Re: RC: [arab-l] Re: Bill Sheets

[Mickie Newnam <akela@peoplepc.com>]

Jasmine,
If this has been discussed to death forgive me; I'm way behind!
We went down to the sale, looking for a horse for a boarder.  It was pathetic.
Especially since the horses had been at foster farms for 6 or 8 months and
didn't look much better than what we'd heard they were before.   Some of them,
anyway.  A boarder bought a yearling colt, actually the best of the yearlings.
he was the size of the 5-month old filly at our barn.  this colt had no idea
what grain was -- my friend had to literally put it in his mouth.  There were a
couple yearlings (I think) who were the size of Shetland Ponies.  I only saw
one or two horses I'd have even considered.
Sheets also bred papers, with no regard for the actual animals.  This colt at
our barn was club footed and parrot mouthed, and the guy bought him to use for
a breeding stallion (that's a whole different  story -- fortunately mother
nature took the decision out of his hands; one testicle was retained and the
other developed a tumor and needed to be removed so he was gelded).  Oh, and
IAHA did tell the new owners that they would transfer the papers though I'm not
sure if that ever came to pass.
I can't understand the reasoning behind starving or otherwise mistreating
animals, but especially on this large of a scale it's mind-boggling.
Mickie

Jasmine Cave wrote:

> anyone know anything about this?
> jasmine
> >
> >
> >Since many of you know the story, skip this if you wish.
> >
> >Bill Sheets was an Arabian 'collector', specializing in Al Khamsa
> bloodlines.  He was
> >convicted several times in Canada for neglect, since he kept his horses in
> appalling
> >conditions, failed to feed them properly, gave them no veterinary care.
> He was banned
> >from owning horses in Canada so he moved to a rural area in Southern Ohio.
>  Eventually
> >the conditions and starving horses came to the attention of the
> authorities (LOTS of
> >complaints) and his herd was seized.  The Humane Society took around 120
> starving
> >horses off his farm, some of which were in such bad condition that they
> had to be
> >carried.  He had at least 30 or more stallions and about 80 mares.  He
> didn't believe
> >in gelding anything.  I can testify as to the horrendous conditions
> because I toured
> >his farm pretending to be looking for a horse a couple of months before
> they were
> >seized.
> >He was convicted of neglect in a local court and banned from owning horses
> in that
> >county for several years.  He fought the conviction all the way to the
> State Supreme
> >Court, losing at every level, wasting tens of thousands of dollars on
> legal fees.
> >He could have kept those horses in comfort on the money he wasted.
> >It's pretty obvious he has some kind of mental block because he kept
> insisting
> >there was nothing wrong with any of his horses.  I saw them.  There was
> one mare
> >with a piece of wood sticking out of her skull, several with broken legs
> that had
> >healed crooked, many so emaciated they looked like skeletons.
> >I've heard he has moved to somewhere in the Appalacian area of eastern Ky
> where he
> >would get less attention.
> >Sadly, I've never been able to convince the Arabian Horse Registry to ban
> him from
> >registering any horses, at least, I've never heard they changed their mind
> about
> >banning him.
> >When he was charged, the registry had a list of around 250 horses
> registered to his
> >name, he could only account for about half of them.  The rest are probably
> dead
> >since he had a big pit on one of his farms where he dumped the bodies and
> bulldozed
> >over them.
> >
> >
> >Sue
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
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