WKRN news has pics from the accident and it looks to be a stock trailer. Hopefully some charges for something will come out of this.
[QUOTE=7HL;6086169]
Maybe the recent ARA needs to get their propaganda and misinformation straight.[/QUOTE]
Or maybe the owner needs to get HIS propaganda and misinformation straight. The initial reports quoted HIM as saying they were being shipped to Texas. In the next round, he changed his mind and said they were being shipped to OK.
Whaaaat?? He didn’t know where his own horses were going?
That stretches the bounds of my credibility a good bit.
Bluey, tell ya what: rent a cattle trailer for a day and shoot us some video of you loading 38 horses onto it. Even if they’re teeny-tiny foundation QH, it’s gonna be TOO MANY and it’s gonna be UNSAFE.
This explains why the ARAs are coming out in force.
The Humane Society of the United States says it has been reported to them that the majority of the horses had green tags, a typical indicator they are bound for slaughter.
from:http://www.wkrn.com/story/16531100/overturned-cattle-truck-closes-both-directions-of-i-40?hpt=us_bn5
accident
Well, I know this guy and he’s not your honest upstanding citizen. He doesn’t want folks drawing attention to what he does. I mean, if I were shipping out a load that size, I would not want it going through downtown Nashville on the interstate (as this trailer had to do) in daylight-----I’d ship out in the darkness also. There are folks like me on the road that might see it and make a call to the authorities. Over the yrs he has sold drugged green horses to totally inexperienced people-------I know because I picked up at his farm and boarded a couple of them for folks. And because of all the kill buyers/dealers around here, when someone calls me about boarding I ask where is their horse now---------especially if they just bought it--------because of these dishonest guys. And, those horses have to be quarantined —IMO—before they go to anyone’s private facility.
It’s a SEMI trailer…when hitched to the appropriate rig turns into an 18 wheeler.
Not your run of the mill goose neck designed to be pulled by a pickup truck, close to twice the length of said regular stock trailer.
In any case…the assumption when from the information of lifestock/cattle trailer to double decker. Which - as we now know from photographic evidence - is false.
Also, the original report - the one in the OP stated the driver may have fallen asleep (Ok, he probably did, but still, it’s assumption at this point)
So, unless the horses put the truck over the weight limit, where the horses were headed is irrelevant. If they were headed to the moon, it’s nobody’s business.
Now, charge the man with everything you can throw at him that he has actually done wrong by the letter of the law: driving, rig condition etc…
You may however not charge him with things that are only offensive in your opinion.
That principle is really neat, because it protects everybody from transgressions
of overzealous neighbors.
Ch 5 just said that charges are pending against the driver-----but not the owner for obviously overloading the trailer? AND LIL’ TEX IS PAINTED ON THE TOP OF THE TRUCK THAT WAS SHOWN IN THE NEWS. I knew it was him! Scumbag!
YES!!!
For all of you that complain the horses were going to slaughter…
Buy them ALL up and take care of them.
he is conducting legal business.
PROOF the trailer was overloaded!
I am pretty sure the authorities are more interested in violations of that kind than what is in the truck.
And again, because he deals in horses is not making him anything but a dealer.
There are many reasons to put the rig on the road at night. Not just busy-body soccer moms and NIMBYs.
I’m not up to date on the most current slaughter laws. Could someone briefly bullet point what laws have possibly been broken? Or is this just some guy trying to make a living in an business people don’t like?
Yes, this looks like a discussion to me.
One person mistakenly said the trailer was a double decker. In the mention of the tags, they were called auction or slaugther type tags. What’s wrong with that? It seems like a sharing of information to me; obviously nobody involved in this thread has personally verified any of this information, right? If any of us were there, we wouldn’t be HERE, having this discussion.
I am not an AR activist, although I am involved pretty heavily in horse rescue (years on the board of directors, foster filly in my pasture as I type). I’m doing my part, and either way, I have a right to an opinon on the matter, same as everyone else. Until someone can show me otherwise, I don’t think there is any way to safely and humanely transport 38 horses in one trailer. If I’m wrong, show me video of horses being safely transported that way. Again, this incident occured within approximately 30 miles of the farm in Lebanon. Regardless of his load, the driver’s DOT physical should be verified, as should compliance with all DOT transport regulations, as well as TDOT rules.
Again, they give driver’s and passengers’ names for pretty much every accident that occurs arond here. Nothing unusal there.
Since someone apparently isn’t reading for comprehension…we (or at least most of us) aren’t complaining that they were going to slaughter. We care about the conditions they were in on the way to slaughter. Eat all the horse you want. Just treat them with dignity and respect (i.e. humanely) while they’re still alive.
[QUOTE=7HL;6087002]
YES!!!
For all of you that complain the horses were going to slaughter…
Buy them ALL up and take care of them.[/QUOTE]
It’s rare I agree wholeheartedly with 7HL. But read that. You don’t want horses being sold to slaughter? That’s nice. Buy 'em yourself and you can pay for their care. Otherwise, it’s none of your business. There’s no evidence he stole the horses or defrauded anyone to get them, he’s not a race owner on a track with a zero-tolerance policy (where stabling and racing your horse is consent NOT to sell to slaughter–tracks are a business, they get the set the conditions, don’t like it, don’t race there). He was shipping a load, the driver fell asleep, some horses were killed, the others got sent on to wherever they were going, which isn’t anyone’s business.
[QUOTE=subk;6087012]
I’m not up to date on the most current slaughter laws. Could someone briefly bullet point what laws have possibly been broken? Or is this just some guy trying to make a living in an business people don’t like?[/QUOTE]
I can only speak for myself, but from the OPs link, this is what lead me to believe laws/regulations had been broken:
‘The highway patrol said their investigation is ongoing and that charges are pending.’
Maybe I misread or misunderstood, but that says to me that the Highway Patrol stated charges are pending. If you want to know what laws have possibly been broken, I would guess the Highway Patrol are the ones to ask, since they stated it.
And thus I guess the latter part of your question would be answered with a simple, ‘No’.
you don’t know the conditions.
You are assuming.
The pending charges might well be reckless driving. They’re TRYING to crack down on things like big-rig drivers falling asleep at the wheel.
How can you prove the trailer was overloaded? Some horses died, they were all removed from said trailer. Unless someone was there, noting #s and photographing every horse as it came off the trailer (which I hope they did), he can say anything to show it was not overloaded.
And get off easily.
Common sense. Do you think those 38 horses had any room to move on that trailer? Do you think they had food or water? Or that they would get any on the what, two-ish day drive from TN to TX?
On the news video, it said the state of Texas was investigating both the feed lot (where the driver of the rig told authorities he was heading with those horses) for inhumane conditions AND the owner of these horses (in TN) for sending horses to the feed lot with no heath certificates.
That’s why I was wondering what the weight limit is for that type of trailer.
A law enforcement officer has to be DOT certified in order to be able to assess whether DOT regulations were violated.
According to the Channel 5 report, owner now claims horses were going to an Oklahoma feedlot who purchased the horses.
He needs to make up his mind once and for all if he continues to go on record with the media. 
Channel 5 also did a fly-over his farm and the horses visible are all tagged.
Thinking isn’t knowing.
Still assumptions.
The feedlot needs inspecting by the state of Texas (and good grief we have head some horror stories from more reliable sources than the news) by all means, investigate.
It still has not a single thing to do with the truck ending up in the ditch.
Separate issues.
You don’t want pretty pony to end up as salami, buy it.
If the lots in Texas are horrible, it’s up to the people of Texas to fix it.
Calling a man a scumbag on the internet because you don’t like his line of work is really low.
IF the trailer was overloaded, IF the driver fell asleep, I am sure authorities will figure it out. As ar as charges go, I am sure there is a laundry list of things this driver will be charged with. But those will likely be a mater or public safety, not animal anything.
But look at it on the bright side.
If the dealer has any sense, he puts the horses up for sale: wreck survivors, 1k each. Beats what the plant is paying him. Then you all can rescue a pretty pony of your own.
Castigating inhumane treatment does NOT make posters here into a lynch mob.
Transporting 38 horses in a single trailer IS inhumane. Defending such treatment plays right into the hands of PETA. IF you don’t want PETA making the laws in this country, DON’T excuse this crap.
