PHOTO COURTESY COUNTY OF VOLUSIA
Mommy, get up please — That's what this three-month-old foal seems to be saying to its mother, who is still breathing, but almost dead when Volusia County Sheriff's deputies and the Horse Protection Association of Florida arrive to rescue eight horses in Mims Aug. 2. The mare died as workers tried to load her into a trailer.
PHOTO COURTESY COUNTY OF VOLUSIA
Signs of emaciation — According to a chart prepared by Texas A&M University, a healthy horse has pads of fat along the neck, around its shoulders and down the crease on its back, on its ribs, at the base of its tail, and behind the shoulder. This horse in Mims appears to have none, anywhere.
PHOTO COURTESY COUNTY OF VOLUSIA
Neglected hooves — According to experts, horses hooves need regular trimming and care from a ferrier. When allowed to grow long, like the hooves of this horse removed from the farm at Mims, the horse can become crippled.
PHOTO COURTESY COUNTY OF VOLUSIA
Hungry enough to eat a fence — Volusia County attorney John McConnell said the farm at Mims involves one of the worst cases of "cribbing" he's ever seen. In cribbing, horses chew on boards or other normally inedible material. Some of the horses seized in Mims were scratched and scraped from trying to reach through paddock fencing to get at green grass just out of reach.
Official seizures of neglected horses are 'tip of the iceberg'
By Pat Hatfield
posted Aug 26, 2008 - 2:09:21pm
The photographs are heart-rending: horses whose ribs stand out starkly, whose hip bones are pointed protrusions. Picture a horse down on her side, vainly pawing at the earth, too weak to get up, then dying.
Such pictures are becoming more common in Volusia County and in horse country around Central Florida.
In December, there was the seizure of horses from King Arabian Farms in DeLand. This month, there was a seizure in Mims.
Horses, like children, are hostages to fate. Whatever pressures or inclinations affect their caregivers affect them.
Cases of horse neglect and abuse are becoming more common, rescuers report, as the economy worsens, or as novices purchase horses, then find the animals are much more work and expense than anticipated.
John McConnell, attorney for the County of Volusia, has overseen the legal aspect of recent horse seizures, including the seizure of 27 horses at King Arabian Farms at the end of December. One sick horse was euthanized, and the other 26 horses were auctioned in April.
Owner Jack Donahue said he'd fallen on hard times, and wasn't able to care for the horses as he once had.
The Range Unit and the Horse Protection Association of Florida rescued seven horses from property at 500 Country Road in Mims Aug. 2, in the wake of an anonymous complaint.
An eighth horse, a severely emaciated mare who was nursing her 3-month-old foal, died as workers tried to rescue her. The foal was in satisfactory condition, according to the report; the other six horses were listed as "emaciated" or "underweight."
One of the horses belonged to Arturo-Ruiz Garcia, who told investigators he was caring for all the horses. The remainder belonged to Pedro Caban, owner of the property.
Garcia said he was coming to the property daily to care for the horses, but did not know how to contact Caban.
Horses were without water or had dirty water, according to the Sheriff's Office report. Some stood in stalls in inches of their own urine and feces. One horse was sick and had been down in one of the paddocks for a couple of days. Garcia didn't seem to be aware of that, the Sheriff's Office report stated. No horse food or hay was found on the property.
McConnell said Deputy Danny Clifton of the Range Unit investigated the case and initiated the seizure. The Horse Protection Association of Florida is feeding and taking care of the horses.
In this case, "It doesn't look like they're in hard times," McConnell said of the owner.
Land was cleared on the property and, it it appeared Caban was preparing to build a new home on it.
McConnell said the owners made a voluntary surrender of the horses before the case was to go to court Aug. 19.
The Beacon was able to contact Caban Aug. 25, and ask him about events leading to the seizure.
He said, "I cannot talk about that right now."
Caban said he might have plenty to say a bit later.
A money-eating business or hobby
Horses consume a lot of time and money — at least to keep them healthy.
The cost of food, routine veterinary care, dental care and hoof care costs $300-$400 a month for a horse. Then, the horse must be groomed and exercised.
The cost of hay has gone up from $5.50 to $6.50, then $7.50 a bale in the past year or so, Horse Protection Association of Florida Director Morgan Silver said, due to lack of rain and fuel cost. Hay alone is insufficient feed for most horses.
"A horse is an expensive animal to keep. Don't take it casually," Silver said.
The result, when times get tough, or owners lose interest in their new acquisition, can be neglect and abuse.
Horses should be sleek animals, with little layers of fat overlying healthy muscles. When neglected and underfed, they end up with bony ribs and hips protruding as their bodies use up fat stores, then cannibalize their own muscles in an effort to stay alive.
Sometimes, McConnell said, people buy property zoned for horses, then buy some horses to go along with their country property. When the novelty and excitement of owning horses wears off, neglect can set in.
After a while, owners may content themselves to just "throwing a bunch of hay in there," McConnell said.
Silver agreed. So did Jill Beatty, a Volusia County coordinator for the association.
Silver said horses seen in newspaper accounts are the tip of the iceberg. Many more are voluntarily surrendered before a seizure in initiated.
By then, the horses usually have no value.
It's not the rideable horses, for which homes can usually be found, that are given up.
it's the crippled or old ones, Silver explained.
"More people are calling us to come get their horses. We can't take all of them," Silver said.
Silver, Beatty and McConnell pointed to another factor. Many slaughter houses closed, at the urging of People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) a couple of years ago, McConnell said.
Silver said dog-food manufacturers don't use horse meat in their formulas any more, opting for chicken, beef and fish, instead. "Before the slaughter houses closed, dealers would take the horses," the ones no one wanted.
The result is, now, dealers ship horses out of state. Many end up in Mexico, where, Silver and McConnell said, they can face inhumane means of slaughter.
"They stab horses in the back with icepick-type things until they're paralyzed, then the horses are slaughtered while they're completely conscious," Silver said.
All these things are symptoms of an industry gone haywire, she added. "There's probably too much breeding and overproduction."
Backyard breeders and overbreeding have created an inexpensive meat source for Europe, where horse meat is popular, Silver said.
Like McConnell, Silver believes, "People buy a house in the country, then want a horse to go with it. They don't realize the financial investment and the time involved."
As economic times get harder, suburban legends float around Central Florida.
One involves horses abandoned in the Ocala National Forest.
For example, local Horse Protection Association of Florida representative Beatty said she's heard a story about a pair of horses left tied to a tree in the forest, with a note begging someone to take them. Alternative stories feature horses simply turned loose, to fend for themselves.
Deputy Ranger Carrie Christman, who's posted at the Ocala National Forest, said she's heard these stories, too, but rangers have never found any abandoned horses in the forest. Silver said she doesn't know of any such cases, either.
It may be a matter of time.
Reader Comments
The comments posted below are posted by readers, not by The Beacon staff. These comments express the views and opinions of the authors, and not the administrators, moderators or webmaster. The comments forum is governed by these rules. Please use the report abuse link if you find offensive comments.
There are way too many horses to simply expect people to re-home, retire and rescue them all. They cost too much for up-keep and live for an average of 22 years. This is an impossible situation that will cause more and more suffering by horses. It cannot be wished away by putting in more laws about cruetly and neglect.
The owners of the horses in this article could afford to feed them, they chose not to. I sincerely hope appropriate charges are brought against the owners.
Instead of commenting on 'legends', when will journalists step up and report facts? Show us the data from law enforcement agencies to support the comments relating to the abandonment of equines. If no such data exists, then either law enforcement agencies still do not take animal abuse/cruelty seriously, or the data simply doesn't exist. Either way......
Backyard breeders and multi-million (if not billion) dollar organizations such as the AQHA are responsible for the mass production of equines. Instead of buying lobbyists to fight against the passage of the pending Federal bills, these organization could become part of the solution. They will never do so because it's more profitable for them to continue encouraging irresponsible breeding.
Come on reporters, get off the computer, go out into the sunlight and do a bit of old leg work. The internet is killing journalism.
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