Hungry Horses [link]
Cheryl Lasseter | Sep 17, 2008
Joseph Tucker of Church Road in Fannin admits his horses are hungry, but he says they're not starving. 3 On Your Side saw two of his horses Wednesday, and neither of them looked healthy.
"Any time they lose weight their ribs are gonna show," he told us.
Tucker says he doesn't have enough grass to keep them fat. He says he feeds them horse feed every day, but right now he can't provide enough grass because new development behind his property is eroding his land.
"There was a creek taking water all around me, now it's washing the property away," he says.
Tucker says an animal control officer came to his residence on Monday. He told the officer he was making plans to move the horses to a bigger pasture on Holly Bush Road next week. Tucker told the officer he had arranged for a veterinarian to visit his home Wednesday evening to assess the horses' health.
As we were talking, Tucker's son approached and advised his father not to speak to our news crew.
"They just want to show their side of the story," the son said. Tucker initially said he wanted to continue talking to us, then changed his mind.
We talked long enough to learn that Tucker has owned one of the horses for six months, long enough to breed a mare. Rankin County Animal Control tells us he owns three horses and one colt.
Animal Control says, while the horses may be eating, they shouldn't be as thin as they are. Animal Control is waiting to hear back from the veterinarian. If they don't hear back by Monday, September 22, the horses will probably be seized.
WHAT?! These horses are NOT malnourished, not even CLOSE to emaciated. Yes, they look to be a little underweight, but not in danger. Tucker's son was right to be concerned. The clearly horse-ignorant reporter was gunning for a sound byte, a slip, something to make the owner into a heartless abuser rather than the victim he seemed to be in this situation.
Cheryl, you made yourself look like a fool to all of us who know horses.
If Rankin County Animal Control chooses to seize these horses, there will be public outrage.
These two show a horse that is slightly under ideal weight, maybe. Hard to tell at this distance. But if it were malnourished, you would be able to see signs.
Another of the horses. Most of the video, he is in shadow, but you can see him walk and he also does not seem to be more than slightly underweight.
A third horse pictured, pinto or paint, was mainly obstructed by foliage and I didn't screencap the image, but you can see it in the video. Nothing said "malnourished" in any of the footage.
(Hey Cheryl, that's three horses, not two ... did you perhaps mistake one "dark colored" horse for another? I'd like to know what vet school you went to—what makes you qualified to deem a shiny, fed horse "unhealthy" from a distance?)
You bet I sent an email ... will keep you all posted on any responses.
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