Here we go again...
29 dead horses, 100+ horses seized. This time it's up in Canada, and it's Arabians. Here's video. The evil scumsucker this time is some guy named Axel Hinz-Schleuter. Just some quotes from the article:
“They didn’t have any feed or water, or nothin’. But the worst part was the barn – it was so full of manure that you couldn’t stand it, and the ammonia smell was actually killing animals, killing the rabbits in there.” 
Mr. Hinz-Schleuter has been starving these horses for a long time. In August 2005, he was fined a whopping $1000 (insert sarcasm). I did a little internet research and tried to figure out who this guy is. He's had some very good stallions and I wonder if some of them are among the group now waiting to be auctioned? He owns or has owned *Feniks and *Edykt and Arwitraz. Apparently he owned *Enrilo - a post on a message board tells us "*Enrilo spent the end of his life w/Axel Hinz-Schleuter in Canada. He died there w/him on his farm." Yeah, I bet he DID.
More info from a local, who will be involved in rescuing some of the horses: "Another negative from an inside source has said that not all his animals were taken - his boyfriend took 10 days off work before this was done and was hiding horses. According to Arabian datasource, stallion reports for 75 mares were filed and he owns 174 head. Nothing under 4 yrs is registered. Bastard."
More information off A Black Horse, which is a very popular Arabian Horse forum online: "Someone from ABN yesterday saw the horses and reported: only 20% fairly decent condition, 50% more in critical condition, the rest, mostly young and old, in absolutely "horrendous" condition. The youngsters are stunted and growth impaired and the person commented that probably would not make it in this market too damaged. The old may be too feeble to haul cross country right away. IMHO there will have to be much sorting to do so that the animals which are in too poor condition to haul will be either euthanized or treated at Humane Facilities. "
A Black Horse is trying to coordinate an effort to buy up as many as possible in an organized fashion. Please join the discussion over there if you have space for one or more of these horses! It would be very helpful if you are in Canada, as many Americans are trying to buy these horses and if you can foster some until transportation is arranged and health papers/Coggins tests are obtained, that's what they need.
Obviously if you also have experience with starved horses, so much the better but I'll tell you right now from my own experience - just fill them full of well soaked orchard grass or timothy hay pellets. That is what we do. It's not rich enough to hurt them, they can pretty much chow it down free choice, and if their teeth are bad, this is something they can still eat. Just tons of mush and they will start to regain safely.
All of the remaining horses will be auctioned off on Thursday March 13, 2008 at 1:00 PM at Nilson Brothers Auction in Clyde, AB. The auction house isn't answering their phone. Go to the forum noted above if you want to help.
I've always thought that the reason we see SO many Arabian hoarding cases - and truly, we do - is that the poor things are pretty. They fit right in with unrealistic expectations - they're pretty, they look nice in your yard, and it's easy to believe they're worth lots and lots of money and breeding more will make money, right? After all, one just sold for $2.8 million! This guy probably had a decent operation at one time - but he lost control. He got financially overwhelmed and he was a stubborn SOB who wouldn't sell them for cheap (this seems to be a particularly common phenomenon in the Arabian world - remember the old lady in Tennessee or whatever who ALSO thought she shouldn't "have to" let them go cheap since she paid so much money for them 20 years ago? Folks, it's a horse, not a vintage car. TWENTY YEARS LATER, it's not worth the same or more money!). He couldn't feed them but he sure as HELL wouldn't put out the cry for help. He was a stubborn, arrogant SOB and now 29 horses are dead. Great.
One final word: It's my understanding the "owner" wants $1000 - $2000 a horse for the papers. If any of you pay that, I'm coming to your house to smack you a good one. Go through the legal system, go through the registry. You will get your papers if the horse can be positively ID'd. It will take longer, but you cannot reward an abuser. The registries are almost always helpful in these cases. They want the papers to go with the horse. Please don't reward this man for his unspeakable behavior.
It's also my understanding that no charges are being pressed at this time. 29 dead and he's going to get off scot free? OK, Canadians, you probably have a better idea of what to do about that than I do - who do we need to contact to demand Mr. Hinz-Schleuter get what is coming to him?
