Commentary by: R.T. Fitch, author of “Straight from the Horse’s Heart“
Justice for those who Meduna starved
HOUSTON (SFHH) – It’s not very often that out there amongst all the troubled waters of bad news a small blurb of good news and triumph bobs about and is visible to those who are searching for it. There was just such a little victory that rose to the surface, last week. Long awaited justice was served and a very, bad man was found guilty and will be held accountable to pay the price; that man is Jason Maduna.
The horses won a victory last week and they win so very few. Meduna, a cruel and inept keeper of the lives of over 200 formerly wild mustangs was found guilty of 145 class 4 felony animal abandonment and cruel animal neglect charges resulting in injury or death to the very horses he purported to love and train.
Sun bleached horse bones seen in initial flyover of 3-Strikes Ranch
The piles of dead horses on his property were sickening, the whitened bones laying in the fields were straight out of a horror novel and finally justice was served with sentencing coming next month.
So Meduna is going to pay the price; it’s been a long time coming and a lot of human blood has been shed along with the horse’s in bringing this murderer to justice, but there still begs a very important question, something murky and foggy just outside the ability to focus upon; What about the others?
Meduna did not act alone he had not only his wife but a support group of people who slowly watched these horse’s once healthy bodies begin to eat themselves from the inside out and eventually die. Where are all of these people now?
We know where all the good people are. We know of the professional rescue groups and volunteers who heeded the call and came to help. We heard the testimony of shocked owners who thought their mustangs were living out their lives as close to wild as they could. We have all seen the rehabbed and healthy survivors go to either new homes or quality sanctuaries where their bodies can recover although their minds and souls may never heal. We know where all of these good folks are.
But where is that coven of “Jason Worshipers” who clawed and cried that the horses would be okay if left on the ranch if only Jason would be given a chance? Where are all of the members of Jason’s group who rallied around him as the bodies were being buried and said that it was not his fault and that the neighbors were poisoning the horses? Where are the half-baked “Wild Horse” experts who said that the horses had some strange, equine disease and that the rescuers would spread the illness across the U.S.? Where is Jason’s wife who watched the horses die a horrible death? Where are all of these co-conspirators and why did they not rush to his aide at his trial? Probably, no good press to be had. (It’s all about egos, you know.)
One of several piles of horse bodies seen from initial flyover of 3-Strikes Ranch
Meduna’s wife, Anissa, was fined, shortly after Meduna’s arrest, $325 for treating an adopted wild horse inhumanely.
“ Whoopee”. She lived right on the property and she didn’t have a clue that 70 wild horses and burros were dead and all the rest dying? Someone had to help Meduna stack the bodies. Why does she get off the hook and move on to damage more animals?
What about the members of Meduna’s group who backed him in this deadly project. Some jumped up and down and impaired the ability of rescue operations while others quietly tiptoed away, hoping that no one would notice. Several of these individuals ranted and raved for months before disappearing off into the shadows, but why were they not held accountable? Why did they not pay the price?
Where was the supportive testimony of good buddy, self-proclaimed wild horse expert, Ray Fields. Fields immediately came to Meduna’s aid and when the “poison” theory fell flat Fields concocted the “‘mysterious illness” lie which to this very day, he flashes about on his website. While Meduna was in trial, Fields hid under a rock and threw pebbles at the good folks telling them that it was the fault of the BLM, HSUS and professional rescues for causing all of the problems. To this day, ole Fields is tempting a law suit with such ridicules accusations. But where was he, besides hiding, doesn’t he deserve to take a sound thrashing for promoting the death and mistreatment of these wild horses?
One of the worse cases of equine cruelty ever documented
And how about the biggest Boggy Man under the bed, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM)? If not for their continued, unjustified decimation of our wild horse herds the horses would have never been in this prison hellhole in the first place. Why are their policies and procedures not under scrutiny? Why are they not being prosecuted for failure to inspect/perform and where were they after all of this broke open? Should they have not taken a lead role as it was their program that had failed? Why was it left up to volunteers to do all of the work, to take all of the financial risk and pay all the bills? They created the problems so why were they allowed to turn their collective backs and shrug off accountability, again?
I don’t know about you, but I am pleased as punch to know that the horses finally won one and that the cries from across the bridge were heard by an astute jury. But somewhere, somehow there is still that nagging concern and feeling of frustration that the entire issue was not confronted and by not being resolved and made right, there will be other horses to suffer at the hands of those who got away and slipped off into the darkness.
Although the horses won a victory; it appears that there are a lot more questions left unanswered than answered surrounding the case of 3-Strikes Ranch, Jason Meduna and the wild mustangs that died while others watched. In hindsight, it makes my blood run cold.
Categories: Equine Rescue, The Force of the Horse, Wild Horses/Mustangs
Straight from the Horse's Heart 
Hey RT would you consider letting us re-post this post in our new magazine for equineconnection.org (Equine•Connections)? Do you own the rights to the photos or do you know who does, and finally (so many questions, lol) do you think they’d let us use them? It’s an online magazine meant to support equine advocates. This will be the premier issue. Thanks!
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Thanks RT you once again have hit the nail right on the head, I have been asking similar questions for weeks too, mainly about the wife but you have opened a whole new can of worms to think about, is there any way that this can be persued. Of course it will be costly, which is probably their only hope that it will never happen to them, who would pay for this costly exercise to bring them all to justice?
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Again, thanks so much RT for your perseverance in finding some justice for the horses….so sad that so many had to suffer before justice prevailed…. RT ..ever thought about running for office???We need people like you at the controls….seriously, we all need to start thinking like this…get back to the days when a man was ‘of his word’..and stood up for what was right….we need new blood in our government…it is up to people like us to institute change…
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It takes a village to raise and maintain a healthy society (I don’t know of one off hand tho). Those members of that village who work hard for the greater good should be lauded for their part in shaping such a community. It also takes a village to allow this level of slow torture murder to occur and those responsible should ALL be held accountable for their part in shaping the horrors of this horse community. One scapegoat does not bury the shame and shared burdens of the others. Abuse rarely happens alone.
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Yep, RT, there are people who got off and got away and BLM has not been brought around to their responsibility in giving these people more and more horses. I hope they will stay out of all equine related activities. You hear me out there?? Leave horses alone forever. mar
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RT,
I am so happy that this man is being held accountable. I happen to own one of these horses. I have named her Kitty. She is so kind and easy to work with. I didn’t even know I owned one of these horses til I started looking at the paperwork that came with her. I adopted her from a rescue here in West Virginia. We have put alot of work into her. She loves poptarts. If you would like pictures of her just email me and I will send them out to you.
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Brilliant Post. How can adopters come forward to adopt a reasonable number of wild horses when the BLM allows situations like these to happen. It is a common event though 200 is a tragic number of lives. Breeding and not feeding is torture and it fills the adoption pipeline to way past overflow.
And there will always be those who jump forward to protect the abuser. Very sad and their names all of them should be made public.
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Brilliant Post. How can adopters come forward to adopt a reasonable number of wild horses when the BLM allows situations like these to happen. It unfortunately a common event though 200 is a tragic number of lives. Breeding and not feeding is torture and it fills the adoption pipeline to way past overflow.
And there will always be those who jump forward to protect the abuser. Very sad and their names all of them should be made public.
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You are right, about the others, why didn’t they yell for help.. They are quilty too. Harley and Cheyenne are fat and sassy, and they have great minds, but they were only weanlings when this happened.
I wrote the BLM about this and they told me that once they are adopted they have nothing to do with them, unless they are still BLM horses staying on a ranch. I think he had 5 BLM owned horses and only one was alive, I wonder why the BLM isn’t doing anything about the 4.
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And I’d also like to add, when I look at before and after pictures I still cry.
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It is always what I ask How could peole not know what was going on. My husband grew up in a tiny Kansas town and everyone knew everything.So many must have know on one level or another that things were very wrong at 3strikes!?? Isn’t it always amazing and tragic that dogs kids wives horses have to reach such a desperation point for anyone/someone to say STOP! I guess that makes me a furious old busy body but If we don’t stand up and speak out Before the bodies pile up then the guilt goes way beyond the abuser!
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Marine Bob: I hope they make an example of this monster. Usually in animal matters a slap of the wrist suffices. I sincerely hope they sentence him on each of the 145 class 4 felonies and then throw the key away. They should also charge everyone that aided and abetted including his wife. She is obviously no better than this bum. They should impose the maximum and then give it national exposure as a message to others not to repeat this kind of behavior with any animal.
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Everyone with knowledge who allowed this to happen should be incarcerated with very little food given to them. It is time for this country to stop allowing cruelty to animals.This man knew exactly what he was doing and so did others involved.
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Let’s hope this sets the tone for any who follow Jason’s path. Abusers beware!
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I thought the image given to me from Dianna was to this case of horror.Her report still chills my soul. I don’t see justice for those horses who suffered, our system is too ‘humane’ for that. Poision, mysterious illness? How many vets were called to render aid? When I board my little Rowan she has a vet a phone call away for anything that could be an issue. She is fully aware that her needs are top of the list. These horses deseved no less. Human ego is deadly to horses and other animals. That ego even destroys the human in the end. What will it take for people to really open their eyes and stop this madness? How can anyone see this happening and not stop it? You are right RT more than Meduna has a debt to pay.
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As I stated earlier, with pending litigation on behalf of the mustangs/burros, if those attorneys and welfare groups (plaintiffs) don’t use this as an example of the icompetence, negligence and destruction of the herds as an exhibit or point of law at trail…well then….they too become part of the problem.
Remember, BLM has already secured contracts for the so-called sanctuaries involving the massive numbers of equines in holding and in round-up plus relocation as we speak.
Anyone think they’ll do the same kind of checking and follow-up they demonstrated with Meduna? No doubt in my mind. I for one would love to see how the RFP and selection/award process was consucted. What’s the ownership language most of all. I am also waiting to see a copy of the Calico Complex Injunction Relief documents and the pleading to violation of the warehousing violates 1971 Act language and intent.
I’d pay a $1000 bucks to know who the COR was for Meduna and is for pending sanctuary locations.
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Sorry. The following “…how the RFP and selection/award process was consucted…” should have read “conducted”, but consuc(k)ted sort of fits.
Freudian slip?
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RT, I have asked the same questions. How is that they both lied to me on the phone about the shape our rescues horses were and get away with it. Not until Dr. Bill arrived back in San Diego did we know he was mal-nurished and sick requiring hospitalization – then on Sept. 13, 2009 he died because he never did recover from what happened at the hands of BOTH Jason and Anissa. They asked for funds to feed the horses and never even told me one of ours was sick – that money could have been used to get him vet care a month earlier.
How does she get a pass from the AG for taking funds donated to buy hay for the horses and using it to bail his sorry ass out of jail? Was there a deal made by Jason and the Sheriff?
And Ray Fields – what a joke. Birds of a feather… He has killed plenty of BLM mustangs in his time and has avoided federal prosecution. He must have given Jason first hand advice on how to escape being prosecuted for killing/starving BLM mustangs.
And finally the BLM. The BLM has a history of selling Mustangs loaded with worms, not up to date on vacines, pregnant and with horrible feet. How could they have come out and inspected the place and not seen ANYTHING amiss?
Jason deserves every day he gets in Jail and probably more, but why are others not being charge or held accountable for their actions or lack there of???
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edit to above post “Ray Fields has starved/neglected mustangs in his care (I am not aware of any deaths)”
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hello; my 2 cents is: what could have caused so many horses to perish in a group like that? I have seen plenty of pix of “starving animals in Africa since a child
in National Geo. and the pix I see: the animals go off by themselves; not a group
I find it difficult to believe so many wild mustangs met such a terrible fate at the hands of the US Gov. not inspecting the place; I have never seen such cruelty
esp. the little foal who dug grooves with his hooves; and the BLM says “nothing ?
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ps i don’t understand how so many horses could have perished from “starvation; I see brown grass growing? why didn’t the horses eat the old brown grass and hay growing naturally in the field to survive; i would suspect this then; the horses
were not given enuf water; and they perished due to lack of water; not lack of food; so has anyone investigated how much water they were given to make sure this does not happen again ?
The Good News ? “Tis articles like this which will SHUT DOWN the BLM “for good !
pps hmmmmm…wonder if Diane Sawyer has seen these; I WILL SEND W-ABC THESE PIX !
(Thank you R.T. for posting these pix !…)”never seen anything like this; “ever!
SAVE THE WILD MUSTANGS;THE WILD PLACES;THE WILDLIFE;MOTHER NATURE RULES FOREVER!
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Are there any updates to this story? Is Ray Fields still running his Mustang “rescue?”
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