Surprised this hasn’t been shared here, it’s been circulating on Facebook. This is from a local hunter jumper trainer. I know this trainer, she has a good heart and is fighting for her client. Her client is a young girl, this horse was a very big purchase for her and for her family, her father is a veteran and they have exhausted all means for thus horse. This is both devastating and just unbelievable! Smells like extortion if you ask me. I will copy and paste the post below, please keep in mind that. I’ve removed her name from the signature of each post in case she does not want it here, these posts are public on Facebook though and can be found. There is also a go fund me set up but I am not sure if they can be shared here so I will leave it out. I’ve copy and pasted the posts in the best order possible, starting with the oldest post. I cannot answer detailed questions as this is not my situation but wanted to share because this should be made known.
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PLEASE READ!!!
Good Morning
I am writing this email to parties that I believe will be concerned that a horse at the LAX quarantine facility has tested positive for the deadly bacterial infection of Glanders. The horse was flown to the United States on November 19, 2019. Blood was drawn upon entry and by Thursday, November 21, the result came back as positive. The horse was purchased from Belgium, and flown out of Amsterdam to Los Angeles. After 3 blood tests performed at the Aimes, Iowa lab, all of which came back positive or suspect at varying numbers at varying dilutions, the horse presented with a fever on Monday, December 16 at the Quarantine facility. The owner of the horse requested immediate veterinarian care thru the import agent Horseflight. The two USDA approved vets were unable to see the horse that day, even though they knew the horses test history.
The horse has cost an additional $9,000 since entry. The 21 other horses that flew with him that day were also held in 15 days of extra Quarantine at a cost of nearly $5000.00 each!
Hundreds of thousands of dollars have been paid over the last month. We have been told by all parties involved that the horse most likely does not have Glanders because his Western Blot test has returned negative 4 times. We are suspect that the USDA is hiding information that this horse does actually have the disease, and yet they are suggesting that we send the horse back to Europe.
Glanders is considered, by the U.S. Government, to be Bioterrorism.
I can not imagine that the USDA wants to willfully send a horse to Europe that the USDA has deemed unable to lawfully enter the US due to Glanders!
The owner was given less than 6 hours to decide if they wanted to spend $10,000 to $12,000 to fly the horse back to Amsterdam or pay $10,000 to $12,000 for an additional stay at LAX Quarantine. I reached out to the USDA vet at LAX to find out how much it would cost to euthanize the horse, as horseflight told me it could be upwards of $25,000 since the horse is a bio hazard. Per usual, I can not obtain an answer or itemized expense report for any of the costs for any of the services.
I also requested, from the start of this, that the USDA send me the SOP (standard operating procedure) for the testing protocol that takes place at the laboratory that tests the blood. No response. I have asked for clarification why the horses results are sent back to us at different testing dilutions. No response.
I want a full investigation in to the USDA and why they will not allow a veterinarian to treat the horse when it was showing signs of illness after testing positive for Glanders I requested in the past, and still do that the horse have a swab test performed to see if the bacterial infection for Glanders is present.
We do not have any more funds to pay all companies involved an amount that could be considered exhortation. We purchased a healthy horse that left Europe with a negative CFt and Western Blot test. We now have a horse that has tested positive for Glanders per the USDA protocol on the CFt test. We are being advised to send a sick horse back to Europe, at our expense, to be re sold. We are expected to pay for the export and care of a horse in Europe that will not be tested upon entry, and could expose Europe to a deadly disease that is considered bioterrorism. We are being told that if we keep the horse in Los Angeles Quarantine, it will be at a cost greater than $1200 a day. We are being told that euthanizing the horse will cost us $25,000. I am interested to hear what other owners would do? What do the powers in our Equine World think we should do? Possibly infect Europe with Glanders? Shut Down every import / export avenue for horses because the USDA wants to send a Glanders positive horse, that they say is not sick enough to warrant the attention of a veterinarian, but is too sick to be admitted to the United States of America, back to Europe?
Should both locations in Amsterdam and Los Angeles, as well as the KLM airplane, the transport that took the horse form Belgium to Holland be considered a biological hazard? Have HAZ-MAT crews been called to disinfect?
Please advise on what the owners of this horse should do, and the way to secure funds for the implementation. The owner is a 30 year retired Marine, served in Iraq and Afghanistan, and unfortunately did not earn the income that is required to fund the ongoing financial circle the USDA has created.
Thank you for your time in reading this;
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UPDATE!!!
After nearly 6 weeks, we finally got a CBC blood panel done on our boy! He has low white blood cell and high monocytes! This is typical of a horse either dealing with a bacterial infection or recovering from a viral infection! We requested this test after the initial 2 weeks! Thousands and thousands of our dollars in the pockets of others, and we still can’t get a vet to see our horse! The CFt test is known to have issues showing a false positive from glanders if it picks up a different infection! We have been saying this for weeks!
We have more weeks in Quarantine to go and hopefully a vet bill from a vet that will go help our boy!!!
Thanks you to everyone that donated so far!!! Please, $5 or $10 from many people could make this happen!!! We are going to get this process changed!!! They can’t keep is from treating our horse, tell us he is too sick to enter the county and tell us he is perfectly fine!!!
To all my horse friends! To all my Veteran Friends! To all my veterinarian friends! I need you all to read this lengthy, but very important email that I sent out today! Please tag friends, politicians, veteran groups, animal groups! I need shares, donations, good will! Anything you guys have got! We are out of money and time, this can happen to any of you that import horses!!!
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NEW UPDATE!!!
We thought we had fantastic news, as Hirenos last CFt test fell to only a 1+…the antibiotics really seem to be doing the trick! Unfortunately, the USDA is done with us. Hireno is only allowed one more test, and Jet Pets needs the stall so they are going to chafe us $1250 a day. Chino vet hospital said they would take him, but the USDA did not approve the site. They gave us a list of what it would require to take Hireno, we would need to build a room and a shower, screen the entire barn, which Chino was willing to comply, but if he is still suspect on his next test the USDA will not allow further testing. So to spend 3 or 4 day building and implementing the requirements for only 2 or 3 days of having the horse was not a solution. I will put my email to Dr. Burke Healey below, he is the number one vet at the USDA. Please say a little something to the powers that be that his test comes back negative at a 1:20 dilution on Wednesday! That will be his only chance at life! Thank you so much to those that donated!
My concession letter from last night…
Dr. Healey,
I know that you have asked for me not to contact you, but I have just had a discussion with Deanne and Gabby, and would like to take this opportunity to clarify a few things. Deanne is still a bit under the weather from her own ordeal today, and Gabby is an emotional wreck, as expected from a 15 year old.
I am sure that you think we are nasty people with a certain agenda. Please understand, we are very good people who have been dealing with this for 7 plus weeks. We really do appreciate your involvement at this time, but our frustration has been building for close to two months. I am a horse trainer for the “middle class”! My clients don’t typically have the 6 figures to spend on show horses. When we pooled 36,000 together to purchase this horse, it was a stretch! The Farrells are a military family, Dan just retired after 30 years this past summer! We really thought we found Gabby the unicorn, that in the U.S. would easily cost 75,000 plus. I have, over the years, been involved in 30 horses purchased from overseas. I have never experienced anything like this!
For 7 weeks we have been misled and bullied by the people that were suppose to be helping us. When this horse had a temp of 103, they couldn’t get a veterinarian out to treat him! They had the power, not us. We finally had a real vet visit Hireno and within just 4 days his CFt test number lowered a drastic amount! We were so excited!!! We have been told by every professional that our horse does not have glanders, proved by the consistent negative western blot test. We have been told by vets, Drs within the USDA that the CFt test is flawed, but at a rate of 5 to 10% false positive, it is still considered 90% accurate. Cliff Williamson, from the American Horse Council, explained to me how he got the western blot test approved a few years ago as the first step to make glanders testing in the U.S. more accurate. He knows it’s a small step in the right direction, but not soon enough to save Hireno!
After having the very difficult conversation with Deanne and Gabby, we are requesting that Hirenos last CFt blood pull be moved up to Tuesday instead of Thursday. There does not seem a reason to delay the inevitable. I do truly believe that Hireno will eventually test negative to the CFt, as he has 8 times to the western blot. I believe the sudden reduction in his last CFt test was due to what ever bacteria his body has been fighting, is being treated by the antibiotics he was put on a week ago today! I am sure that the CFt test was picking up that bacteria, and that was causing his non-negative CFt test. Bacteria yes, glanders no. Deanne and I will work diligently Monday and Tuesday to find a lab that can perform an autopsy on Hireno. If the blood is pulled Tuesday, we will know by end of day Wednesday about his test. There is a small chance that this time around he will test negative, but I hold very little faith seeing that his body will have only had the antibiotics in for a week and a half.
Please help us have a lab in place that can take the body to dissect and prove one way or the other about his glanders diagnosis. It is important to us to know the truth. More importantly, however, I believe it is crucial for the USDA to know, for a fact, if he was truly positive for glanders. We are small timers, not terribly important to a government organization as large as the USDA, but, better testing and clearer results should be of upmost importance to the USDA.
Maybe Deanne, Hireno and myself were dealt this blow to be the catalyst for change. I know it won’t save Hireno, or Gabby for that matter. Please consider in your future testing protocol, that not all importers of horses are multi millionaire owners and olympians. Some of us are just small time trainers with a tall skinny girl who dreams of competing on a horse of her own. Please know that we have meant no ill will or to harass or bother you. We have fought for 7 weeks to save this horses life and the future riding of Gabby. We are out of money, and I’m sure you are out of time and patience. Unfortunately, Gabby is out of a horse. We just can’t go out and get her a new one. This was our chance.
My last request is that you please have all of Hirenos CFt and western blot tests, in their entirety, released to Deanne. We all need to understand where the testing went right or wrong dependent on the autopsy!
I really do appreciate you reading this email, as I know I am not on your “good” list. Please know my questioning and constant bothering was all I could do to try to get a better outcome! Hireno has been here for 7 weeks, we have never been able to meet him, touch or hug him, or tell him that we loved him. But we did! And we tried!
Sincerely and with upmost respect;
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Most recent update:
Bad news! Our boy is still testing suspect, the head vet for the USDA, Dr. Burke Healey said that Jet Pets is allowed to charge us any amount they want! $1300 a day is just fine! If they want to charge us $25,000 to euthanize him, that’s fine too! If we want to ship him back to Belgium, no problem, that’s about $35,000. So if anyone has a super wealthy Uncle that would like to help us, that’s our only hope!
