Middletown

C.A.P. worked closely with the Connecticut Humane Society (CHS) and the local Animal Control Officer on this case. The owner of these horses had a degree in animal husbandry - thus demonstrating that not all cases of neglect arise from ignorance. One of our members, purely by chance, called on an ad for a stallion at stud and subsequently made a visit to this farm to look at the stallion and also a yearling colt that was for sale. She was very upset with the conditions when she visited the farm and so we investigated further. This was apparently an ongoing problem and had been going on for several years. CHS was monitoring the situation and the local ACO was boarding her own horse there so that she could keep an eye on the situation. This owner had a history of problems - she left a litter of puppies in a car that died of the heat and reportedly allowed a previously owned horse to starve to death.

There was a stallion and a grey mare (in the worst condition) in the barn which was full of manure and had no water available to the horses. The weanlings and yearlings were very thin. The other horses were in the pasture, hips and ribs showing with matted manes, despite good pasture. There were 15 horses in total on the property.

Our member's vet was brought in to do a prepurchase exam on the yearling colt as she was interested in buying him. The vet recommended against it, stating that he felt he would have future problems with worm damage and was stunted. The stallion was in the barn that day with almost no water and no hay and they were told the owner wasn't due to get out of work until 11:00pm at which point it was doubtful that the horses would be fed.

The local ACO in this case was instrumental in the improvements that were made. She convinced the owner to sell most of the horses, with the grey mare going back to her previous owner, she kept her horse at the barn so she could monitor the situation and ended up leasing part of the barn thereby limiting the owner to 5 horses. The barn was cleaned up and painted, fencing was added and the horses improved significantly.

Thankfully, this was a case where consistent monitoring resulted in a happy ending. Had this case been abandoned or forgotten, it is doubtful that these horses would have survived. They don't look at bad as some cases we have had, but that is primarily due to early intervention, before it became a life or death situation.

Grey mare in the barn - she was the worst.