Posts Tagged ‘news stories’
Abused South African horses – continued
I don’t usually post on Thursdays and have been trying to keep the two blogs separate; however, I posted this on Snarky Rider yesterday and got quite the response, so I wanted to post it to FHOTD and see what you all had to say. Since first publishing this post, there has been an update which you can check out here.
This photo comes from a Hackney Stud in South Africa where their grasp of the concept of training has clearly been confused with that of torture.
Apparently the genius’s that thought this one up feel this “method” will help build those attractive neck muscles that we all love so much – you know, the ones that are typically the byproduct of proper training and self-carriage.
These people were investigated by the Highveld Horse Care Unit (HHCU) where the inspectors found out from employees that the horses stand tied up like this for two hours at a time, repeated throughout the day. Unfortunately the article posted on HHCU’s website was pretty scint on details so we have no idea if anything is going to happen to this Stud, or if the horses are going to be saved or what have you. There are a number of discussions taking place on different forums about this, however, so if you want to hear what others have to say, check out Horse Grooming Supplies Forum and/or Horse Forum. Or, if you feel so inclined, there’s an online petition to the South African government to stop this assholery.
Even body builders will tell you that you don’t hold a pose for two hours! Come on people! Anyone who’s ever been to a gym or done a workout in their lifetime knows that you do reps, not just grab and hold. The repetition is what contributes to building muscle. The kind of muscle that torturous methods such as this build are bracing and of no practical use. This is done for aesthetics, pure and simple. These horses are going to break down at a younger age than those with proper training and muscling. It’s a sad statement on the way the horse industry is, worldwide, that it’s more important to have a “pretty pony” than a working horse that will last you a long time. Do these people, the buyers of these abused horses, not consider the fact that they’ll get more bang for their buck from a horse that will perform for 10 years, as opposed to 2. And make no mistake, this is abuse.
This also raises another issue, are horses so indispensable that people will buy them, use them for 2 years and then throw them away? Oh wait, we already know the answer to that one, don’t we? The racing and futurities industries are prime examples. You know, they say that different cultures have different values and it can be hard to understand their points of view, traditions, way of thinking, etc. And yet, apparently the devaluing of animal life is ubiquitous. Hooray, we all have something in common. Wanna hug it out?
For anyone daring to question the harshness of these abominable “methods”, just taking a look at the photo. You can practically see the veins pulsating from the horse’s shoulder. For anyone who’s ever watched an episode of House, Grey’s Anatomy, Doogie Houser – even Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman knew that this was indicative of an elevated heart rate. Since we know the horse didn’t just run a freaking marathon, I think we can safely conclude that the horse’s heart rate is elevated due to pain – possibly from the unforgiving twine forcing so much pressure on the poor horse’s jaw it looks like it might snap off at any second. Can you imagine how much damage that can, and likely is, doing to the horse’s musculoskeletal structure? For anyone who’s ever had a chiropractor (or any medical professional along those lines) out for their horse, you know that one of the first things they check is the temporomandibular joint. If there’s something out of alignment in this joint, it can cause pain issues exacerbated by flexion at the poll – hmmm and how exactly were these Hackney’s supposed to be traveling? Could it be: flexed at the poll?! How willing (able) do you think they’ll be to trot out in the proper headset, featuring those neck muscles those jackasses tortured them to get?
Anyone else recall one of the issues surrounding rollkur? The fact that the extreme overbent position compromised the horse’s ability to inhale sufficient air? (Check out Sustainable Dressage’s article for more info on why/how this affects the horse’s ability to, umm, breathe.)
Look familiar?
Once again, horse abuse proves to be completely senseless. Good job humanity, you really know how to make a girl proud to be a part of the species. Bra-fucking-vo.
Marion County seizure
Being out of the state does not excuse you from the responsibilities of horse ownership that you readily, if not eagerly, accepted when you took possession of the horses!
Marion County deputies recover eight malnourished horses from “deplorable” conditions in South Salem field
There are some out there who would say that the out-of-state owner did her duty by making arrangements with a local person to care for the horses.
To this I say: Bullshit
You can’t just pay someone and be done with it. You have a duty of care to check in once in a while and make sure your hired help are, oh I don’t know, helping! Let’s see if we can’t relate this to a non-horse world scenario. Say, for example, you’re a manager at McDonalds. You hire people to do a job, you train ‘em, give ‘em some direction, whatever. Once all that is in place, do you then leave for Costa Rica? No! For better or worse, it’s your job to make sure the job is done, because ultimately it is your responsibility!
Then, of course, is the issue of there being no shelter. That’s something the owner would have found out about when she went to rent the place. Again, you can come up with a bunch of lame scenarios where the owner isn’t to blame, but let’s be honest; if you’re a responsible animal owner, any type of animal, you’re going to inspect the place you intend for your animal to live, prior to it living there! So yes, dear readers, she knew and she was ok with it.
What about the land owner? Did they rent out 50 acres to someone they knew would bring horses onto the property? Knowing full well there was no shelter available for the animals?
I know people who rent out a condo and they make sure to do an inspection at least quarterly. And those people are sharing multiple walls with other tenants! There’s some accountability there! But for someone to rent out 50 acres and not schedule inspections? Of course, I’m making a judicious leap and assuming they didn’t inspect the property and had no knowledge of the starving and deceased horses (at the very least that would decrease the property value, right?) on their land.
None of the above is meant to excuse the behavior of the “caretaker”. I just feel that their involvement, or lack thereof, is obvious. They are, after all, the ones who willfully and cruelly neglected all aspects of these poor horse’s care.
So who’s responsible? The owner for not checking in? The landlord for willfully turning a blind eye? Certainly the caretaker is. Any way you slice it, body scores of 0.5 don’t happen overnight. Not to mention six – SIX! – dead horses on the property. It’ll be interesting (and presumably horrifying) to see whose horses those turn out to be…
I don’t claim to be an expert in decomposing animals, but it would seem to me that their being in different stages of decomp means that they died at different times, right? Still with me? Ok then, doesn’t that sound like they probably died from starvation? Logic being that different animals use up fats stores quicker than others and that alpha horse(s) likely chased the others off what little food they managed to find. This is supported by the fact that the remaining horses were found with body scores ranging from 0.5 to 1.5. Albeit that’s not much of a range.
The little bit of reassurance we can take from this latest episode of horse abuse? The swift and effective action of Marion County – they acted immediately upon receiving the phone call about the horses, got a vet out, blanketed them, brought food and water and got them the hell outa there ASAP. Good job guys and thanks from all the horse lovers!
For pictures of the poor remaining horses, check out our Facebook page.
For information on the rescued horses and/or how you can help them, check out Strawberry Mountain Mustangs (took in 5 of the surviving horses) and United SPCA (took in 3 of the horses)
Just a few updates
The weekends around FHOTD are a little quiet so we thought this might be a good time to just post a few updates about ongoing issues. We’re going to try to do follow ups on news-type stories. A lot of the issues that we talk about on Fugly Blog are ongoing and we would like to try to post weekly, relevant updates. If you come across any updates on past Fugly posts, please email them to us! We’d appreciate the help in staying on top of this 
Samantha Mildbredt @ CBER – She’s up to her usual tricks. Really, nothing new, just the fact that she has resurfaced and needs to be drowned again (possibly literally…). We’ll be looking in to this more to see if we can’t get some more details and help raise awareness.
Jaci Rae Jackson/Credit Card - We don’t really have an update on this one. From the linked to article we understand the preliminary hearing is set for March13. If anyone has come across some updates would you please email us at fuglyblog@hotmail.com?
Kelsey Lefever/Beau Jacques – Her preliminary hearing is apparently set for tomorrow. Hopefully we’ll have more news for you next weekend.
ArkLaTex/Many, LA rescue – Apparently the DA is currently reviewing information on this case to determine how best to proceed. Here’s hoping he can get enough information to charge in to court one day soon and demand 20+ years jail time (hey, we can dream) for Charles Ford, owner according to the linked to website.
Dorian Ayache/Mance Reed, 38 horse accident in Tennessee – No updates on this one either unfortunately. We checked a few of the news sites that originally were all over this thing, but maybe now it’s not so dramatic without a crapload of horses trapped in an overturned semi… Again, if you have found any updates, please email us at fuglyblog@hotmail.com
A chance to be proactive
One of the Fugly Blog readers recently emailed us about a case in Huntington, Indiana. We took a look at the news story and the accompanying video and thought to ourselves: who the fuck hired this woman as an animal control officer? Don’t you have to at least like horses to work there? Her attitude and body language, to our admittedly untrained eyes, say that she is not happy to be there. She appears to be annoyed with the interview and all the fuss made over the deteriorating health of these horses. Not to mention her incorrect assessment of the overabundance of cribbing due to boredom. [be sure to watch the video before continuing to read]
So we decided to offer our two cents to the investigating reporter. Last night we sent the following email to Drew Blair.
Dear Ms. Blair,
One of our readers forwarded us a link to your article (http://www.wane.com/dpp/news/local/neighbor-concerned-over-horses-care-dbl). Now, I don’t know if anyone has already contacted you about “cribbing” in horses and the erroneous statements made by Ms. Vanover but in case no one has, here are a few facts about horses.
-Cribbing is a behavior associated with boredom (she was correct there), but it is almost exclusively seen in stabled horses. Horses with grass to eat will not engage in this behavior.
-I have never, in over 15 years of experience, seen a horse crib on a tree, branch or side of a building. In fact, I think it may be impossible – here’s a description of cribbing from horse-cribbing.com “Typically when a horse cribs, he sets his upper teeth on an object (usually about chest level), presses down, opens his mouth, arches his neck, and pulls back” while sucking in air (hence why cribbing is also called “wind sucking”). In fact, if nothing else, it is easier for a horse to crib from a horizontal fence (as seen behind Ms. Vanover – which showed no evidence of cribbing) than a tree, branch or building. Certainly a horse could chew the trees and the side of the building but they would only do this if grass was not available (as in if they were in a sand enclosure rather than a field) or they’re trying to prevent starvation.
-The trees and branches in your video were stripped of bark – that is not indicative of cribbing – there should have been a groove/indentation for the horse to get a foothold (for lack of a better word) with their teeth, allowing them to pull back and suck in more air.
-If the horses had sufficient food in their field, they wouldn’t be leaning so hard on a fence as to almost collapse it, just to get at a few blades of grass. If horses have adequate food, they are not concerned with whether or not the “grass is greener on the other side”
Grass alone is not enough to keep a horse at a healthy weight, especially in the winter – and especially if there are too many horses on too small a piece of land (there are other factors to consider, but aren’t strictly relevant here).
I don’t know if you’re familiar with the rescue efforts that recently occurred on a farm in Many, La. – that was a hell of a lot worse than this case but these horses were starving and fed from trees. Some of them suffered from impaction colic due to the in-digestibility of the bark they ate from trees.
I don’t know what Ms. Vanover’s education or experience with horses is, but it is clear that she does not have their best interests at heart. Hopefully this helps clear up her statements. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.
COME ON! For once abuse is being reported before the horses reach a Henneke body scale of 1 and they’re going to do nothing?!
Ok, ok, mini outburst done. We understand that if an animal control officer shows up and the horses have proper food and water there’s probably nothing they can do. But show a little compassion – or at least pretend to while being video taped – and promise to come back and check up on them. Otherwise, the next time you hear about these horses (in a few months time) they will be in “grave danger”, or in the grave itself.
The ArkLaTex Fuck up
Fair warning: this post contains coarse language and links to disturbing pictures.
First the facts: On January 6, 2012 approx. 60 horses were seized from O’l Home Place in Many, Louisiana. Not all of those are still alive and certainly none of them are well. According to one article, rescuers have so far found the bodies of 25 dead horses on the farm. The owner of the horses, Charles Ford, was arrested but is already out on bail.
Donna Keen, who took part in the rescue efforts, wrote this account of conditions on her blog:
On January 7th and 8th 2012 Remember Me Racehorse Rescue and the Louisiana Horse Rescue assisted the Sabine Humane Society in conducting a 60 horse seizure at a thoroughbred breeding and training farm in Many, Louisiana. There were originally reported to be about 120 horses on the property but by the time the case was built and the seizure was conducted half of them were either missing or deceased.
Not only were the horses at Charles Ford’s farm in horrid condition there was a large dog kennel full of hungry barking dogs with deceased dogs only feet away. There were also pigs and goats on the property that looked like staggering skeletons.
As this is an ongoing rescue effort, there really aren’t that many facts to report on. Of the articles we were able to find, they each quoted slightly different numbers. What is clear is that this was supposed to be professional Thoroughbred breeding and training farm.
O’l Home Farm LLC (Suzanne Ford listed as the owner) was still running horses at Louisiana Downs as recently as this past September. William R. Young is listed as the trainer in the track’s racing form. According to Remember Me Horse Rescue Mr. Young was on the property during rescue efforts and was commenting on the condition of some of the horses. In his eyes, the following emaciated grey mare was “not too bad” and he “laughed when she was being difficult to catch stating she couldn’t be too bad if she could still get away from” the woman trying to catch her.
Grey Mare (You’ll have to click; it’s refusing to embed. Grrrr.)
Apparently the trainer also told volunteers that “the owner will try and retain ownership of some of these horses. The Humane Society representative did tell us that this was his understanding and that in the end the Judge would make the final decision.” Unfortunately, and here’s where the law sucks, according to this article, Ford “has 15 days to post bond on all animals he wants to retain.” That bond is set at $1,500 per horse. Although if he’s hoping to claim multiple horses, than at least that amount is slightly more substantial than what bail was set at for Ford himself.
After all, you might be asking yourself, as we certainly were, how did this monster make bail when he can’t even afford to feed his goddamned horses? Naturally, we had assumed that since the DA is charging for each horse that bail would somehow reflect the number of charges. Nope. It was just $2,500. That’s it. The bastard wouldn’t shell out for edible hay, but bail he managed in a heartbeat! Of course, $2500 doesn’t go far when you’re talking about this many horses, especially in their current condition. According to the Louisiana Horse Rescue Association it’s going to cost around $450/day to maintain the remaining herd. That bail is worth just over 5 days to these horses.
From a TB Champions forum: “Louisiana Horse Rescue Association recently posted this list of dead/alive broodmares, given to them by Charles Ford, owner of the farm. Obviously, many yet remain to be verified. I’d heard that previous owners of Crossed Wire were actually going to go to Sabine Parish, LA, hoping to find her alive and to take her into their care. Unfortunately, it appears that that will not be possible.
ALIVE:
Auto B A Pro
Beautiful Lyrics
Beep Beep
Brassie Road
Bunny Cat
Cayla’s Playmate (euthanized during rescue))
Da Vinna
Dance Recital
Daring Tru (found dead horse with this collar)
Dillydalydeed
Fabulous Gamble
Formal Blossom
Galorious
I Dream of Jeanie D
Jewelry Talks
Le Big Time (claims to have given away)
Maggie’s Missy
Monita’s High Stepper (claims to have given away)
Moonlight Mango
Nassau Bound
Radcliff (claims to have given away)
Salty Cowgirl
Sattidy’s Girl
Sheikra
Tactical Vixen
DEAD:
Algebra
Ambitt’s Bullet
Anti Versay
Avie’s Trick
Bemybabytonite
Beyers Fortune
Call Me Eppi
Claudcat
Crossed Wire
Flattermeforever
George Sand
Great Aunt Alice
I Had To Laugh
Invalidate
Lady Di’s Kipper
Lissanisky
Miss Salty Gift
Notice
Ohnoitsmotherinlaw
O’Nora
Party Dreams
Pewter Power
Ralina
Samuri Dancer
Smokin Bonnie
Tiff’s Problem
Winterland”
In case you’re wondering, that’s 27 dead mares that the owner himself admits to. What possible defense can he come up with? Money issues aren’t going to cut it, especially considering the farm was still breeding and racing horses within the past year!
There are two things in particular that we find especially disturbing about this case.
The first is the incredible disparity in condition of the horses at this farm. While the broodmares and the babies were being left to fend for themselves (and dying off as a consequence), the “training” horses were stalled and in relatively good condition. How can someone knowledgeable enough to get horses in race shape just look on as others starve to death? Which brings us to the second thing – these guys were supposed to be pros. As much as we get after the backyard breeders and the irresponsible ammies, it pisses us off that much more when people fuck up at this level. They’re bloody well supposed to know better.
And just in case you weren’t depressed enough, here’s another abuse story from the southern US. In this case 16 horses and 2 donkeys were recently seized from a Missouri farm. According to a neighbor, he’s been complaining about the place for four years and 42 horses had died on the property in that time period.
