The past week has been a tough one for our four-legged companions. Unfortunately, all too often horses are the victims of humanity’s weakness.
The worst—A man was arrested on Tuesday for starting a fire that killed 12 horses in Colorado. Apparently the man argued with the stable’s owners earlier in the day and was seen fleeing the fire. As a heart-wrenching twist to the story, one man heard about the fire as it was happening, rushed to the stables, broke through the line of police and firemen, charged into the blaze, and attempted to rescue his horse to no avail.
Worser–Attempts to halt the Bureau of Land Management’s wild horse roundups in Nevada were set back on Monday when the lawsuit to prevent the roundups was dismissed by a federal judge. I’m not sure if the horses need to be relocated, but the way the roundups are performed is absurd; the BLM uses helicopters and trucks to herd the terrified horses. According to reports, nearly 100 horses have died during the roundups and more than 50 pregnant mares have miscarried a a result of the stress. We can put a man on the moon, but we can’t find a way to safely move a herd of horses?
Worsest—Investigators continue to get reports of animal abuse at the infamous Spindles Farm in England, where the infamous James Gray was convicted of neglecting and abusing more than 100 horses. When investigators originally searched the property, they found bodies of 32 horses at the farm. Yet somehow, the idiot is allowed to still keep animals other than horses at Spindles Farm. Link: video of the original search
I’m not sure how we can better protect against people who set fires to barns, kill horses with helicopters, or abuse hundreds of horses, but by the time we read about these stories and the law is getting involved it is often too late for the horses.
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In a developing story, the two horses injured in the Ohio trailer accident have been transported to Lexingon (think Rood & Riddle or Hagyard) for “treatment of a developing abdominal issue secondary to the trauma.” Whichever hospital they are at, the horses are in the best of care.
