I received a call back in February from Henry County Animal Control requesting GERL’s help with feeding a herd of 22 horses that had been seized by the City of McDonough Police Department. The GERL Board of Directors approved the expense and we immediately set up a visit to see the horses. It was a first-time event for most of the employees at the Henry County Animal Control, but they rose to the occasion by buying a load of panels to contain the skinniest horses to allow them to eat. They got the vet out there right away to evaluate them. Of course, they had picked up horses in the past, but dealing with 22 horses was a whole different ball game!
It was thought in the beginning that Henry County might be able to move the most critical care horses to the Georgia Department of Agriculture’s Mansfield barn, but that didn’t happen. The barn was practically empty, so it wasn’t a matter of not having room. There was a lot of commotion over that on social media and many people were enraged. It made me realize how horse neglect/abuse cases would be handled in the future. And let me say this, about that…I am good with it. As a personal witness to the process that has been followed for the past ten years, I can honestly say that it was not working, and something needed to change.
For years the State inspectors have been reaching out to the county to get involved in equine neglect/abuse cases in their community. If the horse needed to be picked up, the State would negotiate with the County to prosecute the offender if the GDA took the horse(s) to their impound barn. The County usually agreed, and the horse drove off into the sunset as the property of the Georgia Department of Agriculture. Most equine that have come into the State’s impound barns are very thin, therefore it is expected that they will be a resident for a minimum of 3 to 4 months. The problem was that many of them were there for 1 or 2 years. GERL was spending a whole lot of money feeding horses that were fat.
Months down the road, and in some cases years, the case would go to court and seldom would the offender be prosecuted. In addition, restitution was never sought. I do believe that it is necessary for each participant to have some skin in the game in order for the mutual respect to exist among the parties. Having said that, GERL hasn’t had restitution except one time in 12 years and I can vouch for the fact that we have spent a boat load of money rehabilitating other people’s horses!
The auctions that were held to sell the horses were somewhat of a disappointment. Not by any fault of anyone in particular. Very few people showed up to bid on the horses and the majority of horses brought very low bids. Horses that didn’t ride, including babies, didn’t sell. This left a glut of unrideable horses between the three impounds that nobody wanted.
GERL and the GDA have been educating law enforcement on how to prosecute equine cruelty cases for 10 years now. We have had hundreds of animal control, sheriff’s deputies and police attend our classes. Why are we not seeing more people prosecuted?
Since GERL was now dealing directly with Henry county, we were able to negotiate a couple of prerequisites for furnishing the feed. I requested that the prosecutors ask for restitution for GERL via the “Cost of Care Act” and I also asked that GERL have first choice of the horses when they are released by the owner(s). They agreed to both and I’m hoping that we have turned a corner in the way we do things in the future when dealing with horse impoundments with the counties.
