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Laura Steenrod was presented by the prosecution as an "expert witness".
Her testimony is the standard that the Turn-3 Ranch was held up to.
This set in place the new "standards" of practice for the horse
community. If you do not follow these standards, the court now has
authority to take everything. Laura Steenrod owns a Hunter/Jumper
Boarding facility. She testified that the standard there should be
applied to ALL horse operations. She set forth the following:
- Stalls must be STRIPPED completely daily
- Her horses are turned out for a few hours a day
- Water buckets are scrubbed DAILY
- Horse owners should be spending $500-$700 yearly for
veterinary costs even above and beyond regular maintenance
- Laura Steenrod has had 20 horses on the farm and her standard
should be held to 69 horses
- Horses living outside with run-ins are "not cared about"
- Horses should NEVER get lice, as that is indicative of lack of
care
- Ms. Steenrod has NEVER had a horse die, they have only humanely
euthanized 2 horses in her entire lifetime of owning horses!
- A pasture horse that does nothing other than eat should be
treated EXACTLY the same as a performance horse. This includes
farrier work, feed and nutrition, veterinary care etc...
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The Reality:
- Horses survive outside just fine! Nature provides
defenses for the cold in the form a winter coat
- Barns are breeding grounds for disease. Moist warm
environments contribute to many communicable diseases.
You can never completely sterilize a barn
- State statues for shelter include lean-tos, rolling
hills and tree lines.
- Because a lean-to is not pretty does NOT mean a horse
will not stand in it
- Round bales of hay are preferable for a large herd as
this reduces time spent and allows a manager/owner to focus
on other stuff. They are also preferable in the cold
as it allows horses 24 hour access to hay, which provides
calories to burn for warmth.
- Most horses on round bales of hay would prefer to put
their butts to the wind and eat over going into the lean-to.
- Old and young horses are much more susceptible to weight
loss in cold Michigan winters. It was testified to by
ALL veterinarians including the prosecution's that sometimes
horses lose weight for many reasons beyond starvation or
neglect.
SEE
ARTICLES PAGE
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Animal Control's OWN veterinarian of 29
years testified that Turn-3 was NOT an abuse case.
His recommendations were to monitor Mercier and make
sure he was doing what was right, including taking the
injured horses to Dr. Irving's and feeding the few old
and skinny horses extra. He also stated that 30
days of warm weather would fix the problems and he had
been seeing horses like this all winter, due to the
harshness of 5-6 weeks of freezing temperatures.
Dr. Sray has been a horse owner himself
for his entire life.
Turn-3 was NOT a large client of Dr.
Sray's. In fact he testified he had been to the
farm up to 6 times in 2 years. Turn-3 was NOT a
big source of income for Dr. Sray. |
This is a response email from Michigan Humane Society.
Now debate whether it will affect you. It is NOT true that they were
convicted, but Humane Society would sure love to see it:
"Thank you for
taking the time to write the Michigan Humane Society. In the case described
below, the owners of the horses were convicted of Animal Cruelty, and their
case is being used by government officials to help strengthen horse abuse
laws in the state of Michigan. If you do have any additional questions
regarding the case, please contact Jackson County Law Enforcement at
517.768.7900" |
