Most of the time, when someone says the animal control officers are picking on them, I roll my eyes. Usually, it seems that the folks screaming that they are being persecuted just happen to have a collection of ribby horses with long feet standing in mud and more excuses than you can imagine about why they aren’t abusers and the rules don’t apply to them. (We have heard them all - I am poor, I am sick, the dead horse was sick, my husband left me, that horse looks better in the summer, I got a bad load of hay, blah blah. Whatever. Trust me, nobody gets prosecuted if they call AC and say, I can’t afford to feed my horses, what would you like me to do with them? But nobody ever admits to that until they get busted with two dead horses behind the barn and a foal that looks like a malnourished goat…)
However, ACO’s are human and just like politicians, some of them will use their power for unethical gain or to get back at someone they have a personal vendetta against.
Extortion Charged in Taking of Horses
“In April, Andy Ray Lane, 53, responded to an “anonymous” report of abuse of two horses at a residence just outside Wimer.
The horses appeared to be well-fed and watered, but were in enclosures deemed too small by Lane.
During numerous visits to the property over the next few weeks, Lane advised the resident, who was not named by Jackson County sheriff’s officials, and warned the man he could face stiff fines if the situation was not corrected.
The resident reportedly tried to rectifly the situation, but could not do enough to satisfy Lane’s demands.
Eventually, the owner of the horses sought to sell the animals, but was not able to do so.
Lane then returned to the house with a trailer to take the horses. He told the resident he needed to take some fence panels from the property to help corral the animals.
Lane told the resident he had found the horses a safe home where they would be cared for. The fence panels were never returned to the owners.”
Well no kidding. The fence panels probably were worth more than the horses!
I haven’t seen details about the enclosures the horses were in, but a vast many horses in the world live in an enclosure known as a “stall” which is typically 12 x 12. As long as they are taken out daily or almost daily for some exercise, this is not cruelty. It may not be the ideal way for a horse to live but you can’t start confiscating horses in Oregon for something every single boarder at the L.A. Equestrian Center is guilty of.
So there are two issues here I’d like to hear your comments on. The first is, is animal control in your area a one-man show, and if the one man (or woman) is unethical or lazy, is there nowhere else to go for help? In this area, we have a whole department and more than one officer goes out to inspect a situation before any seizures take place, so it would be very hard for anyone’s personal vendetta to get too far. But I know that’s not true everywhere, so if you have a horror story, feel free to share it!
The other issue is how inconsistent animal control’s expectations for care are in different areas. Animal control is typically under the control of the individual county, so the standard of what will get your horses seized is all over the place. The ACO is usually seen as the expert by the usually non-horsey Sheriff but some are much more expert than others!
What will get a horse seized in your area? I’ve seen it all over the place here. I mean, dead, skinny horses should pretty much always result in a seizure but I’ve seen healthy, good weight horses seized due to muddy conditions around here and I have to wonder a little about that. I’m not privy to the inner workings of those cases, so I don’t know how much of a chance the owners were given to resolve the problems before a seizure took place. I also sometimes question if people understand how serious the trouble is in time to take action - ACO’s, like police, tend to be very friendly in order to get the person being investigated to spew out evidence. To me, fairness dictates that a person being investigated get clear instructions about how to correct the violations, and accurate information about the consequences for failure to do so. I’m not sure that happens consistently.
I think most of us agree that if you can get an owner to correct - and let’s face it, many times violations take place out of ignorance (twenty years ago, I would have thought nothing of horses standing in mud - my reaction would have been, duh, it’s April, everything is standing in mud including me) - it is better to fix the situation and keep horses in their existing homes right now. How is that working in your area?
Again, just shoot me the comments at resqtb@yahoo.com and I’ll be happy to put up a bunch of them later!
I know I missed a Friday Featured Rescue but I want to re-feature one. Click here to see Bonnie Weather - she’s the first horse shown. She’s still looking for a home in the Seattle area and is a 17 hand (really! I met her!) super sweet and snuggly, too slow to race three year old Thoroughbred filly. Bonnie really needs to go to a slower paced home. I hear she is so quiet that you could have her starting to show still this season. E-mail if you’re interested!
All right, it’s a beautiful day so it’s time to go out and enjoy it with the horses. Hope you are all doing well and good luck if you’re showing this weekend!
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