Economy has horse owners abandoning animals

Animals abandoned, underfed when bills become too much

In a bad economy, some horse owners who can't pay the bills are abandoning their animals to get rid of the responsibility of caring for them.

Public officials and horse-rescue groups talk about animals left behind in places such as national forests, near horse-riding trails or just tied to a gate at someone's house. Some are keeping their horses but are having trouble with the high cost of maintaining and caring for them. It has been a problem since the economy turned sour, and the people who deal with it say it's not getting better.

"It's a sad, sad situation," said Holly Marino, founder of Horse Rescue of North Scottsdale. "Horses are like kids; they have feelings and emotions. It's a very cruel thing to let them starve and go waterless, but some people don't have any choice."

Some people just take horses wherever they can and leave them. Some owners call the rescue agencies, which try to take in the animals. Rescue groups also can get horses that are seized by law enforcement in animal-abuse cases and from the state Department of Agriculture, which is in charge of handling stray or abandoned livestock. Horses taken by the department that are not claimed as strays go to auction.

A few months ago, about a half-dozen horses showed up in the Tonto National Forest near the Verde River northeast of Phoenix. They've been living there since then, obviously tame. They eat whatever they can and drink from the river. No one has come looking for them.

Colleen Madrid, the Cave Creek district ranger for the Tonto National Forest, is in charge of that part of the forest. She agrees that the economy is behind the abandoning of the horses. But she also said the people who leave them may be making the wrong assumptions.

"I would never think of abandoning my animal, but I suppose if you can't feed yourself, how can you feed a horse?" she asked. "People are under the assumption that animals can live in the wild. It's not easy on them. Oftentimes they wind up injured or dead. And they compete with native wildlife for food."

Some owners are losing their horses to law enforcement. The Pinal County Sheriff's Office has taken in about 25 horses since May in connection with six animal-neglect cases. Sgt. Stormee Wallace, who oversees the sheriff's mounted unit, said many of the animals were found hundreds of pounds underweight, their hooves overgrown and cracked.

"The owners say they're not being neglectful or they're trying to do the best they can," Wallace said.

In one case, a suspect had rescued more than a dozen horses from auction but "was neglecting them just as badly." Sheriff's officials found three partially burned horse carcasses on the woman's property, and the remaining animals were severely malnourished. The woman had been feeding 10 horses with one bale of hay a week, which is barely enough to properly feed one horse, Wallace said.

Sheriff's Office staff and volunteers have been caring for the seized animals with donated feed, veterinary care and other community resources channeled through the non-profit Pinal County Justice Foundation.

The aim is to nurse the horses back to health and put them up for adoption. At least half a dozen have been adopted out so far, including a 3-year-old filly that Wallace took in.

Heather Murphy, a Pinal County spokeswoman, said she understands the desperation of the current economy and urged that "people who feel they have no hope really need to get in touch with a rescue.

"The very last thing we want people to do is abandon their animals or continue to keep them in desperate situations."

Toni Leo of Whisper's Sanctuary, a horse refuge in Elgin in southern Arizona, said it can cost from $200 to $500 a month to board a horse. When the expenses are too much, people want the rescue groups to take the animals off their hands. But tight money is curtailing the donations that help the rescues handle the wave of animals needing a home, she said.

Another factor in the horse surplus: The slaughter of horses has been banned in the United States since 2007. Rescue groups worry, though, that some horses sold at auction wind up in slaughterhouses in other countries.

Leo said people who buy a horse need to understand that they will live for perhaps 30 years. She also said there's too much irresponsible breeding by people who may own some horses and breed them, thinking they can sell the offspring when there's really very little market for horses these days.

Not all of the people giving up horses just dump them and drive away. Many of the people who call Leo are upset about having to give up the animals they care about.

"Many of the people I talk to on the phone cry," she said. "The animals are like their children."