The humane society's animal cruelty investigator, Brad Adams, and a society volunteer, Colin Haller, responded to a complaint concerning a horse that was underweight with an injury to its leg.
"When we arrived to the location of the horse, I saw its extreme state of emaciation and saw it standing using only three of its legs while it was holding its fourth one up due to an injury," Adams said. "The horse was also blind. The condition of this horse was the worst I've seen since I began doing animal cruelty investigations 14 years ago. I did make contact with the horse's owner, who had recently left the state of Ohio. According to the owner, the horse is old'."
Adams said he immediately contacted Highland County Humane Society Shelter Director Melanie Dodson and asked for her assistance.
"When Brad took me to the horse's location and I saw the horse's poor body condition, I was in shock," Dodson said. "How could anyone let their animal get into that condition? She was standing in mud, manure and urine. My heart went out to this horse.'"
Although the horse was injured, underweight, in pain, blind and standing on three legs, Adams said "the horse was able to feel a caring human touch of a hand when Melanie approached the horse. The horse laid her head over Melanie's shoulder and softly closed her eyes."
"It was like the horse felt the comfort of a human's touch and knew help was there and that she wouldn't have to feel any pain or suffering much longer," Adams said. "The horse may be blind and probably can only see darkness, but I believe that horse could see that a ray of help was there on the day we removed her into our care."
The Highland County Humane Society has provided several humane education classes to local schools and the general public to bring awareness to animal cruelty issues.
Adams said this particular complaint came from a person who once was in one of his past humane education classes where he speaks to children and adults about the proper care and treatment of animals, what to look for before reporting animal cruelty, as well as how and who to report animal cruelty to when they see it.
"It's evident from this horse complaint that humane education is indeed important and by promoting humane education, we can help prevent animal cruelty in the future," Adams said.
According to the Highland County Humane Society, the horse is currently in their care and is under veterinary treatment. The owner's name isn't being released at this time as the owner is currently out of state, but animal cruelty charges are expected. Further information will be released in the future when the owner has been charged, Adams said.
If anyone would like to make a kind monetary donation to the humane society to help with the expenses for the care and treatment of this horse, they can be made online through PayPal to highlandhumane@gmail.com using a credit/debit card or can be mailed to P.O. Box 471, Hillsboro, Ohio 45133.
"We would greatly appreciate it, and all donations, big or small, will help," Adams said.
(WKRC TV Cincinnati - Mar 13, 2013)
