One of my readers sent me this story and pictures and it definitely deserves to be shared. It is just a classic example of what I talk about here every day - yet another tale of a stallion that shouldn't be a stallion, fencing that isn't stallion fencing, and a moron owner who is breeding horses willy-nilly for absolutely no reason. Allow me to quote:
"This email is just to confirm that you are so right about idiot owners and their stallions.
Today I caught a horse running across a major roadway near where I keep my horse. On closer inspection after getting the frenzied animal off the road I found him to be a 6 year old (TB i guess) stallion, the bay in the photo. The property he is kept on is disgusting, barbed wire everywhere, at one point while I was there he managed to rear up to fight the stallion on the other side of the fence and got his forleg stuck in the wire. A friend and I had to try and free him, thankfully he had enough brains not to struggle too much.
He has been kept in a box (photo included), without water i imagine, for most of the day, while another stallion and a group of mares run in the paddock the box is in. His moron owner has no clue, rejected veterinary attention for his bleeding horse (we had a vet there), and hurried us from the property. Yep, this A grade asshole has 2 stallions, a bunch of mares and most of them underweight. All that seperates horses from main road is a dodgy barbed wire fence, and there are rolls of the stuff just lying in the paddock. All all that seperates 2 stallions is a wooden door to the most disgusting stable ever.
I have called animal protection, but my guess is this horse will be at the slaughterhouse by now. Or in his words (owner) "I have someone to take him, I guess they'll geld him and hack him around". Hmmm, 6 years old and still entire, he ain't gonna be anyones hack is my guess. He also claims his vet told him his horse is skinny because it had scours, and to stop "soft" feed. He says the horse must have got some bad hay, my guess is he just started to eat his own manure that is 6 inches thick on his stable floor. I can only hope he gets his own back, threefold. I feel so bad for the horses, and can't wait to see next years foal crop!!!"OK, everybody. We see this every single day. Do you think there are any real solutions? What is the best way to discourage this kind of careless horse (or animal in general!) ownership? Is there any real way to educate someone like this or is praying that animal control will confiscate the animals our only hope?
Is the only solution to teach kids what is and is not responsible animal care/husbandry when they're young, because by the time they're adults, it'd take a lightning bolt to get a new idea through their heads?
Have you ever successfully changed someone's mind about their sacred right to breed all of the fugly animals they want? What about converting someone from a poor horse owner to a good one?
P.S. Apologies for the slow week, I can't seem to get my Internet hooked up where I live now. The folks at CenturyTel are clearly not the sharpest knives in the drawer. I've only had my Blackberry, and I can't post from that - posting requires Java.
