TBAR APPEAL REJECTED
The First Court of Appeals in Houston has denied a request by True Blue Animal Rescue for over $200,000 in reimbursements for horses seized in Waller County.
TBAR is appealing a ruling by Waller County District Court Judge Albert McCaig, which rejected a temporary injunction of a payment of $30,000 for the care of 34 horses.
TBAR president Melanie DeAeth said the organization incurred over $230,000 in costs to care for the horses in a 15-month period after they were seized.
The First Court of Appeals, however, ruled that True Blue “did not meet its burdens to plead a cause of action against Waller County and to produce some evidence establishing a probable right to relief.”
DeAeth tells the Brenham Banner Press that TBAR continues to care for the horses and that she plans to consult with the organization’s attorney about a next step.
I tend to agree with retired. TBAR seems to be appearing in the media in negative ways a bit to much. They got all involved in the VET cat shooting which they should have stayed out of. Now they are in the courts.
If you take $230,000 divided by 34 horses divided by 15 months, they are asking for $450 per month in costs, this seems pretty high. Most horses take about $250 per month to care for. Seems like a bit much in my opinion. I used to think highly of this organization, but their approach being a rescue is causing me to have many doubts about them. I will probably not support them in the future.
TBAR was forbidden by the courts to put them up for adoption or to even geld the stallions, so the stallions had to have special quarters away from geldings and mares. Until the potential case against the woman from whom they were seized was resolved (and we all know how long it takes for ANYTHING to get accomplished through our justice system), all that could be done was to care for the horses and wait for the go-ahead to allow their adoption. And when you’ve got stallions needing special accommodations, and starved horses needing special veterinary care, the costs can escalate to more than you could imagine. And eventually the judge decided the woman from whom they had been seized could get back her choice of any seven from the entire group, and of course she picked the most valuable ones. Despicable!
And if you haven’t tried lately to get someone to adopt a horse you no longer want, try looking at Petfinder.com. As of today, there are 207 horses listed just on this one website within 100 miles of Brenham needing to be adopted (and many more not listed whose owners are asking everyone they know if they “want a horse.”) How many people have the acreage and the funds and the responsibility and desire to adopt and properly care for these animals—not enough to get them all homes. Starvation, neglect, abuse, ignorance and indifference of owners and indiscriminate breeding of horses has produced way too many that no one wants, and sadly many will be shipped inhumanely and slaughtered inhumanely, as there is no other option for them.
Kudos to TBAR for doing all they can for as many as they can, and shame on our courts for allowing this to continue with no resolution for so long, and ultimately refusing to reimburse TBAR for their care of these horses and allowing the perpetrator to own horses again. With court results such as this, there will never be an end to neglect and abuse of these creatures, as there are no consequences to the perpetrators of these crimes.
I thought true blue was suppose to find homes for these animals it’s been 15 months and they still have the horses. Seems like they need to sell them at auction after a set time not run up ridiculous bills on feed and care. 200,000 divided by 34 is 5882 dollars for each horse that’s just crazy