KENTUCKY -- Mid-morning on November 4, 2017, two pit bulls came into our front paddock and attacked our four recently weaned foals and our miniature pony mare.
All five, sustained bite wounds to their faces, legs, necks, and bellies. One foal's injuries were so severe and life threatening that he was transported to Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington, KY where he stayed for 10 days and underwent multiple surgeries to piece back the lacerations and bites.
All five horses, survived their wounds, but the vet bills to help save them multiplied quickly. Our current goal of $15,000 will be able to cover the vet expenses. We hope to raise money to help pay for the vet bills and also help pay for the attorney fees to take the dogs' owner to trial. We want to ensure that this will not happen again.
COMMENTS:
Michaela Morrison Ward - Good luck getting any money out of them!
We had the dog attack in Butler County a couple months ago and pit and 2 other dogs killed 3 minis and basically the owner got off with a slap on the hand and he apparently was even a known felon! I had a mini attacked and mauled 25 years ago and the judge had the owners pay the 1500 vet bill and the 3000 for cost of filly. That was before judges got weak!
Best of luck for recovery of minis and good luck in court! Hopefully, Hamilton County will have stiffer sentences!
ALABAMA -- An Alabama man has been accused of repeatedly sexually molesting a horse in a barn stall.
Daniel Bennett, 18, allegedly told Mobile County Sheriff’s Office investigators he attempted to molest a horse.
The owner of the 20-year-old horse, named Polly, said she found Bennett in the barn after her dogs’ barking led her to the scene.
Owner Francine Janes and her husband, who was armed with a gun, found Bennett hiding in a barn stall, according to local reports.
Upon being found, Janes said he told her that “He likes horses. He wanted to pet the horse.”
Bennett was reportedly held at gunpoint by Janes' husband until police arrived.
Police reportedly discovered that Bennett had a trench coat with a burglar’s tool in it.
Janes doesn't believe this is the first time Bennett has abused her horse.
She told investigators she found what she believes to be evidence in Polly’s stall around 10 times throughout the month of December.
"I would say seven maybe 10 times," Janes told WPMI. "Toilet paper had been left [behind]. The hay stacks had been removed. Items had been turned over. And that's as far as I want to go [in describing what I found]."
Bennett’s arrest warrant lists his crime of bestiality as a misdemeanor, claiming he "engaged in or submitted to any sexual contact with an animal, to-wit: a horse."
Bennett is scheduled to appear in court January 18. It was unclear if he had a lawyer.
MICHIGAN -- Saginaw County animal control provided a clean bill of health for local horses after questions arose about their condition following social media posts.
The posts stemmed from a former employee of the Frankenmuth Carriage Company who expressed concern that, in her view, the horses were being mistreated.
TV5 was there on Friday when animal control inspected the horses. Officers concluded they found nothing wrong with the horses.
Animal Control Director Lisa Stoffel said she would document the case because of the recent public uproar.
Patience Atwood worked for the Frankenmuth Carriage Company from September 2016 through December 2016 and again from June 2017 through August 2017.
She took to Facebook on Dec. 28, 2017 with her allegations for how the company treated its horses. Her post garnered quite the reaction from the Mid-Michigan community, but has since been taken down.
Atwood insisted the horses were being overworked for their age during her first stint with the company. Her allegations were discredited by animal control on Friday.
She said she and her coworkers took their concerns to the Frankenmuth Chamber of Commerce, but were told there was nothing that could be done.
Atwood said the worst problem she saw was cracked hooves on the horses, which she said is extremely painful for the horses to be on concrete all day.
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At least four former employees at Frankenmuth Carriage Co. have made accusations, including one in a detailed Facebook post Thursday.
Gabrielle Ohearn is one of the former employees who worked there from August 2016 to October 2017. She claims the owner did nothing when employees voiced their concerns of abuse and neglect.
"Most of them are videos and pictures we had sent to the owner to tell her that they were lame or this was going on," Ohearn said while showing videos and pictures of the horses. "And, some were acknowledged and some were just blown off."
She alleges the horses have poor living conditions, cracked horseshoes and chronic pain.
Ohearn took a photo of a horse's hoof that appears to be missing about half of its shoe. Other photos show sores and cracks on the horses' hooves.
"Usually just whenever somebody threw a shoe she'd have to wait around and call a farrier, where most people, they're on a set schedule, usually 6-8 weeks depending on how fast the horse's hoof grows," she said. "But it depends on the individual horse."
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The owner of the Frankenmuth Carriage Company, Katrina Canfield, said her horses are healthy and in good condition. She had animal control come out to verify her horses were in good condition, an assertion animal control confirmed on Friday.
I don't think this issue has been resolved. Animal Control officers have a certain specialized knowledge, but they are not experts in everything. Animal Control, to put this issue to rest, should have involved a veterinarian to examine each animal, find out their work schedule, rest schedule, speak with the veterinarians who treat and examine these animals, to determine if they are being overworked - or not.
Note: I'm definitely NOT discounting the important job that animal control officers do, but I am saying there are limits to their knowledge and in a case like this, regarding a business that relies on a lot of tourism dollars, I think a licensed veterinarian needs to make the determination regarding the allegations since so many (at least four) former employees have spoken up. I also don't have a problem with animals being utilized for businesses like this - as long as the animals are properly being cared for. Most of them are, but there are cases in which owners are possibly having financial problems and so the animals get a bit less food, or the farrier comes less often, or the animals are working double shifts, etc. In those cases, it's neglectful but not necessarily criminal in which animals need to be seized. It may be that the animals are checked, the owner put on notice to properly care for the animals, and then everything is fine after that. If continued complaints come in, authorities have a paper trail to show a pattern of neglectful behavior... if it should come to the point of them charging the owner for criminal neglect.
Hopefully, with the attention brought to Frankenmuth Carriage Company, owner Katrina Canfield will ensure that her animals are well care for so that her business is seen as "one of the good ones".
OHIO -- Authorities confirmed Monday they are searching for two pit bulls on the loose in Butler County after the dogs killed two mini-horses and an adult horse.
Three pit bulls attacked the ponies, named Bella and Pablo, and an adult horse in the 1900 block of West Elkton Road in St. Clair Township on Friday, confirmed Deputy Kurt Merbs, supervisor of the Butler County Sheriff's Office Dog Warden Unit.
One of the mini-ponies' owners, Mike Powell, shot and killed one of the pit bulls after it killed one of the mini-ponies, Bella, and was eating it, Merbs confirmed.
"The dog was almost on top of the deceased horse," Merbs said. "You have the right to protect yourself and your livestock. You don't have the right to shoot them for trespassing, but you can shoot to protect."
The adult horse was in such bad shape, it was euthanized by a veterinarian on Saturday, said Paul Huesing, Powell's cousin and the other owner of the mini-ponies.
The two surviving pit bulls ran off and remain at large, Merbs said.
He is working Monday to track them down - and their owner.
He said he went to a possible location for the dogs at a residence along Sipps Lane on Friday, but no one was home. He left a note asking the occupants to call.
"We are following up today. We left notice and, of course, got no phone call, so we are going back today on this. If we get any of the normal games we get out of this 'oh they are not my dogs' we will take custody of the two dogs," Merbs said.
Huesing is upset and vowed Monday to take matters into his own hands.
"I am going hunting today," he said. "I am going to go out in the field. I have a CCW (license to carry a concealed weapon), so I am always armed. There's 20 people within this quarter mile radius. There are small children. It could have been them."
Huesing broke down in tears Monday as he talked about the violent way he lost his mini-ponies.
"They're irreplaceable. They are family members," he said. "It tore my heart out. I'll never be the same."
He said they were the last of his horses.
Bella was 8 years old and just 28 inches tall.
Pablo was 6 years old and about 31 inches tall.
"There's a special bond with a person and a horse. You have them 30 years and it just tore my heart out to have to go through this," he said, crying.
"I don't want nobody to be hurt."
Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones is sympathetic to Huesling's loss. He said he would be upset, too.
The sheriff is no fan of pit bulls, noting a Virginia woman was mauled to death Thursday by her two pit bull dogs as she walking them. But Jones acknowledges residents who live in unincorporated areas of the county are permitted to have them.
The animals must be licensed like all other dogs, however, he said.
"We tell people to let us know when they see them running around loose Call the dog catcher or your local police. Don't try to catch them yourself."
A Butler County man said loose Pit Bulls attacked and killed his two miniature horses and a neighbor's regular-size horse Friday.
Paul Huesing said three dogs attacked his miniature horses, Bella and Pablo, at the home of his cousin, Mike Powell, on West Elkton Road in St. Claire Township, where Huesing was boarding the animals.
Huesing knew something was wrong when his cousin's wife, Linda, called him in a panic.
"I said, 'What's wrong?'" Powell said. "She said, 'Get out here.' I said, 'What's wrong?' She said, 'Bella is dead.'"
Mike Powell saw the attack unfold when he went to feed the two small horses. He had a gun at the time and shot and killed one of the three dogs, a pit bull. The other two dogs, which are believed to also be pit bulls, took off running.
"His eyelids were ripped off," Huesing, describing the injuries his horse Pablo suffered. "His innards were exposed. I can't describe it. Nobody should go through this. Nobody."
Later in the day Friday, the two remaining dogs attacked and killed a full-sized horse about a half a mile away from the scene of the first attack.
"They got this one big horse," said Cheryl Callahan, a horse owner who lives next to the Powells. "Now if they can take down one big horse, I've got two big horses plus the baby."
As word of the attacks spread, Callahan took steps to secure her own stable of horses.
"Me being protective, I've just, I've been putting them up," said Callahan. "I put them in the corral beside the barn, put them in at night. We watch them all day long."
Callahan is deeply saddened by what Huesing has had to endure.
"The look on his face when I went over there was just unbelievable," she said. "I couldn't imagine."
"I can't describe the heartache, the thought of them being torn apart," Huesing said. "My baby was this big (lifting his hand about 2 feet off the ground) and probably didn't weigh 250 pounds. And I helped the dog warden carry the dead pit bull up in a bag, and it took both of is. That dog was 100 pounds."
WLWT investigator Todd Dykes spoke to Butler County's supervisor of dog wardens, Deputy Kurt Merbs, late in the afternoon on Monday.
Merbs said it's not clear where the two other dogs involved in Friday's attacks are.
He advises neighbors to be cautious and alert the sheriff's department of any stray dogs.
One of the two attacking dogs is white, possibly with black streaks. Witnesses said the other dog simply has a darker coat.
Neighbors believe they know who owns the dogs, but Merbs said investigators are still trying to make that determination. He added that charges are possible.
CALIFORNIA -- CHP – Stockton posted on Facebook December 13, 2017 ·
Today, Stockton CHP Officer Love was on southbound I-5 south of the Sacramento County Line, turning to check on a disabled motorist.
Officer Love then observed a brown and white horse walking up the embankment onto the freeway shoulder. The horse was preparing to walk into the traffic lanes.
Officer Love was able to corral the horse and keep it on the right shoulder. A citizen stopped and provided a dog leash in attempt to contain the horse. Officer Love was able to keep the horse calm and secure the leash around the neck and attached the horse to the patrol vehicle push bumpers until the owners and animal control arrived on scene to take custody of the horse.
The horse was safely escorted back to the property it escaped from near the freeway. #horsewrangler #nationalhorseday
MICHIGAN -- Deputies with the Macomb County Sheriff's Office in Michigan rescued a horse from a frozen pond.
The owners of a horse in Michigan are grateful that the deputies with the Macomb County Sheriff's Office in Michigan were able to rescue their horse after it fell through the ice into a pond.
The deputies responded to a call from a local resident in Ray Township on Wednesday, saying their horse had fallen through the ice on a pond and could not escape the freezing water.
When they arrived at the scene, the deputies attempted to use ropes to guide the horse out of the icy pond but were unable to do it. The horse couldn't get its legs above the ice.
The local fire department also got involved and the first responders worked to break up the ice around the horse and were able to free the horse from the ice.
The horse was checked out by a veterinarian and according to the sheriff's office, it was not injured.
An officer fell into the pond during the rescue. He too was uninjured.
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Macomb County Sheriff's Office posted on Facebook December 14 at 4:49pm ·
On 12/13/17, at approximately 9:30am, Macomb County Sheriff Deputies were called to a residence in Ray Township for a horse that had fallen into an ice covered pond.
Deputies responded and attempted to guide the horse out with ropes only to find that the horse could not get its legs above the ice. The Ray Township Fire Department also responded. Police and fire worked together to break up the ice and guide the horse out.
During the rescue, a deputy fell through the ice trying to attach a rope to the horse’s bridle. He was quickly pulled from the pond and continued to help the horse.
The owners were grateful and horse was checked out by its veterinarian. Both the horse and the deputy were uninjured.
