Hello all,
I’ve just finished reading up on Ashlee Watts and her animal abuse trial (videos are terrible). I know USEF can’t ban if it happened on private property, but is A&M considered private property in this case even though they are on public land? Can USDF? Just me trying to understand why nothing has happened yet.
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Maybe they are waiting on the outcome of the felony criminal trial that will be in September. The legal actions currently taken were to remove her license. Since it seems she still arguing that she did nothing wrong in civil courts about her license, I assume she may actually sit for a criminal jury trial.
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I just read the Veterinary Board’s case notes about Watts torturing Allie to death. That woman is a perverse monster.
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Probably, it makes me sad though.
I would think with the video of her electrocuting a horse in a sling 1000 times would be enough. She competed PSG the month after she was indicted. She’s just running around doing her thing.
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You should add horse abuse to the title.
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There is so much about this story that I cannot. I cannot fathom how any healthcare provider could do this to a horse in distress. How anyone observing could allow this done to a horse in distress. How anyone could defend someone who did this. How a person who would do this is out training and riding and showing.
I just cannot.
I also could not watch a video of it. I read the testimony and have felt sick to my stomach since then.
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There were clips of it on YT and TikTok included as parts of other people’s podcasts/commentary, if anyone is really compelled to try to go watch any of it. Should be searchable with Ashlee Watts as the subject.
What I’m saying is I cannot watch a video of that being done to a horse already in distress at a care facility. It’s just beyond what I can look at.
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Based on information and a horrific video, she shocked a horse in a sling with a cattle prod over 1,000 over a period of over 40 minutes to try and get it to stand after a leg surgery, eventually resulting in the horse having seizures and dying. Nobody tried to stop her. She maintains she did nothing wrong and is trying to get her license back.
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Sounds like she deserves to burn in hell, or at the end of a cattle prod.
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COTH did a story on her years ago
https://www.chronofhorse.com/article/watts-does-her-research-to-take-region-9-dressage-title/
But not about torturing a patient.
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You are correct; it is not about her torturing a patient.
How do people, in a veterinary hospital, stand by and watch this but do NOTHING to stop it? They also should be held accountable. This is just a horrid story and the fact that the “vet” feels she did nothing wrong is really impossible to comprehend.
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I think A&M needs to take a look at their ethics classes.
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It really makes me wonder about all those people who sent their beloved horses to AandM and what kind of treatment those horses received after a surgery. Why do they even have a cattle prod? The school tried very very hard to suppress all of this.
Does anyone know how the video got out in the first place? The official report has no mention of electrocuting the horse.
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A vet tech pulled the CCTV recording annd submitted it for internal review/discipline at TAMU, and then when nothing happened there they forwarded the video to the Veterinary Review Board. The Veterinary Board forwarded to the local prosecutor, which has resulted in criminal charges.
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I did read that. Thank God. I read the testimony and the number of medical care professionals who were there and stood by. Wow. Now, with that said…I was at Quarter Horse Congress in 1996 and found a horse in a stall with a bit in its mouth and tied between its legs and went to the show office in distress and told them what I found and they looked at me like…“And???” And I walked out and to my car and have never returned. I now feel I was a coward. Why did I do nothing?
So there.
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What is her excuse as to why she thought it was acceptable to use a hot shot 1000 times on an injured horse? What was she even trying to accomplish?
Most cases of abuse you can at least see what the person was intending to have happen, even if their means of obtaining it were awful, but I don’t even know what she thought this would accomplish.
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To get the horse to stand allegedly.
