Shayna Roberts is exhausted. The 26-year-old animal technician has worked 12-hour days at the Sandusky County Fairgrounds, organizing volunteers and tending to 36 malnourished Arabian horses rescued from a farm in Ottawa County last weekend.
By Wednesday night, Ms. Roberts was at the hospital with what turned out to be dehydration. With so much time spent caring for the horses, she'd forgotten to eat and drink properly herself.
"Let's just say I pushed myself past my abilities," the bright-eyed Ms. Roberts said, picking up a stack of papers listing the people who have volunteered to help. "Without them, I couldn't go home at all." Despite the long hours and incessant work, Ms. Roberts and those helping her are excited by the success of their efforts.
Since the weak and disoriented horses were brought to the barn Jan. 29, they have started to recover. Their drained silence has been replaced by a lively exchange of whinnies and snorts. Their heads and ears perk up as people approach - especially if they bring hay - and their eyes glimmer.
"It makes you feel good," said volunteer Deb Riffle, who's been helping with the horses since the rescue. "It gives you a smile and a warm heart." But the road to recovery remains long. The horses remain painfully thin - ribs and hipbones showing through their coats - and they rely on blankets to keep warm. Until their stomachs are stronger, they can eat only hay. The next dietary step will be mushed-up grain and will require each horse to be individually fed and monitored.
Then there's the medical care: hooves, joints, teeth, worm tablets, vaccinations. "The cost is going to be phenomenal," said Rebekah Recker, one of the core volunteers. "Even with all the help and donations, there's gonna be specific needs that have to be paid for."
Horse rescues come with a huge financial strain, said Jacque Lynn Schultz, equine grants officer for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. That's especially true for a small organization such as the Humane Society of Ottawa County, now in charge of the rescued horses in Fremont.
"It's a time when the shelter needs a lot of community support in order to keep going," Ms. Schultz said. "Getting these kinds of rescues is a tremendous cost burden."
Local experts agree that the recent horse rescue was unusually big for Ohio. While there have been some large-scale horse rescues recently in Texas and South Carolina, most cases of horse cruelty or neglect involve just a few animals.
Terry Figueroa of the Arabian Rescue Mission in Colesville, N.J., has rescued horses for 18 years and opened a branch in Ohio a year ago. Her organization helped with the Ottawa County case.
"It's big. I have not been involved in a rescue of this size," Ms. Figueroa said. "I've been involved with the rescue of three horses, six horses, maybe 10 horses at a time, but this is a big one."
The owner of the Ottawa County farm, 54-year-old Robin Vess, has been known in the Arabian horse community for years, having founded the Arabian Horse Club of Greater Toledo. She faces charges of 42 counts of animal cruelty.
Each count carries a maximum penalty of 90 days in jail and a $750 fine. She is to appear in court Feb. 24.
The Humane Society of Ottawa County summoned rescuers to Ms. Vess' farm outside Oak Harbor after receiving what it said was an anonymous tip.
There they found dozens of emaciated horses, some so desperate for food they had eaten through the wood on their stall dividers, rescuers said. One foal was dead, and five horses had to be euthanized.
In an interview with The Blade, Ms. Vess' lawyer, Mark Davis of Toledo, defended his client on several fronts. He said only some of the horses were underweight, and their malnourishment was a result of illness, not lack of food. He said hay was available for the horses in the barn, although rescuers have said that hay was out of the animals' reach.
Mr. Davis said Ms. Vess had struggled to care for the horses because she was traumatized by the recent death of her mother and two aunts and did not have enough help on the farm. He said Ms. Vess had reached out to the Ottawa County Humane Society for help with the horses on numerous occasions but did not receive assistance.
"This is not something the humane society simply discovered and then ran into the burning barn to save the horses," Mr. Davis said. "They knew and they did nothing. They're equally as responsible as my client and I can prove that in court."
Humane society representatives declined to comment on the attorney's charge, but Chris Marcinko, an attorney who prosecutes cruelty cases for the humane society, said laws govern when and how a humane officer may act.
"The humane officer is required to follow and comply with those laws and rules, even in situations in which the laws and rules may be unpopular with some individuals," he said.
Diana Murphy, a longtime Lucas County horse rescuer and cruelty investigator, said the Humane Society of Ottawa County had known about the case for a while and acted too slowly.
"Those horses didn't get like that in a couple of days. It took at least three to six months," Ms. Murphy said.
Referring to the horses that perished, she added, "Those horses really didn't have to die. [The humane society] could've helped them a lot more than they did."
But Ms. Murphy also criticized Ms. Vess. She said the horse owner could have contacted rescue shelters and members of the horse community for help if she had been serious about seeking assistance. "I guarantee she would have got help," Ms. Murphy said.
Mr. Davis said he had not yet determined whether Ms. Vess had financial problems. A search of property records reveals Ms. Vess owned the 9.8-acre farm at 3140 North Behlman Rd. with her mother, Jean Vess, who died in 2008. The total appraised value of the property is $241,120.
Despite the magnitude of the Vess case, horse abandonment and neglect are growing problems in the economic climate. No precise figures on horse cruelty and rescues exist, but national and local experts confirm the problem is on the rise.
A 2009 survey by the Unwanted Horse Coalition, part of the American Horse Council, found 87 percent of people in the horse community believe horse abandonment, abuse, and neglect are "a big problem," up from only 22 percent three years ago.
John Dinon of the Toledo Area Humane Society said his agency has seen an increase in horse cruelty cases the past few years, although the number dropped slightly in 2009.
Horses are especially vulnerable to economic swings because caring for them is expensive. Ms. Schultz of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals says caring for a horse at home costs on average $2,000 a year.
Housing them at a stable can be considerably more expensive. Also, the cost of hay is up because of drought or heavy rain in some parts of the country and because of farmers switching from hay production to corn, Ms. Schultz said.
Arabian horses are by no means immune to the nation's economic turmoil, which has made selling or adopting out horses a lot more difficult. Ms. Figueroa said two horses on her rescue farm in New Jersey were once worth about $1 million. Horses decline in value over time and usually change hands often.
"That really is the way of horse ownership in this country," Ms. Schultz said. "It's not like dogs and cats, where they're pushed as a forever pet. With horses, you're there for a while, you serve a purpose … and then you get sold or passed along, or if you're lucky, taken to a rescue or an auction."
One escape hatch for struggling horse owners used to be the slaughterhouse, Mr. Dinon said. That changed with a law in 2007 that effectively banned horse slaughterhouses in the United States.
Although this option may be unthinkable for some, Mr. Dinon said it did allow owners to avoid the cost of euthanasia when they no longer could care for or sell a horse. That means more horses left to die or shipped off to badly regulated slaughter facilities in Mexico, Mr. Dinon said.
Mr. Dinon also pointed a finger at Ohio's animal cruelty laws, which he said don't do enough to protect horses from neglect and cruelty. Although cruelty to horses is considered a second-degree misdemeanor even when it's a repeat offense, the same type of cruelty to dogs and cats can lead to first-degree misdemeanor charges.
For the horse rescuers at the Sandusky County Fairgrounds, the focus is on helping the horses regain their strength. It may take months for them to recover completely, but Ms. Roberts hopes they will be strong enough within a month to go to foster homes. Many former owners of the horses are hoping to get their animals back. But until the judge rules on the case, the horses' ultimate fate will remain uncertain.
To help with the cost of horses' care, contact the Ottawa County Humane Society at 419-734-5191 or at hsocpets@yahoo.com. |
