It occurs to me that we really don’t have all the facts here. This situation was created over an extended period of time, and the people involved are savvy enough to have lawyered up immediately, rather than respond in the moment to the abuse. For those involved who’ve commented, they “didn’t know nothing” and all point the finger at Shumate, that seems a bit odd. If you’re involved enough to be on the Board of this organization, and bright enough to lawyer up immediately, I have difficulty believing any form of the “I was too naive, or too trusting, or too dumb or too whatever” to ever ever ever check on what was actually going on at a rescue which I am on the Board of."
I can see a scenario where the whole thing was some sort of borderline tax dodge / loophole or barely legal slight of hand tax shelter, where no one on that Board ever gave a rats butt about the horses, so of course they never bothered to check on them. But I don’t see a scenario where they ever had genuine concern at any time, because - not only would they not have allowed this, they would have responded differently. I wonder if more of them belong in jail right along side Shumate.
In my life I have known people who become obsessed with one thing after another, involving the duty to care for precious living creatures that they are obsessed to create / acquire at one point, and then just walk away from, without a backwards glance. They may make a token gesture of accountability, or throw a few dollars back over their shoulder, as they walk away, and it may involve horrendous emotional abuse (like father’s ignoring their own children) or it may involve animals, but the dynamic is similar; their concern for other living things is something they can turn off like a light switch.
I see a bit of that here, in both the former owners of these animals and in a Board that lawyered up to protect THEMSELVES rather than chipping in to help the animals, who could end up spending more on their legal fees than providing for these animals would cost.
For these kinds of folks the priorities are “Me first, regardless of who gets hurt.” And I’d be willing to bet that if you look into the lives of these folks there will be a history of cycles of abuse and abandonment, irrespective of how “bright and shiny” their social facade can be.
If there were a way to remove these people from the genepool I’d support it.
