Maine’s animal cruelty laws are fairly strong. Their enforcement, however, is unpredictable and inconsistent at best.
Perhaps her neighbors wanted to see the horses gone. It’s happened before to folks. It doesn’t sound like she was intending for them to starve. I wonder what happened to the person who was supposed to give the horses water. ?? She did write in another post that she was at WEG and that would be the first time she would leave for more than 5 days. She didn’t abandon them.
I feel really sorry for her. It sounds like a big mistake.
It is interestesting that she posted from WEG this week. How can you have enough money to go to an expensive show like WEG but can’t give your horses shelter, food, and water.
Oh, what a sad state of affairs. 
Hopefully there is a suitable explanation - maybe the horse sitters didn’t do their job???
Does anyone know if Jean has been located? Did she ever return from WEG? In fact, did anyone see her at WEG? What about the stallion?
Regardless, this is just plain sad.
The article said the investigation has been going on for a year, it doesn’t seem like a mistake.
How people present themselves on these boards, with the anonymity of the internet, is often very different from their real lives. Just my opinion from what I have actually experienced. :uhoh:
I’m glad this is out in the open and her animals have been rescued. It has been quite hard to keep quiet while she posted all over this board as if she were a breeding expert. Even worse was reading about her breeding more horses, and didn’t she even get some poster here to give her a mare? What a fraud and a good reminder that you can’t trust everyone on the Internet.
I wonder if fugly will pick up this story, hope so.
Something doesn’t tally.
From the article
They speculated that Ahern might be struggling financially …
But how can she afford going to the WEG? That isn’t exactly cheap.
Are we really sure this is the PintoPiaffe that posts on here? I never sensed any of such things from here posts about previous issues with her horses & care. She always sounded like a caring horseowner.
Yet something must have been pearshaped else why the previous fine.
Very sad. Poor horses. I wonder what happened to the horse sitter. Without knowing what happened, I don’t know if I’m hoping the sitter is okay or not! :eek:
In any case, jingles the horses are all okay once they’re re-hydrated.
If she said she had a sitter, I’d give her the benefit of the doubt. If she left them with no sitter… :no:
Only because this situation recently happened to my sister. In August she went on vacation for 8 days. Her friend of EIGHT YEARS offered to stay at her house and watch her four dogs.
My sister was in and out of sketchy phone reception. In fact, she never received the message I left her. She called her sitter, but she didn’t answer or call back. She assumed (bad idea, yes, lesson learned) it was all fine.
Came home 8 days later to find her dogs had never been fed, watered or let out. Two of the four dogs were in crates. They’ve all survived, but were extremely skinny, dehydrated and emotionally upset.
Sh!t happens and people suck. Still to this day her friend of EIGHT YEARS has not returned a call or given an explanation.
Oh, she’s always been a ‘pretender’. For over 10 years. Many people have seen through her.
Posted by Katarine:
oh dang. That’s bad form.
:uhoh:
Haf N Haf, that friend of eight years would not have lived to see another day after I came home to something like that.
[QUOTE=Haf N Haf;5146445]
Came home 8 days later to find her dogs had never been fed, watered or let out. Two of the four dogs were in crates. They’ve all survived, but were extremely skinny, dehydrated and emotionally upset.[/QUOTE]
:eek: Holy sh!t, that’s scary.
No wonder my trainer & BO appreciate the daily “Everyone’s okay” text message I send when I farmsit for them.
Every time I even think about leaving town, one of my animals gets sick or injured a day or two before I’m supposed to leave, so I’ve pretty much just given up on the idea all together.
But yeah, the thought that this could happen really frightens me.
Not to derail, but I went out of town for 3 days this past July, and had problems with the horse sitter myself. This was someone who had been working for me.
For some reason, some horse sitters elect to not follow instructions that they agree to! This horse sitter chose to water all horses BUT ONE = 3 days in the middle of July without water! This horse was supposed to be turned out with another particular horse, and that did not happen! On top of that, one or two other horses were left in stalls for 3 days, when I had clearly explained where they were supposed to go out in the pasture.
I have come home to other errors from farm care people over the years. The topper was the person taking care of the mare that had coliced who also had a foal on her side. The mare was to receive soaked pellets 3 times per day. How on earth did the farm care person not notice that the mare was not eating her rancid feed, but she just kept dumping more in the giant corner feeder? There were flies covering the stall walls, for goodness sake. I had to remove a wheel barrow full of rancid maggot infested wet slop when I got home. And this person expected my colicy mare to eat that stuff??
Anyway, I digress!
[QUOTE=pintopiaffe;5139283]
The $15 saddle pads got me in there. Twice.
One Peach and one Purple. :uhoh:
They also ROCK on customer service. We needed a haynet (two actually) and they didn’t have them, but did have them at the competitors’ trailer/tent, so they called over and sent me over, and then had to walk out to meet me at the gate to do the deal.[/QUOTE]
http://www.chronofhorse.com/forum/showthread.php?t=275440
Bet her horses would have rather had food than saddle pads…
Are you guys really sure its the same person.
The pinto markings are not the same as her stallion so I’m just saying are you sure its not a terrible mistake…:no:
@ 'rabbitz - Yes.
@ Moonlit - Was she gone in May, when (states the article) that she was fined $750. ?
She has been pretending to be a cop for years: last I checked a civilian dispatcher isn’t a cop. :~/
i think that everyone needs to stop speculating and wait and see.
leaving horses out in the winter without shelter ? that is cruelty? really? horses are cold weather animals and when i lived in ON CAN lots of horses were out in the winter without shelter or blankets - they were fine .
i hope that SOMEONE has contacted PP and let her know what is going on.
i think this thread should be locked until we really know what is happening.
think about if this was you - would you want the internet chattering about it?
Holy shite! I thought it had to be a mistake, but after scrolling through the pictures…just wow.
I too have had someone knock on my door and tell me that a neighbor told them that one of my horses had half of his jaw hanging off and had been that way for while. I said “what?”. The lady said, “I asked them how they knew this and they said they could see it when he was grazing. Yes, I know, but we have to look into it.”.
My QH has documented vet history for most of his life in a huge file- bills, vet orders, surgery notes, etc. He has sarcoids under his jaw and has always been under a vet’s care for them. They go away for a while, then almost overnight pop back out. I showed the lady his file, the medicine he was prescribed, offered to call my vet, and brought him into the barn so they could see him. I had to explain what sarcoids were, but other than that, they were satisfied and apologized for having to come out.
PP or anyone else, the buck stops with the owner. The owner is responsible, period! No excuses for this would ever be acceptable to me.
Yes, it’s a tough life owning a farm and horses and not being able to go away for long. It’s the penalty we pay for having them with us.
