A Lipizzan’s Tragic Death Sparks Calls for New Regulations
Thornton of Equivale in Florida for twenty years since he was a three-year-old. Jean trained him to Grand Prix and earned her USDF medals on him, all the way to gold. He learned to drive and excelled at demon- stration events and later became a fantastic school- master. Unfortunately, Jean found it difficult to lease or sell him as a sound 23-year-old as he wasn’t ready to retire. “Three years ago I tried everything to find a local rider for him and even tried to lease him, but I had no luck,” Jean recounts. Eventually she connected with a woman in Virginia who was excited to learn lower-level dressage with him. “It was to be his final, permanent home and the situation seemed ideal,” she contin- ues. “And I knew her trainer, who gave her a great reference.” It was a difficult choice as he was her once-in-a-lifetime horse. For the next three years she heard
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frequently from his new owner, receiving plenty of good reports about Lou’s welfare even as recently as last September. The woman had put Lou at her rescue and retirement operation called Peaceable Acres. But on October 20, tragic news spread through the horse world that the same rescue operation was in deep trouble, and horses and other animals were allegedly being starved to death. Jean was on a plane the next day to try and find Lou. “What I found when I arrived was a complete
nightmare,” she says. According to The Culpeper Star- Exponent, authorities arrived first on October 19 and removed more than 100 animals, including 71 horses in varying stages of emaciation and neglect. They also found six dead horses, one dead donkey, many dogs and cats and chickens. The condition of the animals living in their own feces and filth was deplorable. The woman responsible was initially charged with 27 misdemeanor animal cruelty charges. Someone forwarded Jean a photo of Lou stand- ing in his stall in August, sadly looking like a skel- eton. As of early December, she still has not been able to locate Lou and has assumed the worst. “I’ve
58 January/February 2016
onversano II Aloha II, a 26-year-old Lipizzaner stal- lion (by Conversano II Erica), was owned by Jean
been working with the local authorities, and many are trying to help me, but the large number of surviv- ing animals is enormous. They’ve had their hands full trying to identify horses and treat those who aren’t past the point of return. There were many that had to be euthanized during those first three days of discov- ery,” Jean reports, having witnessed the facility and the conditions firsthand. “And there were quite a few Warmbloods there for retirement or breeding, many of whom still have not been found,” she adds. Her reaction to this recent tragedy sent Jean on a mission to research how and why this could have happened. What she learned was eye-opening. “First, I learned that there appears to be no licensing for setting up a non-profit animal rescue operation. No credentials are required,” she says. “Second, there is no database for people convicted of animal abuse like we have for sex offenders. The FBI has announced that as of January 2016, they will start a national database of convicted felons for animal abuse, and felons will stay in there for three years.” Such a data- base, she says, is almost useless since
animal abuse is usually considered a misdemeanor and so most abusers won’t even make it into the data- base. The third problem she uncovered was that the definition of abuse of a horse as a farm animal is more lax than that of a dog or cat, with a lot of gray area in the law. That makes it much more difficult for authori- ties to act in time to save suffering equines. “There is so much that needs to change in our
country, and every state has their own laws,” Jean says with determination. “Taking on the whole country to change the laws is too much, so first I will focus on Florida law which is where I live. I will however pursue introducing a long-term nationwide database of animal abusers.” Jean’s mission to make a difference is commend-
able, and she invites others who are interested in help- ing to get in touch with her via email at
equivalejean@gmail.com.
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