"When we got there, one horse was down and could not get up. It had urinated all over itself. It was freezing cold that morning. There were two other horses in the back side of the pasture were underweight," said Michael Chatham with Gwinnett County Animal Control.
Once the horses were discovered, a veterinarian had to euthanize one of them because of the severity of his condition.
"It's very disturbing, nothing should be in this condition, especially a horse. They are dependent on people to get food. There was nothing in that pasture for them to eat but mud," said Chatham.
The owner of the horses, Andres Ramirez, turned himself in to police on Feb. 28 after he was accused of leaving the horses for two months without food.
Police charged Ramirez with three misdemeanor counts of animal cruelty. He told police he went to Mexico (back in December) and told his nephew to care for the horses. Police said they never located Ramirez's nephew.
The Georgia Equine Rescue League took custody of the two surviving horses. They are with a foster family in Monroe.
Cindy Farris is carrying for them.
"It makes me really sad that people get animals like this and treat them this way," said Farris.
Farris said this is the worst case of neglect she has seen.
"You can clearly see both horse's ribs and their hip bones are sticking up," said Farris.
The horses are eating and showing signs of recovery after only being with Farris one day.
Farris said it will take about eight months to nurse them back to health.
(cbsatlanta - Mar 6, 2013)
