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Habitat for Horses gets custody of horses
By Nathan Smith
The Daily News
Published March 17, 2005
SANTA FE - A justice of the peace has given permanent custody of two horses
seized by the Santa Fe police to Habitat for Horses, a nonprofit group.
The horses were seized as part of an abuse case.
The horse's owner, La Marque resident Martin Bellow, did not appear at the
hearing Wednesday. Bellow faces five felony charges of animal cruelty stemming
from a traffic stop.
Habitat for Horses volunteers have been caring for the animals since they were
seized by Santa Fe police March 9.
Police officer Eric Bruss testified that Bellow had sold the two horses, along
with two more, to the Algoa Auction Barn, which sent the animals north for
slaughter.
The slaughterhouse returned two of the animals to Algoa after determining they
were too skinny. Those two were awarded to Habitat of Horses.
Bellow was pulled over by Bruss while hauling a horse trailer.
Bruss had noticed the trailer was full of horses, but the animals were not
standing up in the trailer.
Four animals were lying on top of one another on the trailer's floor and were
not moving.
A fifth horse was near the trailer's rear, kicking the other animals and
slamming its body against the trailer's railing.
The animals were rushed to a nearby veterinarian, where one horse was dead on
arrival. Three more were euthanized. A fourth was taken in by Habitat for
Horses, but was too weak and injured to survive.
Habitat for Horses spokeswoman Lark Tedesco-Finneman said the agency was
pleased by the justice's decision.
"We were very determined that the horses remain with Habitat for Horses", she
said. "Otherwise, they would have wound up as French dinner steak."
Displaying pictures of the weakened horses, Tedesco-Finneman said both animals
had clearly been kept in deplorable conditions.
"They're exceptionally thin", she said. "You can see a lot of wounds and
lesions, many of them possibly inflicted inside (the) trailer. Their ribs,
backbones and hipbones are very prominent; these horses have basically been
systematically starved."
Now permanently in Habitat's care, those days are over for the horses, which
have been named Tucker and Georgia.
"Under the usual process we go through, animals are rehabilitated gently",
Tedesco-Finneman said. "As they get healthier and their personalities start
to surface, we can start to assess them for adoption. Our goal is always to
find these animals loving homes."
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