Horse's Death Exposes Illegal Horse Hauler - Pete's Story

[Lady_Eboshi]

[QUOTE=mlacy;7894252]
Ok! I am potentially shipping an older boy (ie my one horse love of my life) from South Carolina to Texas and I am completely terrified. Any shippers that are the"good ones" or advice on how to determine if they are actually qualified? I literally just started crying because I am so scared to ship my old man but know I need to make this move![/QUOTE]

I’ve had excellent service from Bob Hubbard who does that Southern route every week. The first time was sending a frail elderly gelding from CT to NM; the next was bringing my own greenbean from AR who’d never had a long ship before.
Both horses arrived calm, well-fed and watered, no dehydration or signs of stress.
They’ve been in the business for many years with solid credentials.

[Sannois]

Oh god, I am so sorry, I read this on Facebook from a fellow horse friend,
The thing that made me sickest was the fact that they TOOK PICS instead of getting him upright! My god.
I am so very sorry for your loss, And what a terrible way for a horse to suffer and die.

[wendy]

although sad, I don’t see how the “illegality” of this hauler comes into play. The horse somehow got trapped and hung up in the trailer. So, well, horses are suicidal. What did the haulers do wrong? If there was something blatantly obviously wrong with the trailer, why load up the horse? When they realized something was wrong, they pulled over and tried to fix the problem.

[IrishWillow]

Really? He fell in the trailer. God knows why. We can speculate from he just lost his balance to reckless driving.

From what we can tell, he become stuck After falling. The necropsy proved he was down for over an hour (blood pooling in the body, bruising, etc), the haulers never noticed he was down and struggling for at least an hour. How do you not notice an animal of that size struggling in your trailer? Then they pulled him out of the trailer with ropes, and he died before a vet could get out there due to shock. They never called me, not once. And then they left the body - I can guarantee you I would have stayed until the body was picked up, called the owner, etc etc.
So a lot of things went wrong here. Witnesses described their reaction as “callous” and “unprofessional”. They seemed to not care that a horse had just died in their care.

[IrishWillow]

Really? He fell in the trailer. God knows why. We can speculate from he just lost his balance to reckless driving.

From what we can tell, he become stuck After falling. The necropsy proved he was down for over an hour (blood pooling in the body, bruising, etc), the haulers never noticed he was down and struggling for at least an hour. How do you not notice an animal of that size struggling in your trailer? Then they pulled him out of the trailer with ropes, and he died before a vet could get out there due to shock. They never called me, not once. And then they left the body - I can guarantee you I would have stayed until the body was picked up, called the owner, etc etc.
So a lot of things went wrong here. Witnesses described their reaction as “callous” and “unprofessional”. They seemed to not care that a horse had just died in their care.

[KLCarp]

Im so sorry, this is absolutley horrific. My heart goes out to you!

[Angelico]

[QUOTE=IrishWillow;7894426]
Really? He fell in the trailer. God knows why. We can speculate from he just lost his balance to reckless driving.

From what we can tell, he become stuck After falling. The necropsy proved he was down for over an hour (blood pooling in the body, bruising, etc), the haulers never noticed he was down and struggling for at least an hour. How do you not notice an animal of that size struggling in your trailer?

In a larger slant load pulled by a sufficient truck, with other horses on board, it really doesn’t surprise me that they didn’t feel him down. They should have had a camera on the trailer though, they claim to and it’s just what you do when you haul commercially.

Then they pulled him out of the trailer with ropes, and he died before a vet could get out there due to shock.

How else would you expect them to get him out of there?

They never called me, not once. And then they left the body - I can guarantee you I would have stayed until the body was picked up, called the owner, etc etc.

Leaving a dead horse on the side of the road sounds awful, but they did have other horses on board to attend to, you can’t disregard that.
So a lot of things went wrong here. Witnesses described their reaction as “callous” and “unprofessional”. They seemed to not care that a horse had just died in their care.[/QUOTE]

I’m furious over this and I didn’t even know the horse or anyone involved, it’s just that bad of a situation. Outting them the way you did was absolutely the right thing to do and you went about in a very organized and classy manner. I don’t know that I would have been able to handle myself half as well in a similar situation. Please do not take my post as a personal attack, that is not what I mean by it at all.

[Jeito]

Irishwillow, I am deeply sorry for you, the owners, and everyone who loved this horse through his life. R.I.P. Pete. Thank you for doing something so that his death was not in vain.

[jess_h]

^^ This.

[IrishWillow]

I appreciate everyone reading the story. I hope that it saves someone some grief in the future.

[Sannois]

I cannot get the image of him still alive by the side of the road out of my head.
I cannot keep a dry eye thinking about it.
I hope and pray that these people will never haul another horse again.
I am curious because they were not a legal hauler will they be fined at least?
For not having the DOT number etc.
((((HUGS))))) I am so deeply sorry for your loss of Petey.

[gumshoe]

There are a few “what ifs” here.

If there was, in fact, a camera in the trailer, why didn’t they notice the horse went down sooner?

If they had noticed the horse went down, would they have been able to do something to right him before getting hung up? If not, would they have been able to get a vet come and euthanize to end its suffering?

As for how the “illegality comes into play” - are they INSURED? Is their equipment subject to inspections? Whatever necessary licensing and permits obtained?

This response is callous. I can’t imagine what possessed you to say to yourself, “By gosh, I simply MUST post this!”

[QUOTE=wendy;7894401]
although sad, I don’t see how the “illegality” of this hauler comes into play. The horse somehow got trapped and hung up in the trailer. So, well, horses are suicidal. What did the haulers do wrong? If there was something blatantly obviously wrong with the trailer, why load up the horse? When they realized something was wrong, they pulled over and tried to fix the problem.[/QUOTE]

[Kat_Renee]

I posted on the other thread in eventing, but my heart goes out to you and his connections. It was such a terrible situation that could have been fixed a lot sooner if they were paying attention.

This is what I don’t understand from the article " Roan says Skelton claimed they went around a corner, and the trailer felt odd. When the horse haulers arrived at their next pick-up location, Skelton said Pete was hung-up." Why would a shipper not stop ASAP? They felt something happen.

I cannot fathom what you guys are going through right now. I am so so sorry.

[ThisTooShallPass]

Wendy, I honestly do not follow your posts. But I came across a couple of yours last night, in different forums, that just really stuck out like bad thumbs. Are you always like this? Or were you just having a really, really bad night? If those posts are the typical you, count me out-BIG TIME. sad

Again Irish Willow, you have my deepest my sympathies.

[dotneko]

I am a bit confused - if they found the horse hung up at their next pickup point - wasn’t that a barn? So wouldn’t the horse be on someone’s property rather than the side of the road? Was there another horse on the trailer? I suppose if there was another live horse on the trailer, I would not want him staying there waiting for a backhoe to show up for the horse who had died. Especially if he was insured or the death was questionable and a necropsy needed to be done then that would have made the delay even longer.
Once Pete was off the trailer and had passed, what could they have done next? Contact the local police, I suppose. Hopefully there was a responsible person left with the horse.
Terrible set of circumstances all around.
Back to the first question - was the stop where they discovered the horse in distress a farm?

[AKB]

What a horrible situation. Our horses are so vulnerable when we have to leave them in the care of strangers. OP, thank you for posting.

[merrygoround]

It would seem that the whole approach, and reaction to the disaster was totally irresponsible.

Moral of the story is, I guess, stick to to well known long haul shippers. I have watched them drive, they are cautious, and careful.

[Faye]

My heart goes out to you and Pete, I’m really really sorry what about what happened.

Did they explain why they just disposed of Pete on the road? That is unbelievable and I’m sitting here extremely angry about the whole thing. RIP Pete

[EcstaticLady]

Oh…I can’t even find the words to describe how totally crushed I feel, I’m sitting here bawling, can’t imagine how you must feel! I am so, so sorry for you, for Pete and for his owners.

I’ve had my horse moved twice, from OK to AZ and from AZ to AR. I thank God she made it safely both times.

Thank you for trying to make something positive come from this tragedy.

RIP Pete

[IrishWillow]

Thank you everyone, for your support. Many of the questions you have posted here, we most certainly have ourselves. The haulers hung up on the staff member from RMHP when she attempted to get their side of the story. We can only speculate. What we do know, with certainty, from the necropsy, was that Pete was inverted and struggling HARD for a long time. He was encrusted in sweat. He had extensive bruising, etc. All of which was survivable. We get it… horses are suicidal. We understand accidents happen. Its the actions AFTER he went down that are highly in question. Not noticing a 1200lb+ horse is struggling, for an hour. Not calling the owner at all. Not calling a vet immediately. I understand they had horses in the trailer, but a call to me would have made it ok to leave. Every professional hauler we’ve spoken with has said they would have called 911 to have Animal Control come out (he was in the middle of the road, causing a public safety hazard, at minimum), but we hypothesize this wasnt done bc they feared being caught hauling without proper licensing. A neighbor had to remove the horse from the road, after INSISTING. The time frame we have, the were in a BIG hurry to get OUT of there, an emotion the neighbor was able to second. I dont know, or even think, at that point the outcome would have been any different. But its how you handle things, as a professional. Starting with noticing a horse is down, and/or using the cameras you claim to have had. I know all of you are on the outside looking in, but we were suspicious of wrongdoing from the first five minutes. It was all just very ODD. This horse was an older, extremely experienced hauler. It just makes very little sense.
I hope, at minimum, this encourages everyone to be extremely careful with who they hire to haul their horses. It is just scary.