Almost $135,000 to care for 69 horses for 4 months. Horses then sent to auction looking like this – Pricelessly shameful

Before Seizure:   

At auction:

                          

  

Jackson County Michigan dismissed the opinions of their own animal control veterinarians.  They dismissed the opinions of the first animal rescue group called in, and then shopped for another that would agree with them.

Pages of photos that are must see!

Horses at Turn 3 Ranch

Photos of horses 1 week after seizure

Jackson County’s Care of Turn 3 Ranch horses

Visit www.glhorsetruth.com for the complete story.

This happened to Turn Three Ranch, the owners of Treasured, Sky High Fame, and Buggy full of Money. Source : click here

speaker and founder of Faces of Agriculture, which puts the human element back into food production. Find out more at www.FacesOfAg.com, or e-mail trent@loostales.com.

I HAVE said it before, but I have never said it louder: The true danger of the urbanization of America has nothing to do with paving prime farmland with concrete and everything to do with the urbanization of our nation’s thinking.

We’ve all voiced our frustration about the kid who doesn’t understand where his milk comes from, but the disconnect truly runs much deeper.

I was recently contacted about an “abuse of justice” in Michigan. While investigating the original incident, I have since learned about two cases in Michigan that started in a similar manner.

The first one involved the Mills family in the thumb of Michigan. One day this past March, during an illegal search of the Mills family farm, a dead horse was found.

In what was recorded as a bad winter in Michigan, the family was waiting for the ground to thaw in order to bury the horse. In case you don’t know, it is virtually impossible to get a rendering truck to pick up a dead horse, so waiting was the only real option.

After discovering the dead horse, felony animal abuse charges were filed against the entire family, and the oldest daughter lost her crown as county 4-H queen. I need to emphasize that she lost her title based on alleged charges of animal abuse.

During the course of the summer, all felony animal abuse charges were dropped, primarily because the judge in the case happened to raise sheep, and the arguments she heard made sense as to the normal care of livestock on a farm.

Unfortunately, because of the publicity of the event, the Mills family still feels the glare of community members that consider them to be animal abusers, and this is despite the outcome of the trial.

The second case is still in the court system, and at this point, the two individuals involved have not been so lucky as to find anyone in the judicial system who understands livestock agriculture.

Matt Mercier and Jim Henderson have built a herd of racing horses — rather, horses that compete in barrel races. In March, the two men reportedly had 69 horses on the farm they lease near Grass Lake in Jackson County, Mich.

I traveled to Michigan several weeks ago for a speaking engagement, but I had intentions of going to Grass Lake to research this case myself. Upon arriving in Michigan, I casually polled people about the Grass Lake case. Everybody I asked had heard about it, and they all (I am talking about ag folks now) indicated that the situation sounded awful.

Come to find out, even though the criminal trial is scheduled for Dec. 3, the court of public opinion has already convicted these guys. I, however, from firsthand experience and information I gathered about the situation, found these two guys to be poor managers but far from animal abusers.
You can find statements like the following in the press since the March impounding of the horse farm. Director of Jackson County Animal Control Kim Luce said, “The survival rate right now is pretty good. There are still exceptions when we start treating, such as worming them can cause adverse reactions.”
Luce told the first horse rescuer, Bradley Chaltry, and the press that the horses had not been fed or watered for six months. Chaltry, who owns Ponies are Us and Ratcliff Animal Rescue Services, made the following testimony in court:
“Yeah, ain’t been fed and watered for six months. At that point, I was wanting to breed my horses to it because you got a great horse if you don’t have to feed and water it for six months and it’s still alive. I mean, pardon me for that, but �”
At that point, Chaltry also said, still under oath, that after being called to come and assist with these allegedly severely starving horses, “We were wondering kind of as to why we were there.”
Chaltry indicated that 90% of the horses were in ideal condition, and only four were thin due to normal winter conditions combined with age factors, a couple of worming issues and one injury.
Dr. Bob Shray, a large animal veterinarian of 28 years, testified that nothing was occurring on this farm other than normal animal husbandry and a lack of picking up junk. Shray reminded the court that any time you have a living animal, there is a chance that it could die. Despite the testimony of an industry professional, the court felt it knew better how animals should be cared for. If a veterinarian isn’t able to determine the well-being of a horse, how can someone who has no training or experience in the field? Yet, these folks may be calling the shots that affect the future of food production in this country.

Reports were that the Jackson County Animal Control did not like the report either of these professionals gave to the court, so they replaced both of them. It is said that they found a replacement animal rescue organization that viewed the negative press as a potential revenue harvest of human emotions.

Among them was Laura Steenrod of Leelanau Horse Rescue, who stepped in and took over management of the horses. Incidentally, her operation is 200 miles away from the farm. Steenrod admitted her intentions to the press in saying, “I’ve probably tried to field over 100 phone calls in the last 24 hours. … The primary concern at this time is monetary donations.”
I see this as the most serious case of legal abuse I have ever personally witnessed. Two individuals have more horses than anybody in a community that thinks the horses can be given personal attention. The judge, in a civil judgment, indicated that all horses should have a stall and that maybe even the used blankets, as opposed to new ones, contributed to mistreatment.
Based on this civil judgment hearing, the judge gave the Jackson County Animal Control authority to seize all equipment from the farm, including $15,000 worth of horse tack plus pickups and trailers. What role does this equipment play in an animal abuse case, and why is it able to be offered up as sacrifice in this case?
There is a sign at the front gate of the farm today that reads: “No trespassing. Visitors by appointment only by calling Leelanau Horse Rescue, or send your donations directly to this address.” I called Steenrod and tried to schedule an appointment. She told me she had turned custody back over to animal control three months ago. When I asked her why the sign was still up asking for donations, she told me she needed to get that down. I inquired as to whether donations were still coming in, and she said, “Well, yes, some of them take a while to trickle in.” Of course, fund-raising in the name of animal welfare never seems to end.
The bottom line to this saga is that two individuals are facing prison time because they were treating horses like horses instead of like the family dog. The facts I have presented were gathered from local cattle producers who understand that what is happening to these two guys could happen to any livestock producer.
So, where is the uproar by the local livestock owners? Where is the Michigan Department of Agriculture? Oh, wait. The department merely said it has no control over local animal control officials.
Urbanization is coming to your area sooner than you think. Wouldn’t you rather fight it somewhere other than your own soil? Mercier and Henderson understand that thanks to the oldest school known to mankind — the school of hard knocks.

The December 3rd hearing was postponed to early January.  I don’t think that an actual trial date has been set.  I have heard that a different judge will be hearing the case.

Donuts and T-shirts anyone?

From: Turn 3 Ranch v. JCAC Blog

Some of the charges were posted on an internet message board:

Here is the break down as what the county is justifying the 143,000 for6000 in volunteer medical expenses (apparently they got hurt on the farm)
1300 for t-shirts with the rescue logo
500 for cell phone overages
736 for photo boards
4200 in feed (what happened to all the donations?)
89 to the NOAA center… (???)
32,000 in animal control over time fees (including kennel help and people who answer phones)
31,000 in animal control wages (including kennel help and people who answer phones)
760 for misc things (tarps, extension cords, steel tent pegs, hoses)
95 service call for a vet twice in the same day.
85 for necropsy
80 for necropsy
350 because the necropsy was for a legal case
274 for a whole bottle of dermosidan (sp)
22,000 a month to feed them until the criminal charges have gone through
3500/month for misc medical billsthey want to provide every horse with 1/2 bale a hay per day (some horses will get 1 whole bale a day) 6 round bales PER day in additions to the square bales a day. (justification for the 22,000 they say they need to pay for feed)
They also say it takes them 9 hours/day to feed.Don’t forget $100 to Laura Steenrod for hauling fees.$241 for tractor fuel on 5/28 and $373 again on 7/16!Oh and $320 for hay on 6/1 AND $640 on 6/1 AGAINAnd $660 for hay on 6/28 AND $310 on 6/28 AGAIN.

But wait.. $1750 for hay on 7/18!!!Oh and $2500/month to Great Northern Sentry for NIGHTTIME SECURITY AGENT. Now keep in mind they leave the lights (ALL OF THEM) on 24 hours a day, on my electric bill.

The above may be hearsay, you can argue … or you can go to www.glhorsetruth.com and look at the actual bond request from Animal Control.

I can’t find the charge for t-shirts on the bond request, but it appears that repeated charges for a quantity of 25 delivered rolls is probably donuts. 

More tidbits from the bond request:

Here are some interesting figures.

Since 3/21/07 they have had 349,600 pounds of hay delivered.

At the high end of 2.5% of body weight and assuming they ALL weigh 1000# (weanlings/yearlings etc.) the horses should have consumed 207,000 pounds for 4 months

This is only what they say are expenditures. Again, what about the donations!

Another crazy thing was the medical costs. We stipulated to $1817.10 which was they spent. Even though it was all to Dr. Hammer and he never provided information as to WHAT he actually did. The receipts they provided us only state a number of hours he was at the farm @ $95/hour. They of course did bill us for medicines. 20 horses received tetanus toxoid vaccines. No others, just tetanus. No reason why listed???

Hammer was there 3/27, 4/4, 4/26, 5/31, 6/6, and 6/21. It was a $35 farm call plus $95/hour.

They apparently did a lot of sedating. 25 ml Domperidone. A WHOLE BOTTLE of Dormosedan. Tobugesic. Xyla-Ject. Acepromazine. 100 needles and 80 syringes!

MSU charged AC $350.00 for a “legal charge necropsy” for Elvis in addition to $85 gross necropsy and $120.00 full necropsy. A necropsy equaled $555.00.

AC also bought 20 syringes and and 36 shots of Oxytocin from Crosroads Animal Hospital in Jackson on 5/1.

I can’t make these figures up. They are directly from the reciepts the Prosecution provided.

Here’s some more information for you:

The first week of seizure 6 AC employees worked a combined time of 195.7 hours BEYOND their regular schedules

6 employees of AC worked OVERTIME:

4/2-4/15: 93.6 hours
4/16-4/29: 107.5 hours
4/30-5/13: 159.2 hours
5/14-5/27: 139.0 hours
5/28-6/10: 172.3 hours
6/11-6/24: 123.2 hours
6/25-7/8: 174 hours
7/9-7/19: 99 hours

A grand total of time spent in 4 months BEYOND Wheaton being there 8 hours per day: 1263.5 hours
Total overtime $ requested by prosecution: $27,864.21

Here’s a kicker the Judge bought: Heather Wheaton apparently worked 132 hours in a 2 week period! Not once, but twice! C’mon!

Jennifer Lamp and Kim Luce asked and received a total of $63,596.17 for Animal Control employees in a 4 month period! That is $16,000 per month to feed round bales to horses and clean a maximum of 5 stalls!

You also have to believe that every single employee of AC was at the farm that much? Yeah right. In the 2 weeks of seizure the Kennel help (2 employees) and the CLERK spent 73.7 hours there BEYOND the working at the pound?

No wonder Jackson County Animal Shelter smells so bad… The kennel cleaners were hanging out at the Turn 3 Ranch making $16.65 per hour and the clerk who answers the phone was making $19.24 per hour! These are their own figures!

There you have it. Do some homework on this case before jumping to conclusions. Things just aren’t right in this picture.

Posted by xpButtercup at 8:50 PM

I highly recomend reading the full court  testimony of Mr. Chaltry who was from the first rescue organization that was called in.  If the implications weren’t so sinister, it would be more entertaining than adventures with the Keystone Cops:

  click here

From the comments section, I feel that this is worth repeating:

When I look at the case in Michigan, wouldn’t it have been so much better to work with the owners to correct perceived problems. In these types of cases involving large herds, there needs to be a non profit organization that can provide temporary stewardship – kind of like a Mare Stare type organization can can also act like a probation officer in order to provide both monetary help and guidance, but with the power to ensure that things stay on track. I don’t know how you keep corruptness out of animal rescue as long as there is money involved. In Michigan, it appears that they took a herd that was 90% healthy, gave them deplorable care, and then sold them at auction. How many of them went to slaughter? Along with these proceeds, there was an alleged half million in donations for the rescue group involved, a judgement for nearly $135,000 for the County, possibly the farm, and all of its equipment. Jackson County Michigan also sells animals from pound seizures to research labs. How hypocritical is that? Voluntary surrender is one thing, but there needs to be a lot more accountiblity when it comes to trying to seize animals. There also needs to be laws in place against releasing details and personal information on the accused before they are convicted in a court of law. I see no reason for creating a media frenzy other than to pull at the heart strings of the public in an effort to get donations. It may turn out that the accused is completely innocent, but they still get the donations out of it, don’t they? Animal abuse is an issue that probably inflames hatred more than the abuse or killing of human beings. The general public will always assume guilt. Leslie, is it time for a whole new type of animal assistance organization that County Animal Control Divisions can work with?Comment by kswatcher — December 20, 2007