illegal.
In fact, it’s all starting to remind us of another case that’s been making the news lately. Has everyone heard of Kelsey Lefever? For those of you who have so far remained blissfully unaware, she’s a 23 year old horse broker who promoted herself as an expert at re-training and re-homing ex-racehorses. She had apparently taken in approximately 120 horses and sent nearly all of them straight to slaughter. What tripped her up was a tattoo check at New Holland that actually got back to the guy who had paid her to take the horse. Unfortunately it didn’t happen in time to save the gelding, but it did lead to something positive: Lefever has now been charged with multiple felonies, including deceptive business practices and theft by deception.
News story sensationalism isn’t always a good thing, but in this case we sincerely hope this story gets as much press and online virality as possible. This is definitely a situation where awareness may have saved many equine lives. We can’t even begin to imagine what the owners of those horses have gone through; one day thinking their horses were being re-trained and re-homed and the next knowing that they had been sent to slaughter. We sincerely hope they find some measure of closure through the charging and, should she be found guilty, sentencing of Kelsey Lefever. Not only that, but it will hopefully set precedent so that in the future it will be easier to hold people accountable when they engage in similar “business” practices.
Which is something we suspect Dorian Ayache should take into consideration.
“Useful” Life
Jan 18 2012
I was having wine with some dear friends the other night. One is a dedicated horseperson and the other struggles with the mania that is “horse-people-ness.” But she is sincerely trying to understand her partner’s passion and in her regular day job had come across a client whom she is fascinated with. He’s, by all accounts, an old school horseman, the likes of Buck Branaman – a horse whisperer of sorts (her words) and he’s helped my friend understand the beauty and the complexity of the relationship with horses.
So she was asking wonderful questions about how horses behave and how to help mold their natural behaviors so that neither people nor the animals come to harm. She told me what she’d heard from this quiet cowboy and her eyes were bright and engaged. Finally, she was “getting it” and even talking about spending time at the barn to learn more about these amazing animals.
We talked and talked and had a wonderful time. She was really intrigued by the gentle and mindful path that this man was taking with his horses. She’d made some assumptions about our horses, being thoroughbreds (clearly a pejorative term here) and used for sport and for lessons and so obviously, the depth of the relationship that this man had accomplished with his horse was just not possible for us. But as the wine flowed, we worked through some of those assumptions and were having a really compassionate meeting of minds. Her body language was more open about her partner’s passion than ever before. Very cool.
And then the bomb dropped. My friend mentioned that she had told this guy all about our non profit. About how we rescue horses and use them to teach kids with challenges. This horse-whispering, natural and all-gentle, empathic guru of horsemanship apparently lit up at the notion and told my friend that his horse, when he gets a little bit older will be PERFECT for our program!
WT__(insert the letter of your choice here)?
Look Mr. Perfect Horse Owner, does that mean that when your horse is too old or crippled or simply no longer worthy of your advanced abilities and join up methods of training, then you will simply off-load him to some program that needs to raise funds from the public just to pay the feed bill? Why is it that you, with your uber-sense of horsemanship isn’t interested in providing your eternally bonded horse with a home for life? Why is it that we, or some program like ours is saddled with the responsibility to care for your horse through his golden years and that we and our kids will be the ones present when it’s time to let him go over the rainbow bridge? And you act as if you are bestowing upon us some amazing gift?
I’m venting. I love each and every one of our senior citizens here and I wouldn’t trade them for the world and I really believe that they chose us in some cosmic way, rather than the other way around. BUT why is it that people think that horses are disposable? You wouldn’t be able to keep your head up at a party if everyone knew you sent your dog out to some retirement home where you expected never to pay another feed or vet bill – would you? PARTICULARLY if you spent hours proselytizing about how your method of bonding with your dog was so much better than anyone else’s? Where’s that bond taking you? Only as far as the animal can carry you on his back? I think I just threw up in my mouth a little bit.
I believe in revolutions of education. I really do. Case in point: My parents, educated and kind animal loving people – never spayed or neutered our pets. I spent many an afternoon in front of the Safeway market with a cardboard box with “Free Kittens” written on the side. I was told to make sure that I got rid of all of the puppies and kittens – and I did. You don’t see that anymore. Why? Because a revolution in education about spaying and neutering made people like my parents make the time and effort to make sure that there weren’t unplanned litters of kittens and puppies anymore. So I believe that snarky posts like this one will be read by wonderful and dedicated and smart horse owners who will begin to think twice about breeding that mare or about what the long term plan for their show horse or their daughter’s 4H horse or that free horse on the internet. Just because you donated a horse to a school doesn’t mean your responsibility to that animal is over.
And yes, it’s possible that I’ve jumped to conclusions and that this man would never think of donating his friend the horse to a program without a donation to ensure his horses’ care. But I’ve been around way too long, I’ve been at too many cocktail parties where I’m cornered by a martini swilling reveler that wants to offload his reining horse, his ex race horse, her homebred with a club foot so to lessen their own feed bill. A responsibility for a life for it’s life is a lesson our society needs to learn. About our pets, our children, our elderly, our homeless. All life is precious, not just what we deem as “useful life.”
Sermon over. Please return to your regularly scheduled life.
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Today’s guest post was submitted by Joell Dunlap who co-Founded Square Peg Foundation in 2004. Click here to read more about Square Peg.
Here a clone, there a clone, everywhere a clone, clone?
When talking about cloning there are a number of major factors to consider before forming an opinion. Rather than turn this into a 5 part series, we’re going to try to summarize a few of what we think are the most important points and then hopefully we can get a rousing discussion going. But first, some background information.
In the United States there is only one company that currently offers cloning: ViaGen. ViaGen lists the benefits of cloning as follows
-Expand reproductive potential
-Keep up with demand for offspring, embryos and semen
-Clone geldings so you can have a stud
-Reduce impact of unexpected injury or death
-Improve quality and consistency within herd (HA! Ya, consistency is right!)
-Expand marketing opportunities (yes, because in this saturated horse market, we need more of the same horses)
What their entire marketing strategy boils down to: Back up your superstar just the way you’d back up your harddrive!
In terms of the competitive arena, does this provide an unfair advantage?
They call horse racing the “sport of kings”, but doesn’t having a back up in your stable (you know, just in case your Derby winner was to break a leg) seem like an unfair advantage since the procedure is financially prohibitive (read on for the actual price)? Kind of takes the “sport” out of the “sport of kings” (but really emphasizes the “king”). Equestrianism is already an elitist sport – do we really want to go ahead and make it even more so? How many people are already finding the costs of showing insurmountable?
What about the fact that while the “original” is out competing the clone can be sitting at home breeding away – keeping the fat cats fat.
It just all seems more like a selfish, capitalistic ploy rather than a logical step forward for the horse industry.
Not sure if cloning is for you? Well, why take the risk? You can bank those genes for future use with ViaGen for only $1500 (plus $150/year storage fee).
What’s next? Some sort of insurance program wherein for a low monthly fee you’re protected so that if your horse is injured or killed before a certain age then the insurance policy kicks in and you get a brand new car, oops sorry we mean horse?
Effects on professional breeding?
Does cloning take the art and science out of professional breeding? One day you’re looking at pedigrees and competition histories and the next a 30+ page legal document indemnifying ViaGen in case yours is one of the 99.3% of unsuccessful clones (that’s not even considering cloned offspring syndrome or other potential complications or health issues).
Would this increase the spotlight on trainers and the techniques they use? Say cloning becomes cheaper and more widely available, would we just see a bunch of Hicksteads and Totilases running around the jumper and dressage rings, respectively? Say you have Totilas v.2 versus Totilas v.3 running around, each with a different trainer, and one is heads and tails above the other – who are you going to blame? Sure the surrogate mare affects the embryo – but by how much? At that point, you’re probably going to look to the one responsible for the weaker link and say, “what the hell did you do wrong?”
Did you know that the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association has no rules against using clones in competition? In the case of Smart Little Lena’s clones (5 of them) each of them had different conformation (influenced by the surrogate mare); if any of them were atrociously different, they could have theoretically been sold to be a bucking horse.
If we’re allowing cloning, how far off are we from genetic engineering?
The Horse has an article on cloning wherein they ask the all important question, “How can it [cloning] be used to support genetic improvement in our breeds” –why by cherry picking qualities, of course! They’re already talking about it in humans; what if you could pick the color of your unborn spawn’s offspring’s eyes?
Moral Standpoints
Last, but not least, we have the moral standpoint. There are so many freaking ways to look at this that we’re not really going to go there. It brings religion into the debate and that always devolves into a God vs. no God argument that no one ever wins and really just breeds a lot of unnecessary animosity. All we want to mention with regards to morals is:
Kidney’s! Get your hot, fresh kidney’s here!
Some studies have cited organ harvesting as a reason for cloning.
Did no one see the movie “My Sister’s Keeper”? Or, for that matter, “Blade Trinity”? –wherein the vampires stick humans on machines and harvest the blood? Is that the bright future we’re headed towards? Ok, that may be a bit extreme, but it can be a slippery slope!
Here’s some more interesting reading on cloning from Sidelines and The Horse.
Luckily, right now we’re still miles away from mainstream cloning. But our take, after researching this article, we haven’t found a single pro amongst all the cons listed above. Cloning doesn’t better the horse industry – it just serves to line the pockets of the corporate scientists at Viagen and whatever company pops up next. The potential for abuse is too great and heavily overshadows any possible benefit. And really, any benefits are to the humans involved, not the horses being cloned, and certainly not the clones themselves. While we love the thought of never having to say goodbye to our beloved horses, a clone just wouldn’t be the same. Try as scientists might, the facts as they stand clearly state that the surrogate mare does influence the clone and that these clones do have a distinct personality.
Oh, and by the way, Texas A&M University reported only a 0.7% foaling success rate with cloned horse embryos. $150,000 well spent, if we do say so ourselves.
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