Abandoned Horses Are Latest Toll of Drug Trade (sad story)

PHOENIX — Found tottering alone in the desert with their ribs visible and their heads hung low, horses play a backbreaking, unappreciated role in the multibillion-dollar drug smuggling industry.

Mexican traffickers strap heavy bales of marijuana or other illegal drugs to the horses’ backs and march them north through mountain passes and across rough desert terrain. With little food and water, some collapse under their heavy loads. Others are turned loose when the contraband gets far enough into Arizona to be loaded into vehicles with more horsepower.

“We would pick up 15 to 20 horses a month, and many more of the animals would get past us,” said Brad Cowan, who spent 28 years as a livestock officer for the Arizona Department of Agriculture before retiring a few months back. “They wear poorly fitted equipment. It’s obvious they were not well taken care of. The makeshift saddles rub big sores in their backs.”

Others are luckier. They find their way to equine rescue operations, which help place them with homes.
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A quarter horse named Rim Rock received care at Ms. Dolce’s center, the Arizona Equine Rescue Organization, after he was abandoned in 2006.

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Now 19, Rim Rock wears cushions because of problems with his hooves. Fifteen horses were being cared for this month.

“We just got a horse in, and he’s sticks and bones, and his feet are horrific,” said July Glore, president of Heart of Tucson, a rescue operation that nurses the horses back to strength. “We get calls all the time about abandoned horses. How many do I have right now? One, two, three.” One, named Lucky, had his tongue almost cut in half from the sharp wire bit put in his mouth. “I was told he was a drug horse,” Ms. Glore said.

“They can come back from a lot,” Some of the abused horses end up back in the rugged border region where they were first found, Mr. Cowan said. Instead of smuggling, though, they are sometimes used by law enforcement agencies to pursue the traffickers who mistreated them.

Source: www.nytimes.com...

Wow, I never even thought of this aspect of it. The abusing/use of animals on the Drug trails-and abandoning them. I guess I never took the thought process that far.

How sad. I wonder how many animals are just wasted away because of the Drug stuff? I will have to see if there is more info on this topic.

I think it is funny how the horses (some) are brought back to health and then used to in the Drug War efforts/fights. Good thinking and GOOD JOB.

I can see a Disney movie, or the alike, coming from this story. Think about it. I don't want to give away my ideas as I just might have to become a writer for movies..... with some of the ideas I see flying across the ATS pages. A writers dream I tell ya.

Of course, there are some people who fully appreciate (or at least at one time) the men and horses efforts.

Happy New Years!

Tough Crown this New Years Day.

Not a horse lover out there somewhere in ATS Membership?

Hmmm

Happy New Year! And bless the kind souls who would take care of our horses. Both sides of the "border" should stop supporting each others' bad habit in trading drug.

Thank you for your post about horse welfare, I'm glad tosee another person who cares
there is no amount of suffering that theses monsters would shirk to inflict on innocent souls human and non.

Here's to a better New Year for all of us!

reply to post by MrsBlonde


I agree with you. It would be interesting if we could apply the same treatment/torment to the human as they did the animal.

I bet people would think twice before doing some of the dumb stuff they do.

reply to post by anon72


ah! people who do this don't think,they are in react only mode, I think all senseless cruelty is done without thought

it's thoughtlessness n a level that that precludes that the perpetrators even realize that they exist.

I don't know how someone can do things like this and not realize that something is terribly wrong.