Horses Taken into Custody

Imagine being tied up in a field. With no food. No water. In this heat.  This how the Livestock & Equine Awareness and Rescue Network found two horses in Mt. Pleasant on Friday.  Both were underweight and in heat distress.  One was down and took 30 minutes to revive enough to take to the trailer.

I’m not a person to get angry easily. But I can tell you, I became mad when I read the Post and Courier report about horses having to be taken into custody because of this abuse.  

The owner of the property, Rufus Manigault Jr., claims that the horses aren’t his, and he just let the owner put the horses in the field.  At the time of the article, the owner could not be contacted.  Manigault seems to think this absolves him of responsibility, while I think it puts guilt firmly on his shoulders.  If he knew of it, he should have stopped it.  Period.  And that holds true for all of us.

Tying up horses and just leaving them in a field is not acceptable in itself, much less leaving them without food and water.  Nor is simply turning them free when the owner feels he cannot pay for them anymore,  as did the previous owner of a rescue horse brought to Graymour Stables this past week.   Whiskey, a small Arab-mix bay, was found running along side a road in Georgia with a too small halter imbedded into his skin. Who are these people?  And why do they think this is ok? 

Thank goodness there are people like Liz Leonvacallo, a volunteer who helped rescue the two horses tied up in a field, and the family of Brianna, a teenage girl who adopted Whiskey and gave him a good home.  And thank goodness for the neighbors who Channel 2 News reports as having contacted the sheriff's department.  We need more people like them.  

If you  suspect any abuse, please contact the Livestock & Equine Awareness and Rescue Network at www.learnhorserescue.com