Another horse dumped in the Desert

Well, we got in a new arrival today. She is a bay mare who wandered into Sandy Valley and was found by Sandy Valley Ranch, neighbors of Shiloh.

But, let me start at the beginning so you will all know why we are so mad.

Last week, Shiloh's rider, Sabine, who rides and cares for horses after work a few days a week, called Jill. At 6pm a man pulled up to Shiloh's gate with his truck, horse trailer, and a horse in the trailer. No phone call, no appointment, nothing. Just showed up. He had driven all the way from North Las Vegas out to Shiloh to "donate" this mare to us. Actually, he said that it was "his friend's horse" (we've all heard that before) that had been left at his boarding facility. He did not want to care or feed the horse, so his "friend" told him to either give the horse to Shiloh, or just dump it in the desert. Shiloh has made it our policy to not accept horses this way- with no warning, no owner responsibility. Sabine told him to turn around, drive back home, and call Animal Control about the horse or he needs to take on the responsibility and have the horse euthanised by a vet. He said he would do the right thing, but we had a very bad feeling that he was not going to. So, Sabine wrote down his license plate, a description of his rig, a description of the mare, and talked him into giving her his name.

Well, a week passed and here is the mare, the same horse, wandering in from the surrounding desert. The Brand Inspector from the Department of Agriculture was notified. Sally, Sabine, Eric, and Daria all drove over to pick the mare up, who was turned over to Shiloh for it's care, and they gave all of the man's information to the county. Shiloh is insisting that the Animal Control and the Dept of Ag do something about this man. It seems like whenever a horse is dumped, the county just lets it slide and Shiloh takes in the horse and the full financial responsibility and no one is ever prosecuted. Not this time, this time we are going to insist, or we will be contacting the local news about the situation.

It boggles the mind that people will actually dump an animal in the desert to die a slow and horrible death. It is in the upper 90's now, there is no water out there- but people don't care. This is the fifth horse in a few short months that has come to Shiloh after being dumped.