Horse Rancher Abandons 700 Head in Farm Foreclosure after Charged with 5 Counts of Animal Cruelty
This makes me absolutely sick. 700 Horses left…just left. I don’t know what makes me angrier, that the guy abandoned his animals, that he abandoned them after being charged with killing 5 horses through obvious means of cruelty and neglect, or that once his property was foreclosed no one even THOUGHT that 700 horses needed care in the hell-winters we’ve been having.
Now we’ve got an already strained state government having to apply for federal aid to AIRLIFT 200 bales of hay to the remaining 350 horses. Authorities estimate the rest have broken free of the penned property and gone wild to forage. I’d say it’s likely some have perished.
No. I think I know what makes me angriest. This guy, Leachman, guess what he’s being fined with? One year in jail and $1000 for each of the 5 horses in the original case. WHAT THE FUCK!?! FIVE YEARS IN JAIL AND $5000 FOR FIVE HORSES WHEN 700 HORSES ARE STARVING IN THE WILDS OF MONTANA BECAUSE THIS FUCK DECIDED HE WANTED TO MAKE SOME MONEY?
Something’s NOT RIGHT with this. I’m normally very reasonable, understanding, a farm is a farm, they’re animals, their purpose is for our betterment, etc, but this is EXCESSIVE. This is ABUSE. He apparently only raised the horses for their bloodline, was rather well known for it, but come to find out, the ones who don’t make the line are treated less than dog-meat. One horse had been walking on an exposed bone in a broken ankle for over a year and each of the five horses either had to be put down immediately or died very shortly of their injuries suffered under his “care”.
I think treatment of animals in such a cruel manner deserves a much harsher sentence…but as I write this I remember: he’s lost his horse farm. That was foreclosed on. How many millions were tied up in that? Hopefully, he didn’t have limited liability and lost every red, dripping, bloody dime on it and I hope, when he’s released from prison on “good behavior” or some other malarchy, I hope he has to shovel horse-shit for the rest of his life.
The bastard.
Dena Gray's Explorations and Nonsense 
Completely agree with you, this is absolutely disgraceful! Cannot understand how people could ever hurt animals!
At least the state’s taking over the care of the animals, now. I was shocked to find that they had been left for so long…you’d have thought that having a ranch that large would have needed farm hands to tend that big of a herd (or I guess, that many herds) so why didn’t they do anything? I wonder if there are laws in place that kept them from doing anything?
Yes, but I suppose if he’s been prosecuted for animal cruelty before, he may not have had farm hands, because he might not’ve cared whether they all got fed/watered, etc. when they were supposed to.
I don’t think he was prosecuted for animal cruelty before this instance and was, I believe, a respected quarterhorse breeder (though I doubt that anyone with 700 head had the ability to properly breed and control that many for a respected line, I am no expert by any means). Still, this is a mess. I can see that perhaps the land wasn’t foreclosed on until it had been abandoned, so the banks couldn’t take responsibility for the livestock. It’s a terrible situation.