yet another newspaper article
[URL=http://www.projo.com/sports/content/projo_20060201_01horse.12cecb79.html]
R.I. horse killer is eligible for reinstatement
Paul Valliere, who admitted paying a hit man in 1994 to electrocute a show horse for insurance money, could be reinstated to the United States Equestrian Federation, causing outrage among equestrians across the country.
01:00 AM EST on Wednesday, February 1, 2006
BY TOM MEADE
Journal Sports Writer
A group of equestrians has mounted an online campaign to block the reinstatement of former Rhode Island horse trainer Paul Valliere to the United States Equestrian Federation. He was one of 23 people convicted in the early 1990s for killing show horses for insurance money.
In 1994, Valliere, then the owner of Acres Wild Farm in North Smithfield, admitted he paid a hit man to electrocute a show horse so Valliere could collect $75,000 in insurance money. Valliere agreed to wear a recording device to collect evidence against associates who also were involved in killing horses. One
of his close friends, Rhode Island native Barney Ward, served jail time for his role in arranging some of the killings.
For his cooperation, Valliere was sentenced in 1996 to four years of probation and ordered to pay a $5,000 fine. Valliere also was indefinitely suspended from participating in horse shows sanctioned by the U.S. Equestrian Federation, then called the American Horse Show Association. The group agreed to periodically review the case. Valliere will qualify for a review this spring if he applies for reinstatement.
Though he may not attend horse shows, Valliere never left the training business. Today, he is coaching riders and training horses in Wellington, Fla., and Plainville, Mass.
Valliere did not return a call to his Florida phone yesterday.
With his eligibility approaching this spring, he is the target of indignation from the horse community on Web sites in the United States and Great Britain. More than 2,000 people have signed an online petition asking the equestrian federation to maintain Valliere’s suspension.
“The petition is intended to demonstrate to USEF, the [International Federation for Equestrian Sports] and the U.S. Olympic Committee that there are large numbers of equestrians who believe that reinstatement of any of the so-called horse killers is not in the best interest of equestrian sport, and is unbecoming to the national governing body, whose own charter these people directly violated,” says Liz Ireland.
A horse owner and trainer in Athens, Ga., she launched the petition on chronofhorse.com, an online service of The Chronicle of the Horse magazine.
When a federal grand jury in Chicago began indicting people involved in killing horses for illegal profit, the news appeared in publications and broadcasts all over the world. A story in Sports Illustrated and a subsequent television documentary focused on how one of the horse killers used a crowbar to shatter the leg of a horse owned by former U.S. Olympic rider Buddy Brown, once a trainer at Valliere’s former farm in Rhode Island. Brown’s ex-wife, Donna Brown, was convicted for hiring the hit man.
In 1994, Valliere admitted that he hired Tommy “The Sandman” Burns to electrocute his show horse, Roseau Platiere. Valliere wrote a check to pay Burns, who attached alligator clips to the horse’s nose and anus, and then plugged the wire into an outlet.
“We’re alarmed that more people are not aware of the killings and the potential for reinstatement [of Valliere and others who were suspended by the equestrian federation],” said Molly Williamson of White Bear Lake, Minn., another horse owner and rider working on the petition campaign.
“There is no place for forgiveness,” said Williamson. “It’s not like it was an accident. It was premeditated. I don’t think they’re sorry for what they did. I think they’re sorry that they got caught.”
Vikki Karcher Siegel, manager of Snowbird Acres Farm in Long Valley, N.J., and a member of the USEF’s competition management committee, agrees.
“It is not logical that the U.S. Equestrian Federation, which has as its mission the protection and welfare of horses, would not ban anyone from participation in this sport if they have benefited financially from the fraudulent death of a horse,” she said. “The horses involved in the insurance-fraud scandal could have been sold, even if at a loss, to people who would have loved them and cared for them. Instead, they died for people’s ego and greed.”
“I support Paul 100 percent,” Mason Phelps, Valliere’s longtime friend and former owner of Glen Farm in Portsmouth, said yesterday. “What he did is unfortunate, but unlike some of the others who did this, Paul has acknowledged what he did. He certainly has been remorseful, and he has made the appropriate apologies publicly. He has abided by the sentence put out by our equestrian federation. He’s paid his dues. I think it’s time for him to be allowed him to come back. People who have done murders and rapes do their sentence and are back on the streets.”
“True,” said Williamson, “but child molesters aren’t allowed to be around children. Why should horse killers be allowed to be around horses?”
tmeade@projo.com / (401) 277-7340
I dont think there is much point in going around and around in circles about any one particular person’s morals and what they think or dont think or mean or dont mean, because everyone has their opinions and are NOT about to change them no matter what the other ‘side’ says.
Geez, why don’t you guys start another petition and ask the USEF to split memberships into two catagories and keep all the crazies in one? I’ll sign that one! 
