One positive thing, albeit darkly positive, to come out of this is it’s now public record that Alyssa Doering, DVM, and Jennifer Barrett, DVM, think shocking animals is perfectly acceptable.
Again, DVMs Alyssa Doering and Jennifer Barrett saw no abuse in that footage. Heck, they swore an oath to speak truthfully. It’s my hope that becomes part of Google results when their names are queried.
I’ve heard Dr. Barrett’s name before. Good lord. God forbid my mare ever need to go to the Marion duPont Scott Equine Medical Center (full-naming so everyone is clear on where Dr. Barrett practices…), but I will know who avoid if she does. Sickening.
I’m trying to figure the basis of that. You want a rope horse to keep the rope tight but shocking one through the breast collar would undoubtedly either send them backwards at a high rate of speed or up. Neither would be appropriate. I have no doubt some idiot has tried it though. Trainers were using tacks in the halters of western showmanship horses so nothing ceases to amaze me in the world. I’d say horse world but world will do just fine.
Sadly, it seems everyday we learn new ways to abuse horses. 2 vets seeing nothing wrong with electrical shocks to horses? How in God’s name did we get here???
This boggles my mind, why any professional would want to align themselves with this cruel behavior and call it acceptable or justifiable.
The For Dazzle FB page is now saying the trial will not resume until 9/30. The next week will be spent reviewing notes taken during the trial and providing more in-depth summaries of the testimony given. She also intends to obtain transcripts once they become available.
Somehow I missed this whole story until just today when someone posted a link in the Andrew McConnon thread. I cannot even believe my eyes that a veterinarian would do this to an animal in their care. This woman is a vile, evil and abusive and clearly gets pleasure out of torturing animals. After reading the legal documents linked earlier this year, there is no other conclusion to draw. JFC.
I can’t imagine how heartbroken these owners must to know what happened to their beloved horse.
The For Dazzle site put up a post about the testimony from Allie’s owner.
He was apparently involved in mounted patrol and carriage driving. Allie was a beloved pet for the grandchildren.
He unequivocally testified against Ashlee Watts. His testimony was that they visited Allie in the stall after her surgery and that the next day an unnamed vet, not Watts, called to tell them that Allie had passed from a seizure. He said that he was unaware of the hot shot use on Allie until the TBVME investigators called him.
According to the For Dazzle site the defense tried to question or imply that there had been euthanasia discussions with Watts. This was denied. He was handed a document (contents unknown) and portions of its contents were disagreed with. When asked about if Allie was a vocal horse, he answered no. When asked about the specific vocalizations, he testified to have hearing something like what was described before. When further questioned about the context of that statement he recounted a story about an incident while working the mounted patrol of a horse that made that sound after being hit by a bus.
So, it sounds like that was some pretty powerful testimony.
I once heard a horse scream when it got hit by a car. That’s a sound you don’t forget. (Horse did not survive)
The sound my horse made before he died from EHV I will never not hear that sound.
It was horrifying.
Yes (No?), you don’t forget it!
My mare screamed while birthing her filly (granted, a dystocia and a standing birth); it’s been 16 years, neither is alive now, but I still hear her whenever the subject of foals or foaling comes up and when I read this thread
For Dazzle has edited some of their previous reports with a few more details of testimony. I’m going to provide screenshots for those because they are very egregious.
Thank you Sdel for the update. I say WTF to Dr. Barrett.
It looks like Watts is getting very worried and very desperate.
It seems there were a couple of filings made.
An affidavit filled out by a local school administrator/high school English teacher and an accompanying brief. It looks like the intent is to parse the “knowingly and intentionally” language of the animal cruelty statute in order to suggest she didn’t break the law and the charges are inappropriate.
A subpoena for Ashlee Watts’ text records. I assume this has something to do with Allie’s owners testimony about communications with Watts. It seems a bit late for this….maybe should have been done before trial started, especially if you were going to make claims about what was said in communications.
You can find the full documents linked on the For Dazzle page. At this rate, I almost expect Watts will be stupid enough to take the stand and try to justify this incident.
My god - that’s horrifying.
No other repeatable words come to mind, except for, how the hell can anyone try to justify using a cattle prod, repeatedly, to get an ill horse to stand?
It’s sickening. It’s more common in the dairy industry after a cow gives birth if they don’t stand up then they get milk fever…
I remember as a child watching my uncle beat/prod the heck out of cows to get them to stand after birth. It pains me just to think about it.
I always think back would have it been really that hard to start and iv and run a bottle? This is why I am very anti-restriction for medications… give the farmers the tools they need to treat the animals instead of beat them to get the results. Now you can’t even get tomorrow dry cow treatment without a script - so let the cow suffer with mastitis instead…
Sorry a little tangent.
They can’t stand because they have milk fever.
Periparturient hypocalcemia.
Not enough calcium in the muscle cells to allow them to contract.
Shocking them won’t fix it, but a bottle or two of CMPK does wonders.
Even better if the dairyman can prevent it by dietary modification/supplementation in the days before calving.
Just popping in to say that cattle prods (hot shots) are present in almost every equine hospital l, however are used for VERY specific situations, such as a horse down in the trailer or a horse down in a stall that needs to get up to get to colic surgery. In a very busy clinic, I would say it gets maybe used 3 times a year, out of thousands of cases.
(Please no one take this to say I agree with this woman I think what she did is indescribable)
Trial resumes tomorrow.
It seems that the For Dazzle site has updated one of their posts with more detail/context from earlier in the trial. Summary as follows:
Defense opening statement compared hot shot use to a tracheotomy in an attempt to justify the medical necessity of using this device over 800 times on Allie. Mentioned 5 possible DVMs as defense witnesses. We’ve seen Doering and Barrett; also mentions in opening statements was a Kate Hackett DVM, Karyn Labbe DVM, and a Schnabel DVM.
Prosecution first witness Dr Vallon testified that the chain of command was Watts then Doering, then Technician (defense witness Fleming), then him. The medical record documentation was removed from him and Doering and Watts took over. Testified that he did not see seizure activity (listed as Allie’s cause of death). Estimated the hot shot was live for 50-80% of use.
Prosecution witness Dr. Dutton was the designated expert for hot shot use. Covered historical use in veterinary and production uses, education in use of the hot shot, etc. At some point the prosecution entered the Charlotte Dujardin incident into the record as an example that just whipping a horse 20+ times was considered actionable abuse from equine authority organizations as a comparison. Defense objected but was overruled. Defense insisted it was used like a tap, tap of a dressage whip and said the witness must not understand dressage/dressage training techniques. Insisted vets inflict pain in order to do their jobs as a justification.
So, looking forward to more updates. I’m trying very hard not to take the defense’s statements personally and keep in mind that they are getting all of this straight from Watts and that they are just doing their job. Bless them because I wouldn’t have to stomach to do it.
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