COMMENTS FROM THE EDITORS

Why We Get Frustrated

This case occurred in Southern IN, in one of the worst counties we have ever had to deal with. It involves some people who managed to loose 4 out a possible 5 horses within three months of purchasing them The Dead included one premature foal, body not found, one pregnant mare, and one yearly stud. Both the pregnant mare and the yearling stud had been dead for several weeks when IHAHS was contacted. According to a witness a young child was carrying stories of dead rotting animals to school. The witness went to confront the parents of this child with the child’s obsession with death and rotting bodies. Much to the witness’s surprise the stories were true. This case was validated by an animal control officer, a local board of health person, and two IHAHS investigators. The surviving mare was also seen to be running at large, which is probably the only reason she was still alive at all.

The yearling’s carcass was so decomposed that it was bare of any skin or flesh from the skull back to the shoulder bones. It was also laying near the house and within 10 feet of the children’s playground. What an and eye and nose full those poor kids must have gotten. The family house dogs were seen to be consuming one of the bodies. These were dogs that lived inside a house in which one of the several children was only an infant, still crawling on the floor.

The truly sad part is that in the eyes of the investigator not only were the horses in danger, but there was also a serious health threat to the young children. Not to mention the psychological damage from witnessing all of this. The prosecutor in this county saw the tape and the evidence and after wishing the owners spouse a happy birthday ( and it was truly spouse’s birthday) he proceeded to console the owners, and advise them that leaving carcasses around for such a long time was a tad bit ridiculous. The prosecutor would not even ask these people to feed their one surviving mare or keep her contained. Stating that they were really nice people and now that they had explored horse care on the internet, he was sure they would do better. Many in the community have turned in numerous reports of animal abuse, unfortunately this prosecutor will not do anything about them either.

Because of the actions and in-actions of this prosecutor many animals still continue to live and die in dangerous or unhealthy living conditions. The children and the animals were the ones that suffered in this case, not the prosecutor or the owners. The county commissioner’s reviewed the tapes of many of these cases. Some were most likely not pleased with what they had seen, to say the least, but they cannot make a prosecutor do his job. Their hands are as tied as ours on this issue. All IHAHS was asking is that this owner be made to care for their horse or relinquish the animal to someone who would properly care for it.

The case above is the extreme example of law enforcement not wanting to act, and is not the norm. But it is very frustrating for us to try to explain, to the people complaining about these animals, that we have done everything that we can do and that it is up to the local prosecutor to do the rest. Many of the people who call us want us to take immediate action on a case, an that is just not possible if the owner does not want to cooperate with us.

For those people that do not understand full how IHAHS works, let me take a few minutes and explain the way our investigations operate. It starts off with a concerned citizen phoning in or sending a complaint via email. Once we receive the complaint of abuse or neglect we assign it to the investigator closest to the case, since at this time there are only three full time investigators they get to the case as soon as they can.

Once the site is visited and the animals are determined to be in need, we contact the owners first to see if they need some kind of assistance with their animals or if education on care is needed. Our first goal is to keep the animals with the owners, but provide them with assistance if practical or educate them on proper care. If our help is refused or the owners show no signs of wanting to care for their animals, we then contact local law enforcement to look into the case. After we turn the case over to the local law enforcement, IHAHS is just a bystander. We will be available to help in transport and housing of the animals while the case is in court, but we do not directly take any animals. All IHAHS does is provide the local law enforcement with means of transportation and foster homes for the animals. Once the animals are taken from the owners, IHAHS makes sure that they are given vet care and are properly housed and fed. This fostering can last up to two years while the case is in litigation. Many people feel that we are like other animal rights groups that go in and take animals away from their owners if we feel they are being mistreated, but that is not the case, the local court system has total control over the animals at all times.

So you can see how frustrating it is sometimes, when we get calls and nothing gets done due to inaction by the local law enforcement.

For more information, check out the archive section on "Anatomy of a Rescue."