14 horses die just before polo match in Florida

[Liberal_in_LA]

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/04/19/dead.horses/index.html

14 horses die just before polo match :cry:

(CNN) -- Fourteen thoroughbred horses dropped dead in a mysterious scene Sunday before a polo match near West Palm Beach, Florida, officials said.

State and local veterinary teams are trying to figure out what happened at the International Polo Club Palm Beach in Wellington, Florida, as team Lechuza Caracas prepared to compete in a U.S. Open match.

Two horses initially collapsed, and as vets and team officials scrambled to revive them, five others became dizzy, said Tim O'Connor, spokesman for the polo club.

"A total of seven died on our property," O'Connor told CNN. Seven other horses died en route to a Wellington horse farm and a veterinary hospital.

The cause of the deaths has not been determined, and necropsies and blood tests were underway, he said.

O'Connor said each team brings between 40 to 60 horses for matches, and they are continuously switched out throughout a match to keep the horses from overexerting themselves.

[AllyCat]

1. Jeez. This is awful. Reminds me of the people who would kill horses

for the insurance money about 15 years ago. There was one guy who did most of it, but many others were/are probably involved in some way.

I hope they get some answers soon so the rest of the horses are spared.

As an aside, it's odd they use TBs...they are usually too lanky and "downhill" to make good polo ponies from what I recall. Maybe someone who knows the sport well can chime in on this.

[nonconformist]

2. That's terrible. And strange.

I wonder if they were poisoned, most likely unintentionally (one would hope)?

[Dorian Gray]

6. That was my first thought, too

How awful! So sad. Poor horses.

[TorchTheWitch]

3. Looks like they were poisoned.....

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5493515

"According to several sources, the horses had a reaction to a steroid derivative that may have been tainted with a cleaning solution. The shots apparently were administered by an Argentine vet, not licensed in the U.S."

[hlthe2b]

4. Good Heavens.... Karma time for this particular Argentine....

What a horrendous sight that must have been. RIP, my beauties.

[theHandpuppet]

5. Death count now up to 21 horses

If this tragedy was due to poisoning, I hope there's a jail cell waiting for the scumbag who did this. :mad:

[TorchTheWitch]

7. I imagine the vet was the team's vet

I think this is either a case of not having enough control of where the drugs come from (as in countries that aren't careful about pharma regs) or it's sabbotage. I have a bad feeling it's sabbotage with whoever doing it not intending such disastrous results but for the horses to become slightly ill enough to not perform well. And if it is sabbotage I hope whoever did it gets the book thrown at them.

I can't blame the vet. It's understandable that each team where ever they come from would have their own vet who would naturally not be licenced in all the countries in which the team plays. I would imagine that the vet who administered the shots is horrified and devistated.

[AllyCat]

8. Exactly. When the U.S sends teams abroad to compete, we use our own vets

I'd expect nothing else from any other team.

[TorchTheWitch]

10. that's what I figured

It's perfectly logical that the team vet wouldn't be licensed in the countries the team plays in... same thing with human sports teams and their team doctors. Seems like the article mentioned the vet not being licensed in the US as some sort of slight against them or even to suggest he/she is incompetent. It's ridiculous to expect the vet of a foreign team would be licensed in whatever country the team plays in. It really smacks of deliberately pointing an accusatory finger at this vet, and that pisses me off.

[riderinthestorm]

12. Yep, the gratuitous slam on Argentinian vets as though they don't have a quality education got to me

as well.

We certainly don't have all the facts. Did the vet even administer the drugs? Who provided them? What drugs were they?

We own 9 sport horses, my husband trains dozens more. We keep 40 horses at our barn alone. We administer injections on a regular basis - from penicillin for injuries, banamine for colic, adequan or legend for joint lubrication, to virtually all our own vaccinations (except for international competitors whose vet records are actually handled as health passports and thus all vet work is performed by a vet).

The vet may have injected the horses with a legal substance but there's no way of knowing if anyone injected them with something far more lethal after that. Or if the drugs were tainted or sabotaged. Pretty much any experienced horse handler can give a horse an injection. Unless the vet is implicated in killing them, I'm going to say that the team vet for those horses is completely devastated right now. Chances are those horses were that vet's pride and joy. Internationally competing horses become a big family and the vet can really intensively focus on each personality since they have such a small population for that duration.

[Liberal_in_LA]

9. yikes!

[Riceburningluva]

11. I have always loved horses

they are such beautiful creatures. This is the reason I get mad when people say that nasty ann colture looks like one. She might look ugly but not like a gracefull horse.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

13. When will people learn it's time to ban water polo?

The number one leading cause of drowning in horses?