The Mares from Marseilles

Before 
Named after presidents' wives and daughters, the ragtag band of mares and foals impounded by the Hooved Animal Humane Society with help from Lazy Maple Equine Rescue looked anything but presidential back in June 2005.  Illinois Department of Agriculture investigators had been monitoring the situation for several months, issuing notices to improve conditions for the live horses on the property and to remove the dead ones.  Finally it was time to act, and scores of volunteers showed up with trailers, fence panels and even roping horses to help impound any horses with body condition scores of 3 or less on this 143-acre mostly wooded property.  However, the owner's obstruction of justice meant only four mares, two foals and one stallion were removed that day.

After
Just when things were beginning to look promising for the herd, the owner appealed the impoundment and a deal was struck with the Department that traded relinquishment of the mares and foals for recovery of the stallion.  On the same day, the palomino mare went into shock and was humanely euthanized.  Necropsy showed the most severe case of parasitism the University of Madison-Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine had ever seen.  Thankfully, the remaining horses have responded well to careful, multiple dewormings combined with strategic refeeding and have regained their weight and bloom.  Now the hard part begins:  the gentling of horses that have never been touched by humans. We hope Hillary and Chelsea, Rosalynn and Amy, and Jackie come around quickly.