help

Discuss horse welfare and rescue and horses in need of assistance.

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DanN
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help

Postby DanN » Fri Nov 05, 2010 9:27 pm

We just found 6 horses down the road from us that need help bad . The county might press charges on the people but are not sure yet.. Who else can we call for help ? The owners are very nasty people and no one wants to get involved but a few of us.. Please watch the video and see if you think these horses need help and if you can tell us who to call .
http://www.kvewtv.com/video/ You go to bottom of page and watch the video on neglected horses . We need help

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Jessi P
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Postby Jessi P » Sat Nov 06, 2010 6:35 am

Are you Melissa Woods or a relation (the concerned lady in the video)? Just wondering.

The video only plays to 1:26 for me then stalls out and hangs - it won't keep going NOR restart after several attempts.

Its hard to see the ponies body condition in this video, but from what I can see the five ponies and one horse appear to be in healthy weight.

The hooves are BAD on the ones where they show a close up. The lady in the video who says the pony with the elf feet cannot be saved is wrong - its done in many rescue situations. A blacksmith will try to get that pony's feet back to normal over the course of several trimmings. It cant be done all at once but it CAN be done, those feet are certainly not an automatic death sentence.

The person in the video says they get fed but the owners never come to see them. You cant force someone to come play with or spend time their animals. As long as they appear to be in healthy weight and are getting fed, the WORST any enforcement officer can do is tell them they have to get a blacksmith out to trim their feet.

So, the only legit complaint about this situation that I see with limited video up to 1:26 of the 2:23 video) is the lack of farrier care.
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DanN
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Postby DanN » Sat Nov 06, 2010 6:47 am

They get fed once in a while, watered once in a while, and yes one of the animals is dangerously under weight by an expert yesterday.. 2 of the ponys have sores on the back legs where they are now forced to walk on because of feet . 1 pony can barely walk. After reading horse recue articles they say that not taking care of the feet and letting them go this bad is abuse . The animals are in a lot worse condition in real life .. How can u think this is acceptable ?

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Postby Runnerandrider » Sat Nov 06, 2010 7:21 am

The horses do obviously need the attention of a farrier, none of them are past saving as the woman in the video states (I rescued a TWH stallion that was worse, and you would never know it today, it just took some time). As Jessi P said, you can not make owners spend time with their animals, and in today's economy, there is no way to be sure if another home could even be found.
DanN, she did not say it was acceptable, but when you ask for opinions/help I should hope you would be ready to hear people's opinions, even when they may differ from your own.
Absolutely, letting the feet get that bad is abuse, but from the video, they do otherwise appear to be in good weight with food and shelter. We can only go off of what we see in the 2 minute segment.

DanN
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Postby DanN » Sat Nov 06, 2010 8:08 am

yes I must apologize for the acceptable comment. And yes I do agree that 5 of them can be saved , and the lady was brought in to do the interview because everyone here is afraid of what these people will do to retaliate , I now know 4 familys here that have loaded guns in there homes since this happened. These people are very nasty . As the article said , they do not live there, and fails to show the condition of the abandoned home , The 4 dogs tied up to the home . The first words out of 2 of the familys here was that these people will probable shoot our horses, and even the sheriff that did the follow up called me later that night and asked me to not mention his name in this because his mother in law lives 2 farms away and was not wanting trouble for her . The county has had a ton of trouble with these people and are trying everything to help but only so much they can do . The un acceptable part I guess is that if all is done is a trimming on these animals it will not fix the problem in the long term.. So again I apoligize

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Re: help

Postby ratherrapid » Tue Nov 09, 2010 1:32 pm

DanN wrote:We just found 6 horses down the road from us that need help bad . The county might press charges on the people but are not sure yet.. Who else can we call for help ? The owners are very nasty people and no one wants to get involved but a few of us.. Please watch the video and see if you think these horses need help and if you can tell us who to call .
http://www.kvewtv.com/video/ You go to bottom of page and watch the video on neglected horses . We need help


congrats for your concern. i get very aggressive when i see animal abuse. Animal control is your best bet. they will investigate, and bring charges. usually there's a warning tick. after the warning ticket you have to keep bugging them till they do something. there's also a possiblity in your jurisdiction you can bring the charges yourself, although you have to be very careful concerning people such as this. Particularly if you have your own animals that need protecting.

when neglect charges are brought in court, the fine per animal tends to be very high. documenting what you see daily helps animal control. how many acres. is edible grass available. hoofs, horse conditions, watering conditions. in past instances I have sent threatening anonymous letters to owners:
charges will be brought unless you do such and such. fine per neglected animal in our jurisdiction is: $xxx.xx

frequently this brings some relief for the animals for a while. in experience we must stay on the neglectors. what usually happens over time is they get rid of the animals. with anti-slaughter that is harder for neglecting owners to accomplish. It's also not against the law to throw a bale of hay or fill a water trough.

DanN
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Postby DanN » Thu Nov 11, 2010 9:15 am

Well a throw a bale of hay, fill a water trough won't work.. Since this happened the neighbor threw a couple apples over her fence to get some more pictures and the people were hiding behind the barn and came out screaming at her and called her every name in the book...Sherriffs were called out and the owners of the animals are putting tresspassing charges on my wife and another gal for luring the horses over to the news camera.. Our county has no animal control and you must rely on the sherriff department. They are trying to press charges on the neighbor that fed the apples saying they were poisened. As I said before these people thrive for trouble like this.. Yesterday I found 2 windows shot out of 1 of my loaders that were not shot out the day before .. Sherriffs did a report but of course cant prove nothing.. Starting to wonder if it is worth it.

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Postby ratherrapid » Thu Nov 11, 2010 12:03 pm

tough situation--if you care to respond, how many animals over how many acres, and is there any nutritious grass available? has a formal complaint been launched with the county prosecuting attorney, or is this being considered, or does the situation warrant that sort of criminal action? I personally have dealt with somewhat similar situations over the years, but have to date always managed to avoid open confrontations. sounds as if the line has already been crossed on that.

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Postby IcouldbeU » Thu Nov 11, 2010 2:20 pm

Honestly Dan and your neghbors you sound like a trouble makers. How do you know the people were "hiding" in the barn..have they been "hiding" there 24/7 for days? I really doubt it. The horses look to be in good condition except for their feet which is surprising since you would expect the ground the keep their hooves trimmed like they do wild horses.
If I were your neighbor I would be pressing charges against all of you for trespassing and can you prove that the apples were not poisoned. Think about: if one of the horses turned up dead wouldn't it make the case stronger? Just playing devils advocate since its easy to see both sides when you are not involved.

DanN
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Postby DanN » Thu Nov 11, 2010 4:25 pm

Trouble makers no , concerned horse people yes. How do I know they were hiding in the barn ? In the AM while I was driving down the road to get to work I noticed the people with the horses trucks parked across the road at another farm. The gal that took the pictures and where the news filmed them from had gotten a call the night before and a lady named jessica asked if she could get more pictures in the morning to see if something had been done , I had called my wife to tell her something was up but I was to late. The gal got caught by the owners taking the pictures and yes they were hiding behind the shed.. After she got the pictures she called the news but guess what . No jessica works there so she talked to the reporter and he said no one from the news called and asked for the photos.. They have brought in good hay for the animals now but for someone to think letting these horses feet get like that is ok and there is no neglect or abuse is hard to swallow for me .. I originally posted here to hopefully get some help for these animals . Sorry but I just cant sit back and watch this happen..

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Postby IcouldbeU » Thu Nov 11, 2010 4:30 pm

Tresspassing is tresspassing and this is still a free country. Maybe you need to post on a non-TB site if you want support. Too me you are trouble and I am glad not my neighbor.
You said they only get fed once in a while, the pictures don't support that theory. Sorry

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Postby ratherrapid » Thu Nov 11, 2010 10:19 pm

i'd respectfully disagree with that. thankfully there are people looking out for neglected animals. if their opinions happen to be wrong, i'd still want them for my neighbors. Dan, as usualy--the publicity will take care of the feeding-watering for a while, maybe permanently. Who knows what the Sheriff has communicated. Do Sherrifs get sensatized when TV is involved?

There are ways to proceed with these sort of horse neglectors. Vets have ideas. Law enforecement has ideas. people to talk to. Additionally, in my past experience, in tough cases were tresspassing and retaliation is a threat, I have communicated, generally in writing, that we'd prefer to settle the situation without giving anybody trouble, and have volunteered trimming and teeth services. this worked the one time I tried it. Also, might not be legal trespassing to throw a few round bales over the fence. good luck to you and those neglected animals!