Horses
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1995:
Feuds among Los Angeles-area
horse rescuers exploded into the media with a
bankruptcy petition filed on January 18 by the
Equus horse sanctuary, of Newhall,
California. Begun in 1992 by Sandra Waldrop
and Linda Moss, Equus adopts out horses
bought from killer-buyers. Friction developed
early, as volunteer Sandy Venables of
Chatsworth quit to form her own rescue group,
and caught fire after Equus expanded to a for-
mer mule ranch last June, then couldn’t make
the $2,500-a-month rent. In November,
Equus got an eviction notice––and was
accused of neglecting from 100 to 170 horses
by Barbara Goodwin Cross of the L.I.F.E.
Foundation, which places wild horses
obtained from the Bureau of Land
Management. County humane officer Jerry
White cleared Equus of the allegations;
Goodwin Cross claimed he just didn’t want to
deal with the horses; Equus blamed Goodwin
Cross for worsening financial problems,
claiming in its bankruptcy filing that she just
wanted to obtain the horses and sell them back
to the slaughter trade. Few if any observers
credited that charge, but Gretchen Wyler of
the Ark Trust, Madeline Bernstein of the Los
Angeles SPCA, and Leo Grillo of Dedicated
and Everlasting Love To Animals––who
rarely agree on anything––all suggested
Goodwin Cross had been unnecessarily
alarmist. “She was very convincing,” Grillo
told Laurence Darmiento of the Los Angeles
Daily News. “I went out there. I asked a lot
of questions. They were not the monsters I
was led to believe. They simply have no
knowledge of fundraising.” Grillo took over
paying the horses’ feed costs temporarily,
while teaching Waldrop and Moss the knack
of fundraising.
Having lost the lease on their for-
mer headquarters in Mt. Airy, Maryland,
Kathleen and Allan Schwartz on February 18
relocated Days End Farm Horse Rescue,
including 38 horses currently in their care, to
a temporary site in nearby Lisbon.
The New Mexico House Consumer
and Public Affairs Committee and House
Judiciary Committee have both unanimously
approved HB 212, a bill to ban horse-trip-
ping––a staple of charro rodeo. Letters back-
ing the bill may be sent to Gov. Gary Johnson,
State Capitol Bldg., Santa Fe, NM 87501.
Holy Bull, the 1994 Horse of the
Year, was retired to stud on February 12, at
age 4, after suffering strained tendons in the
left foreleg during the Donn Handicap at
Gulfstream Park in Hallandale, Florida. “If
he wasn’t Holy Bull, I’d bring him back next
year,” said owner/trainer Jimmy Crull. But
after winning 13 races in 16 starts, Holy Bull
had become worth too much to risk losing.
Richard Bailey, 65, charged with
ordering the murder of candy heiress and
animal rights patron Helen Vorhees Brach
in 1977 to keep her from exposing his horse-
related frauds, pleaded guilty on March 1 to
fraud, racketeering, and other charges carry-
ing sentences totaling up to 150 years––but
none directly linked to the Brach case.
William Sheets, 57, of Hillsboro,
O h i o, was charged February 14 with 10
counts of cruelty after sheriff’s deputies and
the Highland County Humane Society relocat-
ed 122 allegedly neglected Arabian horses to
foster homes, including 79 that HCHS
humane officer Anne Tiesnan found to be
starving. Five dead horses were found on the
property. Convicted five times of horse
neglect in Ontario, Canada, between 1978
and 1989, Sheets relocated to the U.S. after
eventually serving 30 days in jail and being
barred from horse ownership within the
province for three years.
Dominique Boeuf, winner of the
Golden Whip as the top jockey in France
last year, drew three years in prison, two of
them suspended, and a fine of $19,000 on
March 3 for using and distributing cocaine and
heroin. He will be allowed to continue train-
ing for horseracing while serving his sentence.
Three other jockeys received suspended sen-
tences in connection with the same case.
French racing officials introduced drug testing
of jockeys at the beginning of this year.
Race horse trainer Edward Herr
Mellinger, 53, of Pleasanton, California,
was arraigned February 23 for allegedly sell-
ing marijuana from the tack room where he
lived at the Alameda County Fairgrounds.
