Rescue Efforts Could Start For Neglected Horses

Help could be on the way for neglected horses in Saluda County

By: WJBF Staff | WJBF-TV
Published: October 20, 2008

(Aiken, SC) - Help could be on the way for these horses in Saluda County. Neighbors say the horses will die if they don't get help. They’re ribs are showing through the skin and their hip bones are protruding.

We showed our video to the owner of the Equine Rescue Farm in Aiken County.

Larkin Steele, Equine Rescue Farm: “They’re in bad shape. They are definitely in bad shape. Right now if they were fed appropriately, mash 3 times a day. They need care. They're not going to get any better without constant care. Do you want to try getting involved and handling it now? Yes. Because if they go even lower body weight there is more muscle mass that's going to be eaten at. It's going to be harder for their digestion to reboot itself.”

Complaints against the owner were filed in the spring but neighbors say he feeds them only occasionally.

Steele says as much as she wants to help, no one, including her can just go and take the horses.

Steele: “Because that would put anyone of us in a huge liability case because you went on the property without permission, you took property, regardless of how bad they're taking care of these animals.”

To get help for these horses, Steele says the Sheriff's Office would have to write the owner a ticket for animal cruelty and sign the horses over to her.

Deputies say they don't have the equipment to get the horses and no where to house them.
But Steele says she does and all she needs is the paperwork that gives her the right to take them.

Steele: “These boys are very expensive but they deserve the right care and if you can't afford it don't get it. It's that simple.”

Kind neighbors are feeding the horses but Steele says that could be a deadly mistake.

Steele: “You really don't know how much they're eating or if somebody else has done it. You don’t know if they're digestive system has been compromised so you could actually force a horse into colic and if nobody's there paying attention to it to begin with the horse could just lay down, roll, twist his intestines and die.”