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Horse-Dumping Is a Big Problem in Riverside County, Officials Find 41st Horse Abandoned This Year
Photo Courtesy of Riverside County Department of Animal Services
Another starving horse turned up in the Inland Empire this week — the same week that a skeletal horse found in Ontario made news all the way on the east coast.
It turns out horse-dumping is an even bigger problem in Riverside County. This week officials with the Riverside County Department of Animal Services told the Los Angeles Times that they found the 41st abandoned horse this year in a field near Perris.
The problem in rural Riverside County is the same as San Bernardino County. Horse owners who don't have enough money to euthanize a horse, which costs a few hundred dollars, will just opt to dump the horse in an abandoned field somewhere.
The officers discovered the horse when they were herding some wayward cows back onto a property. Not expecting to come across a horse, they figured out how to create a harness with some dog leashes MacGyver-style (we imagine). They expect to be able to rehabilitate the 15-year-old mare, because she wasn't as skeletal as Mommas, the horse found in Ontario this week.
Animal Services has a grant from the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) for $15,000 that help it respond to emergency cases, such as this abandoned horse.
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