South Carolina: starved horses update.

South Carolina case update. Slightly different versions.

Expert: More of SC ag official's horses starved [link]
MEG KINNARD | Aug 14, 2008

Remains indicate horses starved [link]
MEG KINNARD | Aug 15, 2008

Analysis of horse remains found on property managed by a former South Carolina agriculture official’s family indicates that some of the animals likely starved to death, according to a report released Thursday. Bone marrow fat levels in horse skeletons excavated from properties managed by James Trexler’s family were low enough to show the animals died of starvation, forensic veterinarian Melinda Merck said. She examined horse bones recovered earlier this year after authorities found malnourished horses on property belonging to Trexler, his mother and his brother. Bone marrow fat levels 60 percent or higher are considered normal, Merck said in her report. A horse leg bone excavated from the Trexlers’ land in Sumter measured around 31 percent, while part of another skeleton found at the family’s Richland County property measured less than 1 percent. “When the bone marrow fat is low, it indicates the animal died of end-stage starvation,” Merck wrote, adding that an animal could starve even with normal bone marrow fat levels. Remains from at least eight horses were examined from the two properties, including from several adults and a foal just a day or two old. One grave was at least 2 years old. Twenty-three malnourished horses were discovered on South Carolina properties leased by Hazelene and Terry Trexler, and five more were found on James Trexler’s property. Authorities seized an additional 17 horses linked to the Trexlers from a Richland County property. All three have been charged with multiple counts of ill treatment to animals. Hazelene and Terry Trexler also face animal-cruelty charges in Georgia, as well as charges they moved horses that had been quarantined. “Bone marrow is the last thing to go when you are starving,” Kelly Graham of the Humane Society of South Carolina said Thursday. “First weight loss, then muscle, then internal organs and then fat in bone marrow. So we know for certain by the percentages from the samples we took that these animals died from starvation.”

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