Leaving animals without water to drink is cruel especially recently as the days are getting hotter. Even worse is leaving them in unsanitary spaces, with flies buzzing around them, in filth, in their own feces and urine.

That a number of horses in the Jeanerette area were found in such conditions is deplorable. Unfortunately this is not the first report of horses or other animals suffering from neglect in our area.

The Louisiana Cruelty Investigations Task Force that looks into allegations of animal abuse or cruelty is working in conjunction with the Iberia Parish Sheriff’s Office on calls received about horses in the Jeanerette area, as was reported in a story in Friday’s Daily Iberian.

One horse had to be put down, suffering from some sort of puncture wound perhaps resulting from a fall. The area where the horse was found was full of trash and debris, and the investigator for the Task Force said it appeared the horse fell after getting tangled and was wounded.

Other horses were found in dirty and unsanitary conditions with no water and flies swarming around them. “The smell was horrendous,” said the investigator, who also said some of the stalls didn’t appear to have been cleaned in months.

It’s tragic if a horse accidentally falls, is wounded and suffers as a result of an accident, but if that accident was likely caused by forcing the horse to live in a debris filled enclosure, that sounds like neglect.

And clearly it’s neglect and likely abuse to house horses in stalls that haven’t been cleaned for long periods of time, to force them to stand in their feces and urine and be swarmed by flies.

Maybe the horses’ owners ought to have to spend some hot days in those same stalls to appreciate how nasty are those conditions. For sure some sort of consequence would seem in order.

Iberia Parish Sheriff Louis Ackal said treating animals like these horses suffered would have consequences for the owners. Let’s hope they do and that those consequences are shared with the rest of us, to send a clear signal that this community won’t tolerate the abuse or neglect of animals in our care.

WILL CHAPMAN

PUBLISHER