Chip and Dale

HAHS Saves Horses: An Impoundment Story 

Before
 The phone calls about a pair of horses that were thin and living in a small paddock with no food, water, or shelter began coming in during the month of January.  After repeated visits by our local state-approved humane investigator failed to motivate their owner to provide them with consistent food, water or shelter, we took the next step: writing an official notice of violation.  No improvements had been made by the time we returned so we called the Illinois Department of Agriculture Bureau of Animal Welfare and asked if we could impound the horses.  Their investigator agreed that the horses were in bad shape (and getting worse) and that the owner wasn't complying with our recommendations so an impoundment was authorized.  With the assistance of the county sheriff's department, the pair (who by this time were becoming emaciated) were loaded into the HAHS trailer and brought back to the farm.

After 
Once on the HAHS farm, both horses received a complete physical examination where it was discovered that Chip had a heart murmur and was quite a bit older than Dale.  While HAHS slowly began to rehabilitate these starved horses back to health-including trimming their long overdue feet, giving them vaccinations and dewormers, providing dental care, and giving them wholesome feed as well as small amounts of fresh spring grass-the owner finally took interest in them and appealed the impoundment.  However, we had built a solid case around these horses using pictures, investigation reports, and feed samples and the judge denied his appeal.  Thanks to a recent amendment to the Illinois Humane Care for Animals Act, the previous owner then had to pay for their care while at our farm during the appeal process.