They Cried for Help
- Breed: Chocolat (aka Coco) – Liver Chestnut Arabian Mare – Born in 2001
- Breed: Maguire T. – Bay Arabian Gelding – Born in 1999
- Entry Date – 12/27/13
- Type of rescue – Surrendered to Jackson County Sheriff’s Department
- Reason – Neglected & Starving
- Special needs – None
In full view from the street, this pair of sweet horses was penned up in a pipe coral where they nickered to passersby. Several neighbors, hearing their plaintive cries, asked law enforcement to intercede. In December of 2013, a deputy from the Jackson County Sherriff’s department visited the site, finding that the pair was subsisting on very poor quality hay and only on the infrequent occasions when their owner bothered to feed them. The rest of the time, they chewed on the oak trees that surrounded their pipe prison.
As is appropriate, the Sherriff’s Department tried working with the owners to improve the care and feeding of these neglected horses . The owners made promise after promise regularly to feed Coco and Maguire adequate hay rations to keep them in good health. Unfortunately, on subsequent visits, the deputy found that the feeding schedule had not improved, noting that the horses were thinner each time he checked on them.
Finally, the owners were given an ultimatum: either surrender the horses or go to jail. As Equamore Foundation regularly partners with law enforcement in cases like this, volunteers from the Sanctuary was able to give Coco and Maguire a late Christmas present: a new and permanent home where they can thrive and live as horses were meant to live, with adequate fodder, with other horses, and, best of all, with room to run.
