Re: abuse-very long

["Maggie Mieske" <mmieske@netonecom.net>]

There is such a thing as "too much" when it comes to animal control as well....we have a problem county in which some of our clients live and last fall we experienced a unique situation where a client moved and the new neighbors noticed a lame horse she had...Nelson had been working on this horse for a long time (therapeutic shoeing, etc.) and it had cost the lady plenty even with generous discounts on labor and only charging her materials.  She takes on a lot of old and decrepit or problem horses.  Animal control decided this horse did not have "quality of life" and told her she HAD to take her to MSU....not a cheap endeavor.  This lady HAD vet and farrier care all along.  X-rays at MSU did reveal that her coffin bone was getting worse (we had some done at the start of her care) so she did make the decision on her own to put her to sleep but animal control had already told her she would HAVE to.  What upset us was that, yes, it would have been more humane to put the horse to sleep in the first place but that was not OUR place or our business.  She did NOT neglect that mare and did everything possible to make her comfortable...she was spoiled quite rotten in fact.  One of the first things those AC officers did (they trespassed when no one was home) was try to offer the mare GRAIN and in their complaint they noted how long it took her to come to them and get the grain (which she was NOT supposed to have!).  Here in Michigan we either have counties with NO animal control at all or with animal control like I've just described.  So... be careful what you wish for!!  :)   Your case was an obvious lack of care and definitely neglectful but how many of us would get a visit because we have an old, skinny horse or lame horse in our pasture and people are uncomfortable looking at it?  Sheesh!  Anyway, just thought I'd share this experience for the heck of it...

Maggie