Doug Voegeli, the agency’s director of environmental health, said there is “an active investigation and we’re on the verge of the owner surrendering some more.”
The horses are owned by Mary Loeffelholz, who did not return the Observer’s telephone calls Monday or Tuesday.
Voegeli said the investigation involves “about 20” horses on Highway D between Brooklyn and Belleville.
“The ones that are being surrendered were in the worst health,” Voegeli said.
He explained that the health of horses is rated on a scale of 1 to 10.
“Under 5 is thin,” he said. “The eight horses that were surrendered were at 1.5.”
The Observer reported in 2008 about a similar county animal health investigation of Loeffelholz’s horses after one horse died. The agency issued an abatement order in 2008 and “we’ve been monitoring them (the horses) since then,” Voegeli said.
The Wisconsin State Journal reported Tuesday that Madison attorney Cynthia Fiene has been working to save the horses. Fiene said some of the animals had been moved to property owned by relatives of Loeffelholz and are not necessarily safe, according to the State Journal. She did not return a phone call seeking comment before press time Tuesday.
Neighbors of where the horses have been kept, including Andrea Loeffelholz, Mary Loeffelholz’s former sister-in-law, have complained for years about the horses’ condition.
The State Journal reported that the issue came to a head last week when former owners of some of the horses arrived with trailers and took four horses from the property without permission.
The Journal reported that Dane County sheriff’s deputies forced the former owners to return three horses, but a fourth was placed in protective custody with the Dane County Humane Society.
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| These were horses on Loeffelholz's property in 2008 when she received the abatement order. First you notice how deep in mud/manure they are, but then LOOK at that horse's tail! |
“When I saw them basically sinking in the mud and fighting to walk through it and one getting stuck and dying, that was the end,” Andrea Loeffelholz said. “I was like, no, I can’t turn my back anymore – enough’s enough.”
“I think it just gave up,” she said of the animal that died.
At the time, Mary Loeffelholz said her veterinarian had determined that the horse died after developing colic from being exposed to the mud and water. But she was defiant, saying she’s been raising Saddlebreds for 20 years and that her family rode them in 4-H and showed them.
On Monday, Voegeli said the horses’ owner could be charged with an offense “if there’s abuse and neglect. We could file charges or it could be the sheriff’s office or the (district attorney),” he said.
Voegeli added his agency is not considering filing charges “at this time.”
“We’re just focusing on the health of the animals to get them improved,” he said.
(Oregon Observer - May 9, 2012)
