All the Updates: Rachwal, Health Hazards & More

Rachwal Rides Again

In April 2017, Sterling Rachwal molested a horse in Eaton, near Green Bay. In May, he raped a gelding at a ranch in Maribel, also near Green Bay. He hasn't been convicted yet, but if it wasn't him, I'll eat my hat.

He is currently charged with three misdemeanors in Brown County:

• Intentionally mistreating animals
• Disorderly conduct
• Resisting or obstructing an officer

...and two misdemeanors in Manitowoc County:

• Intentionally mistreating animals
• Disorderly conduct

I have added this information to my main post about this fiendish psycho, which includes a picture of his SUV. I HIGHLY recommend that any horse owner within 50 miles of Green Bay invest in a security system. For some goddamn reason, authorities keep releasing him so he can do this again! He's been raping and mutilating horses since the 80s!

Sterling Rachwal has plead "not guilty" to the all charges against him. He has not been able to pay bail (even though it's a ridiculously low $1,000 and $5,000 respectively) so he's sitting in jail for now.

In the Brown case, Rachwal's next hearing will be September 12th, 2017. He may or may not go to trial.
Contact Deputy District Attorney Dana Johnson and let her know that you want her to deal harshly with this repeat offender! Let her know not to let up on the prosecution, accept no deals, and ask for the most stringent sentence possible.
Brown County Deputy D.A Dana J. Johnson
300 E Walnut St
Green Bay, WI 53401
OR (920) 448-4190

In the Manitowoc case, Rachwal will have a jury trial on December 14th, 2017. Make sure you write to the prosecuting attorney and let her know that you expect her to go after Rachwal to the fullest extent that the law allows! You can contact her at:
Assistant District Attorney Jill L. Vendetti

Manitowoc County Courthouse

1010 S 8th Street

3^rd Floor, Room 325

Manitowoc, WI 54220

OR 920-448-5433

I will be alerting you all closer to the dates, so that hopefully you can physically be there in the court room to make your voice heard. I wish Rachwal had been charged with something more serious than a few misdemeanors, but the laws here in Wisconsin just don't cover this kind of situation. That needs to change.

Belva Bowden Gets Off Easy

Speaking of the lackluster laws and lax punishments in Wisconsin, Belva Bowden had the charges against her reduced to an ordinance violation, and was fined only $582.50 for starving her horse Roy to death. He died a day or so after being found wandering on the highway, his last attempt to escape his miserable existence. He was wearing a custom halter with his name on it, yet his owner couldn't be bothered to sell him, euthanize him, or fix him up. Bowden still teaches at Auburn Elementary School here in Wisconsin.
Are you angry about Bowden's slap on the wrist? Contact Wood County District Attorney David Knaapen at 400 Market Street, Wisconsin Rapids, WI 54494 or (715) 421-8515 and tell him this isn't acceptable. Be polite, but firm. Let him know that someone capable of watching a helpless animal slowly starve to death in her backyard deserves more punishment than a lousy ticket.

Pony Tales Refuge & Rehab Is Grade-A Excellent

Pony Tales, a relatively new rescue in Colfax, Wisconsin, has been doing some great things! In October 2016, they hosted an Open Door Shelter, where people were able to surrender their animals. Pony Tales, as well as several other local rescues, took in dozens of horses.

Pony Tales has been certified by the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries, a rigorous process. They're holding successful fundraisers, they recently attended a horse rescue training seminar in Pittsville WI, and best of all, they are adopting out horses to great homes on a regular basis. For these reasons, they've made my list of endorsed WI Horse rescues. You can check them out on their Facebook page, or meet them in person at two upcoming events:

Chippewa Falls Pure Water Days Parade, August 12th at 1pm

1st Annual Labor Day Trail Ride Fundraiser near Colfax, WI.
Saturday Sept. 2nd & Sunday Sept. 3rd
$50 for both days, $40 for Saturday only, $20 for Sunday only.
This cost includes primitive camping, lunch, dinner and a drink at each stop. Children 12 and under ride for 1/2 price. Children 5 and under and participating landowners ride at no charge.To register, sign up online here,  email rescueme@ponytaleswi.org, or call/text Brenda at 715-933-4671. Current negative coggins IS required and will be checked.


Wisconsin Horse Alliance: Working Hard

This great organization just held its second annual Rescue Roundtable. These seminars are meant to bring together horse rescue organizations from across Wisconsin, and offers them training, resources, encouragement, and networking opportunities. It's great that Wisconsin has so many horse rescues, but we could all benefit from more communication, agreed-upon standards, and more helping hands. I'm very impressed with what the Alliance is attempting to do to further those goals.
The last Rescue Roundtable was attended by Racer Placers, Beautiful Hearts Rescue, Amazing Grace Equine Sanctuary, Firefly Acres, MHWF, Pony Tales Refuge and Rehab, and Wisconsin Federated Humane Societies.

The Alliance holds monthly meetings in Madison. You can check out their website here, or join them on Facebook here.

Recent Horse Health Hazards

West Nile
A non-vaccinated Standardbred cross yearling gelding from Clark County had to be euthanized this July, after contracting this mosquito-borne disease.

Strangles
A horse that lives permanently at the Walworth County Fairgrounds has a confirmed case of strangles. Shows at this location have been cancelled, and equine visitors are asked to stay away. Strangles can be spread in fluids (like snot) spread on brushes, stall walls, and tack. There is a good vaccine against strangles, which, if left untreated, can be deadly.

Eastern Equine EncephalitisTwo horses died of a severe, mosquito-borne disease in the Tomah area this week. The Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Lab, housed at University of Wisconsin-Madison, discovered eastern equine encephalitis virus in the brain tissue of the horses, who were last vaccinated in the fall of 2016. The virus is deadly in horses about 90 percent of the time and, in rare cases, can be transmitted to humans. The virus infected 19 horses in 11 Wisconsin counties last year.

Potomac Horse Fever
On July 17th, Dells Equine confirmed a case in Reedsburg in close proximity to the Baraboo river. The horse was found dead before displaying any symptoms, and was later tested positive for the disease. Another horse on site (this one still alive) also tested positive. Vaccination is not guaranteed to prevent the disease but can still lessen the severity of the illness. Owners should watch their horses for signs of fever. The disease is passed along by insects into streams, pastures, and even local bird populations. Read more here.

North Horse Swaps Horses

I need to update my "author" page! My last two mares were recently adopted out. I was looking forward to taking a break from horses. And then I stumbled upon two mini horses tied to junked out truck beds. Of course I couldn't leave them. *sigh* Stay tuned for a hilarious yet heartbreaking rescue story.

Justice for Roy

EDIT 12/30/16: I have added more pictures and information from this article.
You can read the first-hand account of Humane Officer Nanci Olson here.
Here's one appalling excerpt from that report:

_________________________________________________________________


Hey folks, I'm still alive. I know, I know, it's been over a year since I last posted. But here's what got me off my ass and back here typing away:

 That's Roy.

Roy escaped from his swampy paddock on Sunday, September 25th 2016. A kind women named Wendy Savage spotted him wandering down highway 80, near Babcock, WI, and informed authorities.

Obviously, Roy was desperate for food and water, having been starved for a prolonged period. But you know what he wanted more than those things? After spending months and months covered in rain rot, slowly wasting away, enduring hunger pains, his suffering ignored by his owners, I don't think what Roy wanted nourishment as much as something else...

Roy didn't want to die alone.

Roy could have escaped his torture earlier. But he was a good boy.
He stayed in his muddy, moldy, lonely pen for a very long time. Only at the very end did he try to leave. Only in his last days, when he was a walking skeleton, did he break out.

Roy lived for six days after escaping from his private slice of hell. During those six days, he was lovingly cared for by Midwest Horse Welfare, who took him in and tried their absolute hardest to help him. Midwest has successfully rehabilitated starving horses before, using a painstaking around-the-clock care regimen. Roy got small meals of heated, watery, alfalfa mush* for his starved and dehydrated body many times each day. He was seen several times by an excellent veterinarian, Dr. Gary Johnson of Plover, who rated his body condition score 1 out of 9 (and that "was generous"). Roy's teeth, heart, and blood were checked. Roy got little walks in the sunshine, to try to keep him motivated. (They were very short because his body had literally consumed most of its own muscle tissue for sustenance, so Roy had trouble moving.) Most of all, Roy got loved. For six days, he was pampered, petted, brushed. For six days, he heard friendly voices, felt gentle touches, saw that he was among people who cared, and knew that he was not alone.

On the last day, Roy lay down and could not, or would not, get up again. He was euthanized peacefully, surrounded by love.

If there's a tear in your eye right now, that's good. It hurts, but it's important. It means you have empathy, the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. Having empathy, recognizing what others have gone through, is what makes us moral beings.

What, then, should we do with people who do not have empathy? What should we do about Roy's owners?

Roy's owners were not elderly. They were not sick. They were not poor. They have a nice house, nice cars. They had no valid excuse (if there are any) to let Roy suffer this way.

As for Roy, there was nothing medically wrong with him that caused him to starve. He was a healthy older horse with a big appetite. Dr. Gary Johnson of Plover found no underlying cause that would have contributed to Roy's slow, horrific transformation into a walking skeleton. Even if Roy had had a medical issue, his owners could have euthanized him instead of letting him starve to death. There is no reason for a horse to end up like this.

Day after day, week after week, month after month, Roy's owners failed him. They allowed him to suffer, right in their backyard. It took a very long time for Roy to get this thin, and during that time, there were many things his owners could have done. They could have gotten help, surrendered Roy, or even just shot him. Anything would have been better than what they did-- which was absolutely nothing. They ate their own suppers a few hundred feet from where Roy stood in stinking mud, and left him to languish.

Roy's owners should be charged with neglect.
So far, they haven't been.
They have also been allowed to keep a second horse on their property.

WHY?

It's not for lack of evidence against them. Everything the Wood County prosecutor needs, he has. He has photographs, expert testimony, and every possible page of documentation from the veterinarian who treated Roy. These files have been on his desk since October.

Several people attempted to call the Wood County District Attorney's Office in order to voice their concerns that no charges had been filed in this case. What they got was snubbed, brushed off, dismissed. Here's one example of how those conversations went:

After many weeks of watching the Wood County DA's office do nothing, supporters of Roy have begun a campaign to bring public attention to this matter. The movement "Justice for Roy" was started, and people are starting to take notice. WSAW-7 News recently did a story, which you can find here.

YOU can help! Tell the Wood County DA's office that animal neglect is a serious crime, and Roy's owners should be prosecuted.

Call, write, or email the guy in charge of prosecuting this case!
Be polite, be professional, but be firm.

Assistant District Attorney Michael Zell
his boss, District Attorney Craig LambertPhone number: 715-421-8515

Email: Craig.lambert@da.wi.gov

Snail Mail:
Wood County District Attorney's Office
PO Box 8095
Wisconsin Rapids, WI 54495Let's make 2017 a better year.You can read more about Roy here and here, on Midwest Horse Welfare's message board.

Midwest Horse Welfare is an excellent Wisconsin horse rescue organization, with a 16+ year history of helping horses like Roy. Please consider donating to this reputable, state-inspected, GFAS sanctioned, registered 501c3 non-profit. Your donations go directly to help horses in need. The rescue owners are not paid for their incredibly hard work.


*Horses that have been starved to the point of death must be fed very slowly, very carefully, in order to prevent "re-feeding syndrome," where the body is so far gone, it can be easily overwhelmed by even a little too much food, or the wrong kind of food. This phenomenon occurs in humans as well as horses. Many Holocaust concentration camp survivors died from re-feeding syndrome after being liberated and nursed by Allied soldiers.
 Learn more about re-feeding syndrome in horses at this link:
http://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/vetext/local-assets/pdfs/pdfs_animal_welfare/eq-isoenergetic-javma212-5-691.pdf 

Falls, Toxic Quest Dewormer, Tractor Porn & More

So I recently had a couple of bad falls. Rearing was involved both times. One involved the horse flipping backwards and body-slamming me WWF style. Remember folks: wear a helmet.

Horse uses body slam! It's super effective!*
*Not actually me in this pic. Close enough to what happened tho.

Fun fact: although your brain normally controls your body's movements, under certain circumstances, an ancient, primitive structure in your spine takes over. This is what happens when we touch something hot and reflexively jerk away. It's what happens when we "jump" with fright. It's also the thing that takes over when, after slamming into the ground, you kick like a rabbit in a death struggle. Your brain can't react, but your body does: "Holy crap, fight! Run! Run and fight!" it says, and you do so automatically. Cool, huh? A few minutes afterwards, your brain floods your body with chemicals that simultaneously lessen agony, kick your muscles into high gear, quicken your reactions, sharpen your vision, and in general make you feel awesome. Except for the terrible pain part, it's neat to experience the lengths your body will go to in order to keep you alive. If you're stubborn and foolish, you might use this rush to get back in the saddle within five minutes. Or even coast on that high for days, working and trailering horses to clinics, or fixing fences, before the sheer volume of fluid buildup from your internal bleeding makes you uncomfortable enough to go to the ER. And that's pretty much the story of my last six days or so.

Mandatory public service announcement from my dear mother:

If you have a bad fall, shut the hell up and
go to the ER, you fucking idiot.

Well I seem to be all better now, and I even went for a short ride today, so let's move on to some quick news.

• There's been a strangles outbreak in southern Wisconsin. Not newsworthy, except for the fact that some owners/barns are continuing to show contagious horses at large events! For the love of all that is holy, people, quarantine your sick horses! Don't pass that crap around! Strangles can be deadly in certain cases, and it's a miserable disease in all circumstances. If you're going to a bigger public event, always bring your own water buckets, don't go around petting all the noses in sight, and of course, vaccinate your horse! A few bucks can save your horse from a lot of pain and pus.

• There's a neat story here about a street in Madison named after a famous Civil War general's horse.

• Interested in contributing to the analysis and improvement of laws relating to the equestrian world? Chris Riggi is an Ohio law student considering working on equine issues full-time. Send him your concerns and complaints regarding breeding contracts, boarding agreements, adoption and first-right-of-refusal commitments, stolen papers, etc. His email is Chris.riggi@yahoo.com. No guarantees on anything, but a cool idea.

• There's a sad story going around about a yearling who died after bring dosed with Quest Plus dewormer, and I wanted to put my two cents in. Moxidectin, the active ingredient in Quest, has been causing problems since the 1990s, and it's not something I'd use on my horse. Some experts claim that "user error" is the real problem, that people are just overdosing their young, old, or underweight horses. I call bullshit on that. There are just too many cases of extreme illness in healthy, adult horses dosed with Quest for that to be the only explanation. Farnham used to have a moxidectin-based dewormer, and took it off the market after too many lawsuits. Quest should do the same. I know there are some people that swear by Quest as the most effective dewormer out there-- well yeah, that's because it's one of the most toxic! If you have a wormy horse, you don't want to get rid of all the parasites at once anyway. Doing so can cause such a huge die-off that the horse colics severely. Talk to your vet about a gradual, targeted deworming program.
  
  Click the pic below to enlarge and read Lynn's account of what happened to her boy Bogo after he was wormed with Quest Plus gel. You can read more and watch her video here.

OK, let's talk about Farm Tech Days. This year, it took place near Madison. It's like a convention, but for farmers, and it takes place in a giant field of tents and machinery. When I say giant... I mean, they destroyed 100 acres of alfalfa field to create a temporary metropolis, complete with a mini ambulance, gardens, streets (and street signs), "restaurants," tractor taxis, parking lots, and ATMs. Every day that I went, I cringed as I walked on the crispy corpses of alfalfa that takes a full year to grow before it can be harvested the next year.

I want to talk a little about Farm Tech Days because I saw some amazing things there, and there were some awesome horse demonstrations, but also because part of the big show was the opportunity to tour the Statz dairy operation. Owning three to five thousand cows at any given moment, they're one of the largest "factory farms" around. So of course I had to take a look, in the interest of animal welfare.What I found out was pretty surprising. Read more below. Since this is already a pretty long blog, I won't get too wordy though.

What follows is basically a massive picture dump with captions. If you're just here for the tractor porn (you sick, sick bastard) you can skip to the end.

Horse Demonstrations

Trainer Ray Ainsworth was amazing. He was there to work with "problem horses," and boy, did he! If I had not seen him work with my own eyes, I would not have believed it. The mare in this picture was HORRIBLE for trailering, rearing, backing up, trying to run through or around-- just awful. Ainsworth worked with her for an hour in the roundpen and *BAM* she trailered up for him like magic. She was shaking and sweating, but got in and out without incident multiple times throughout the day, for him and for the owner. Incredible. Ainsworth's strategy is basically to earn trust, demand respect, and use his strong presence to ask for (and get) what he wants. He uses an "arm extension" (stick) but not harshly.

This 3 year old filly had never had a saddle on, and hated fly spray. He had her saddled in fifteen minutes, and was on her back in another ten. It took him all of about THREE minutes to deal with the flyspray problem. His strategy? After establishing leadership on the ground so that the horse wouldn't run through him, and trust so that she wouldn't rear or bolt away, he just sprayed her. Over and over. Of course she backed up, backed up, backed up. He very calmly kept going, spraying at the same pace. In the a deep sand roundpen, the horse pretty quickly realized that it was just easier to stand still and get sprayed. After all this, the filly practically cuddled up to him and wanted to sit in his lap. She didn't hate him-- on the contrary, she loved having a strong leader, having a job, learning. Five stars for this trainer. I bought his dvd. His website is here, check it out.

The "Milk Buds" are a group of eight ponies on a wagon team that is so skilled, they can double-back on themselves multiple times. It was very cool to see this old teamster teaching his grandsons and helpers about the old art of harnessing and driving.

Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil.

One of the Milk Buds was a mare with this FREAKING ADORABLE mule baby. This guy was the star of the show, and he knew it. The little shit enjoyed himself immensely.

The Kettle Moraine Rough Riders performed in all their glory.
LOVE these guys. They were slightly hampered by the small arena though.

This is one of the drill team's horses, a Rocky Mountain with a gorgeous coat.

Zacharia's Horsemanship put on a good show, with Zeke riding his mustang (trained by himself) up, down, and around, doing a variety of tricks.

Fun Pics

Cute idea-- thrift store purses repurposed as plant hangers.

Cow. Because, Wisconsin.

Giant robotic scratching machine.
Because happy cows are better producers!

There was a tractor driving obstacle course.
I have no idea why this was in it, but it was!

To give you an idea of just how much work went into Farm Tech Days, this rest area and music center was created by planting twelve full-sized pine trees inside a ring of telephone pole arches.

The drone demonstration was pretty neat.
 For $3-5K, you too can have a fancy toy helicopter with a camera!



"Factory Farm" Dairy

The barns were so large, they were able to drive us through the aisles inside on a schoolbus. The 3,000 cows are kept in buildings where they can roam freely. There are fans and water sprinklers for cooling, rubber mats to stand on, water tanks that are heated all year round to the temperature the cows prefer, and bedding for naps. The cows are fed three times per day. The sides of the buildings can be opened or closed depending on the weather. There were no bugs-- mosquitoes and flies are controlled in three different ways.

The manure pond, emptied for the public during this tour, covers an area the size of three football fields. The walls are eighteen feet high and eighteen inches thick. The pond holds 80,000 gallons.

What goes into the manure pond is actually only about a third of what comes out of all the cows' butts. The farm extracts the sulfur from the manure (which greatly reduces the smell) and makes it into fertilizer. The methane is extracted and is used to power heaters and other equipment. The solids are removed, processed, dried, and re-used as bedding.

The methane power plant.

This is one of twelve feed bays, each large enough to take two semi loads of forage for the cows.

Entrance to the two story milking parlor. 100 cows can be milked at one time, in only 15 minutes. They are milked three times per day, producing 80 pounds of milk per cow.

The cows walk in, and turn into their stanchions by themselves. Fifty cows on each side.

When the cows are in, the stanchions are shut, and the washing begins. Dairy workers standing behind and below the cows wash and disinfect every udder. The put on the automatic milking machines, press a button, and the milk gets pumped to a giant bulk tank. Within just a few minutes, the cows are milked. The workers dip teats in a protective antibacterial goo.

The cows stroll out of the parlor, making way for the next group to come in.

All in all, I was impressed with the efficiency and humane care in this "factory farm." Of course I don't like that the cows don't get to go outside and roll around in actual grass. I don't like the practice of cutting tail tips without anesthesia. Too often, workers can get too rough when a cow gets rebellious. However, if we as a society are going to demand meat and dairy products at low prices and on a large scale, this is just about the best we can hope for. The cows only live 5-8 years, but they aren't such bad lives. Every effort is made to make sure their environment is as comfortable as a large factory-like facility allows. It's quiet, it's fairly clean, and the cows did not seem stressed. Don't get me wrong, I'd love it if every dairy cow could live on a small, organic, free-range farm with sunny pastures, but that simply isn't feasible unless we're prepared to pay a whole lot more for our food. If you're willing to do that, great!! Buy your meat, milk, and produce from local farmers at farmers markets and co-ops. For the very best humane dairy products, I highly recommend Sassy Cow Creamery. Milk is usually around $6 per gallon, which gives the farmers and the cows an actual living.

That's it, folks. The End. Unless you're into looking at pictures of tractors, that is.

Tractor Porn

I'm not sure this is the world's largest combine, but I am sure I'd be scared to hear there was one bigger.