One Of Our Own?

Those of us who spend a large amount of time online - forums, chat rooms, Facebook, often grow to "know" other people even though we have never met them.

We read their posts, see pictures of their animals, learn about them.

That's why it can come as a massive shock when we hear that one of our "own" has had their animals seized for cruelty or neglect.


This has happened recently. While I did not "know" this person except by her posts, it came as quite a surprise to suddenly be informed that her entire herd of breeding cow ponies were seized due to neglect.

As it often happens in this situation, those of us who heard about it first immediately jumped to her defense. Surely this was not true - there is some excuse for whatever reason the county and sheriff came up with the seize the animals. We'd seen pictures of her happy healthy horses many times. How could it have fallen apart so quickly?

Then the evidence began to surface. Horses with bad feet, a horse that had to be euthanized, among others. I will say that in this case, most of the offender's horses were in okay shape. But there was enough neglect to justify the seizure. Should the county wait until all of the horses are lame from overgrown hooves and thin before taking action?

What I find more concerning though, to be honest, is the rescue that has taken the horses. Pictures from their Facebook wall show large dirty dry lots, where hay is thrown onto the ground and buried in manure and mud. Adoption pictures of one mare show her ribby and rough looking despite being there for a month - plenty of time to put on healthy weight and a shiny coat with a *good* health regimen.

The rescue has already approached people begging for donations of hay and posts. How can they possibly handle taking on over 30 more horses?

To me, this entire situation smells like rotten fish.

It's interesting how quickly things can roll out of control, especially when you have such a large herd of animals. And it's interesting that sometimes animals seized by the county end up "out of the frying pan and into the fire."

A sad situation all around.