Tennessee Walking Horse performing running walk (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
HSUS Press Release
HSUS Reacts to Guilty Pleas in Federal Horse Abuse Case
In the wake of The Humane Society of the United States’ undercover investigation into the shocking abuse of Tennessee Walking Horses, notorious trainer Jackie McConnell pleaded guilty yesterday to a felony conviction for charges related to conspiracy to violate the Horse Protection Act. Two of McConnell’s associates also pleaded guilty to related charges.
The HSUS expresses its thanks to U.S. Attorney William C. “Bill” Killian and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Steven S. Neff and M. Kent Anderson for pursuing criminal charges for violations of the HPA, and congratulates them on securing guilty pleas, including McConnell’s guilty plea to the charge of felony conspiracy—the most serious of the 52 counts in the federal indictment handed down by a federal grand jury in February. Federal charges are still pending against a fourth individual charged in the case. McConnell and two others also face 31 counts of violating Tennessee’s state animal cruelty statute in a separate matter that is still pending.
“Although the Horse Protection Act has been in place for more than 40 years, violators have seldom been prosecuted,” said Keith Dane, director of equine protection for The HSUS. “The McConnell case, and the conviction and imprisonment earlier this year of Barney Davis—another Tennessee horse trainer—send a clear message to anyone who sores a gaited show horse that soring is a federal crime, and the government will prosecute violators. We thank the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Office of Inspector General, and Federal Bureau of Investigation for their work in these cases, and urge the federal government to continue to make enforcement of the Horse Protection Act a top priority.”
For seven weeks in 2011, The HSUS conducted an undercover investigation in McConnell’s Whitter Stables, showing individuals abusing horses by using painful chemicals on the horses’ front legs to force them to perform an artificially high-stepping gait for show competitions. The footage also shows horses being brutally whipped, kicked, shocked in the face, and violently cracked across the heads and legs with heavy wooden sticks. The nation was shocked when this inexcusable cruelty was released to the public on ABC’s Nightline last week.
The HSUS investigator documented McConnell soring Moody Star, the winner of the 2010 Celebration Reserve World Grand Champion owned by Wilsene Moody. Some in the Tennessee Walking Horse industry deny that soring is still a pervasive part of the training process used to produce the “Big Lick” – the gait frequently accomplished by mechanical or chemical soring – that wins ribbons and titles at breed competitions. But at the 2011 Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration, 52 of the 52 horses randomly chosen by the USDA tested positive for prohibited foreign substances applied to their pasterns. Foreign substance violation rates (for soring, numbing, or masking agents) at all USDA-inspected shows were 86 percent in 2010 and 97.6 percent in 2011, an indication that soring is widespread in the Tennessee Walking Horse industry. At the time of The HSUS’s investigation, McConnell was under a five-year federal disqualification from participating in horse shows – yet continued to train horses and get them into the show ring.
The HSUS has long been dedicated to ending this inhumane practice, and in the wake of this investigation, will be doing even more to root out and expose the terrible abuses of show horses. Significant reforms to the HPA are needed and we will be working with Congress to strengthen the law, toughen the penalties, and provide adequate funding to give USDA the tools it needs to stamp out this cruel practice once and for all.
Related articles
- Abuses Are Rampant in Tennessee Walking Horse Industry (rtfitchauthor.com)
- Horse Training Abuse Case Gains Momentum as PepsiCo Pulls Support from Shows (rtfitchauthor.com)
Categories: Equine Rescue, Horse Health, Horse News
Straight from the Horse's Heart 
Now we just have to get on the racing industry. They need to stop the drugs, stop running horses too young and take care of the athletes who make them their money. Then we need to stop the pro-slaughter horse eaters and all will be good in the equine industry. LOL!!
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Well done, HSUS. They deserve this feather in their cap. This disgusting practice has gone on, virtually unrestrained for at least the 50+ years I’ve been alive. The TWH was my mother’s favorite breed of horse, and she passed that love down to me. She used to tell me how they would put huge screws in the horses’ soles, or golf balls between those stacked pads and their soles to cause the pain that would make them jerk their front feet off the ground. Things haven’t changed much over the last 50 years, except the methods. Anything metal or hard, like the golf balls, now show up on xray machines, so they’ve resorted to chemicals. I wonder what they’ll do next? They have devious and horrific ways to hide the soring process, like attaching an alligatorclip to a battery and then to the horses’ genitals, and if the horse finches during inspection they are zapped.
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Dumb cell phone, I wasn’t finished! Anyway, that “zapping” is done during training, and there are several other awful methods, like the kind this criminal got caught doing. The Celebration brings in such huge revenue, and most of the townspeople, including city government employees, are involved. Are they really likely to give up the income generated by local fans and unwitting tourists? $41 million a year is a lot of money.
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wow, the genital zapping is horrific! i think they need to outlaw this form of competition, as it seems almost all trainers are using artificial methods involving terrible abuse to these innocent animals! god bless the hsus for their investigation. to hell with mc’connell…i hope they throw the key away!
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Another thing that stands out to me anyway is in the first picture. I was always taught as a youngster that the longer the shank the more severe the bit is–which causes more pain in the mouth. It requires a super gentle touch to handle a horse with this kind of bit and not someone who will constantly yank on the horses head.
Has this changed over time?
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What about the 52 horses that were checked last year and were positive for substances – were the trainers charged in those cases? Seems like that needs to be done every year and consequences implemented for horses that are positive.
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Why just charge the trainers. What about the owners? Why do you think they are doing this? So the owners can win a silly ribbon or trophy.
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I am tearing up with delight. I hope Mr. McConnell gets the maximum penalty allowed by law. He deserves more then that in my eyes. I can still hear that poor horse screaming. Thank you HSUS for opening the public’s eyes to this cruelty. Like Lynette said, “now let’s get the racing industry and all the rest to stop their cruelty.”
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If you go to the Tennessee Walking Horse Association page, you will find many people defending this “sport” saying there are only a few bad apples—-
“but at the 2011 Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration, 52 of the 52 horses randomly chosen by the USDA tested positive for prohibited foreign substances applied to their pasterns.”
That’s pretty much ZERO good apples in the bunch tested. I put this sport on par with dog fighting and cockfights. No difference. Animals suffering for ribbons and money for humans. Shut it down. If one cannot see the beauty in the natural gait of a horse and you shouldn’t have horses. Period. I for one could never watch a show without seeing the pain inflicted on the animal in the ring.
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i couldn’t agree more…shut them down!
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What part do judges and other show personnel play in this? Are they not rewarding abusive and ridiculous extremes? They do know what it takes to get this terrible stage. STOP REWARDING ABUSE; a huge factor in such practices. In addition to trainers and owners, associations that allow for this are also culpable. They should not look the other way. It needs to stop at a much higher level than trainers and stables. And, yes, this isn’t just Walkers; there are many abuses across the board in many disciplines. Wherever there is money and prestige, there is abuse in some form at some level. This is NOT the spirit of the horse we are looking at and it doesn’t take an honest horseman to recognize that.
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Many of the judges who judged part time in the beginning now make their livings from judging full time at big shows all over the country (probably Internationally too), and at the top levels, judging pays very well indeed. They know that in order to NOT be blackballed from getting judging jobs if they “step on the wrong peoples toes”, they have to place the most powerful and influential owners, breeders and trainers horses, otherwise they will get NO jobs. Its a trade-off between making a good living OR doing the right thing and blowing the whistle on the abuses. ANYONE involved in showing TWH’s at the Big Lick type shows (IOW, not the natural TWH shows that are gaining popularity) is involved in the abuses, even if they aren’t the ones actually applying the caustic agents, smacking the horses in the heads with wooden sticks or even pipe metal, shoeing the horses with the stacks and running hot nails, etc. Yes, I’m saying even the kids are involved because kids are NOT stupid and they see and hear whats going on. The kids are learning to turn a blind eye to abuse because its become “normal behavior” to them (no different than a man beating a woman and the son thinking its O.K. to beat women because his dad did it to his mom) in order to be competitive.
It always go back to the MONEY for most of the humans involved in this cruel racket; the breeders making the money selling their horses and stud fees, the trainers needing to WIN in order to collect the highest training fees, the judges needing to make a living now that they judge fulltime and quite often no longer have a clientele as a trainer, the grooms needing a job, the show management needing to put on a lucrative, successful show that brings in the money AND the sponsors, the personel at the shows needing to make their money, etc. Then we have the owners who are in it not only for the money, which is actually somewhat secondary to many of them because their livihood is not from the horse biz per se and their money-making careers are in other areas; its primarily for the glory, their egos being fed, and the power it gives them in the industry.
ALL of the people I have outlined above are a part of this racket, and they should all be subject to prosecution. They all should also be subject to lifetime barring of participation at TWH shows if they are found guilty and/or do a plea bargain (as what happens in probably 90% of any court cases in the US), and just so they don’t shift to torturing another breed of horse, they should also be subject to being on probation and scrutiny for ANY type of competitions.
These penalties need to happen to protect the horses who do not have a voice, and certainly don’t have a protector when the people that profess to “love” horses either allow this crap to happen, or in fact are the perpetrators of the abuses.
When there are severe consequences, only then will the abuses stop, and since the TWH industry at the “Big Lick” level is so corrupt at this point, it cannot be cleaned-up from within, so the rest of us who have nothing to lose (or gain) from speaking up and defending the horses need to “take the reins” of this issue so-to-speak and put a stop to this criminal, UNCIVILIZED and immoral behavior against horses.
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Keith Dane, director of equine protection for The HSUS. Can we contact him about the wild horses and horse slaughter?????? There are plenty of videos for him to see, or does the BLM have him in their pocket??
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I don’t know about the HSUS and Keith Dane and knowing what the BLM is doing, but its similar to what I wrote above about people turning a blind eye to abuses because they need to make a living.
I’ve been dealing with the BLM adopting Mustangs for 20 years now and I have to say, every person I’ve dealt with at the adoption level who is not a “mover and shaker” in Washington D.C. where all of the “real” decisions are made are really nice people who for the most part seem to really care about the wild horses. A few of them through the years have even spoken to me “off the record” and told me they completely agree with managing the wild horses and burros primarily in the wild and on the range. However, there is the money issue of needing to make a living, and since a government job with the BLM isn’t quite the same as a private sector job and probably pays better then many of the jobs out there, these people are concerned about losing their jobs if they “whistle blow” and/or express their opinion that doesn’t jive with the racket thats being run. I for the most part have spent my life self-employed, however, I have worked “regular” jobs throughout the years that paid well (usually commission sales on large items like manufactured homes, trucks, horse trailers, real estate, etc) and have gone on to lose a few well paying jobs because of corruption I saw in an industry and that I wouldn’t go along with. I spoke up and soon thereafter, even when I was the #1 salesperson, I’d be “let go”, put on probation for made-up things and then let go, etc. Sure, it wasn’t pleasant to be out of a well paying job, however, its more unpleasant to deal with my conscience eating away at me, especially when their are lives involved that are effected negatively. NO JOB is worth so much to me that I could ever put aside exposing wrong and/or illegal doings in any industry, so me ever being a BLM employee are slimmer than none.
I do believe that when the house of cards that is the BLM’s so-called “management” of the wild horses and burros begins to topple, we will then have employees and former employees of the BLM come out with the crap that went down/is going down in that government entity. Going further however, I’d love to see the IRS look at the tax records on the cattle ranchers who collect subsidies from us taxpayers on businesses that would NOT stay in operation if not for the money that totals in the multi-millions that taxpayers are forced to pay annually.
THAT’S what I’d like to see because I can certainly say that if my business wasn’t making money without money infused from another source, the chances of me collecting subsidies from taxpayers would be slimmer than none. If I don’t make money in my business, I won’t be in business anymore, plain and simple. In the case of the Open Range public-land cattle ranchers, I would like to see the playing field leveled, not pay them subsidies anymore, and if they can still stay in business standing on their own two feet, I’d have more respect for them and wouldn’t feel like I’m fighting for the lives of the horses and burros on public land against the ranchers AND our own government.
As it is now, I know they would NOT be able to stay in business without forced taxpayer money flowing in every year, so quite frankly, we need an investigation opened on them and I’d also like to find out who the people/players are in Washington D.C. (where the decisions are made and that is why the cattle ranching industry has such a powerful lobby there) who are allowing the American taxpayers to be ripped off and have their money taken out of our pockets to support an industry that only produces 2-3% of the beef produced in the US (IOW, every, single one of the Open Range cattle ranchers/corporations could go out of business tomorrow and I could still drive to my local supermarket and buy a really good steak produced by a private cattle rancher who doesn’t rip me off as a taxpayer).
Open Range cattle ranching may have been lucrative and perhaps necessary many, many moons ago, but in the present time, its a loser proposition for all of us taxpayers, and would also be a total loser for the Open Range cattle ranching industry if not for the money taxpayers are forced to pay them in order to keep their antiquated and loser businesses going.
We need more scrutiny where the decisions are actually made in D.C. that affect the wild horses and burros, the environment of our Open Range, and also that affects ALL of us taxpayers, whether a wild horse and burro lover or not.
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You are correct that the cattle raised on public lands represent a tiny, miniscule percentage of our beef supply. If they all went out of business tomorrow, we wouldn’t even notice. That is why we are supporting a LIFESTYLE more than anything else. Welfare ranching is a lifestyle we can no longer afford. And the ranchers seem to think we all owe them this lifestyle generation after generation. Talk about generational welfare queens.
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Yep, and these are many of the same people who will scream bloody murder when a tiny amount of their tax dollars go to help a single mother of 4 or 5 kids whose significant other has perhaps died and/or just up and left her to raise all those kids by herself (and yes, it does work the other way around too with the father left to raise the kids, or even the grand parents on fixed incomes, and this “kinship family” has risen by 18% in a recent study).
I notice over and over again how many people want “less government” that is until its something THEY want and then OMG, “we can’t cut that” is the typical lament. Seriously, I opted not to have human children, however, I don’t complain about some of my tax dollars going to pay for public schools for those people who chose to have kids but can’t afford a private school or in fact want to utilize the public school system (and I feel I received a very good public school system education). I guess my hope is that more people will see it as the trade-off that I do in that often we pay for things that don’t matter one bit to us and other people end up paying with their tax dollars for things that don’t matter to them (like wild horses and burros being managed in the wild instead of so many in long term holding for instance). But nooo, we’ll always have those people who want their cake and want to eat it too.
Back to the TWH abuse issue: here is a URL to a very timely YouTube video showing a warmblood and a TWH in a dressage exhibition with a good narration from a dressage judge: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vm0L5RE3l1E
Now I will say that I’ve started quite a few gaited horses of various breeds in under saddle training utilizing classical dressage fundamentals (combined with other methods) and all of those gaited horses are now (and were) fine riding horses in various disciplines. However, back when I started working with gaited horses, there were always those people very traditionally involved with gaited horses who said the horses were “different” besides just their gaits and they couldn’t be trained with dressage principles because it could “ruin their gait”. A bunch a crap back then 30 years ago, and still crap now when I still meet people who believe it.I think one of the keys to change here is educating as many people as we can regarding the money driven “traditional” (only traditional in the past 40 or so years because these abuses evolved once again from the “fad training” garbage that I’ve written about before whereby the powerful people in any facet of the horse show world seek to have an edge over the other competitors, at least for a little while, and then have to come up with another “fad training” method in order to pull ahead competitively again, and the cycle continues into more and more ridiculous and/or abusive “training”) types of training rehtoric that those who are determined to stay on top in the competitive world will spout……they know if they say it enough times that many will believe it as gospel and will follow their lead whether abusive, ridiculous, crummy horsemanship and training or not. Even the folks who never in a million years would abuse their horses like what was on the video that exposed those monsters still often think that “you can’t train a gaited horse with “regular” training methods (i.e.-dressage fundamentals)–because it will ruin their gaits”. I used to hear the same thing with TB racehorses that “you’d take the run out of them” if you trained them to0 much (i.e.-lateral flexion, acceptance of the bit, developing roundness, etc)—that also was a load of garbage too.
I guess as the saying goes “seeing is believing” is most often true, so I hope we see more videos like the one I posted above to show people a different and better way to approach training gaited horses without ruining their gait in the least and then maybe the abusive bullcrap will go away because of better ways to train gaited horses AND create physical, mental and emotional longevity in the breed as well.
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fantastic letter…god bless you for putting your conscience before your wallet! i totally agree…and am trying to help the horse sanctuaries as much as i can. i’m so happy that madeleine pickens is finally moving forward with the blm in her 1 million acre horse sanctuary plans! note that the blm is ONLY participating because a judge forced them to do so. before that, they were using smoke and mirrors and refusing to move forward. i hate them!
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The HSUS is very aware of horse slaughter and also the danger to our wild horses. I recommend you go to their website and read up.
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i’m sure he’s not in the blm’s pocket…the hsus is only interested in helping innocent animals. that is a great idea. i am very involved and committed to helping the wild horses and fight the blm. madeleine pickens is now working with the blm to set up her 1 million acre sanctuary. she is starting with 1,000 horses from blm pens and hopes to get all the horses out of blm pens. god bless her!
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Although I’m on-board to an extent with Madeline Pickens sanctuary, I and a lot of other advocates I know will continue to fight for the wild horses and burros to be managed in the wild and on the Open Range which is legally AND rightfully theirs…….to knuckle under to the factions who are determined to take over the public open range and fence it off for their own private business interests while we tax payers will NOT have access to it but will still be forced to pay subsidies with OUR tax dollars to these mostly corporate private business interests is absolutely unacceptable.
Quite frankly, the only reason that Elko County continues to fight Madeline Pickens sanctuary is because her sanctuary will not only use her private land, but also leased Open Range, and the plan by the private business interest factions is for the wild horses and burros to be OFF the Open Range entirely so they can take it over. By the terms of the 1971 protection act, as long as the wild horses and burros are on the public Open Range (BLM range), they MUST be allowed to roam freely. As long as this is the case, the ranchers and other factions CANNOT put up fences on the public Open Range wherever they want because that could fence the horses, who are nomadic and actually migrate/roam in vast areas from water source to water source, off from water sources and forage.
Before the Open Range cattle ranchers started using solar powered wells/water sources, their cattle also had to roam between water sources and fences would have inhibited that roaming and the cattles access to water. However, with solar power now available to operate wells/water sources, the ranchers want to be able to fence off vast tracts of Open Range and rotate pasture for their cattle. This will effectively start the complete takeover of the public Open Range which we pay for with our tax dollars because OUR Open Range will be totally under the control of the private business interest factions.
I live in Northern Nevada, about 3-4 hours away from Madeline Pickens sanctuary. I also live surrounded by Open Range, however, over just the past 9 years, I have encountered fences blocking the public from going onto the public/BLM range to horse back ride, ride ATV’s/Quads, motorcycles, fish, etc, with NO gates, not even ranch gates, for miles and miles. This is just a small taste of what will happen once the wild horses and burros are eradicated from the Open Range; fences wherever the private business factions choose to put them up but we the public will still be forced to pay subsidies to private business interests even though we will NOT have the beautiful wild horses for us to see out grazing peacefully, we will not be able to go on the range without being forced off of it by men with guns (and I’ve had some ranchers on a few occassions try to bully me off open range, but because I can be rather aggressive with my big mouth, even with men with guns, they backed off and let me alone) because we are tresspassing.
Sanctuaries for wild horses that are privately owned land are NOT the answer for most of the wild horses and burros. Its great for some carefully chosen younger horses that could be adopted through an adoption program that would not wreck havoc on the genetics of the herd in the wild, it would be good for the much older Mustangs who perhaps are no longer thriving in the wild and perhaps will die a slow, painful death through starvation/dehydration because they can no longer keep up with the herd and there are relatively few natural predators to cull them because the ranchers “sanitize” (kill) them every year before they turn their cattle out on winter pasture on the range from November to May, it would be good for the horses who have injuries that didn’t heal well, or horses/burros born with birth defects that the BLM will “euthanize” after captures (like the club-footed colt I was asked to adopt at a trap site capture who was going to be “euthanized” –IOW, shot, at the site rather than take him to a BLM facility), and it would also be good as an educational facility to really teach people what is going on with THEIR Open Range and how it is being taken from us by PRIVATE business interest factions who expect we the public to continue to pay through subsidies for them to run their businesses with NO benefit to us in the least.
Yes, I want to see Madeline Pickens sanctuary become a reality, but I haven’t heard from Madeline about my opinions, and I know that none of the other advocates I know who are also locals have heard from her either, on our ideas on how the wild horses, many of which we see every day, should be managed and what our opinions are in terms of the issues we live with every day. Until she includes people who actually live here and really have the interests of wild horses and burros at the forefront of our everyday lives, she will continue to encounter resistance not only from the private business interest factions, but also from many of us who are fighting for “balance on the range” and will not stand idlely by as the horses and burros are eradicated entirely off the open range and are finally relegated to only privately owned land as what the factions are pushing to make happen so they will literally “own the range” without paying for it. That will NOT happen on our watch if we can help it………
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I think some of these people have gone crazy..If people only knew how cruel some trainers are in all the breeds it would make you throw up! The devices that some of the trainers use to produce these gaits are tortureous to say the least. The Walking horse people have always been known to be the worse. Some in the Arabian breed are no better. However, USEF (United States Equestrian Federation) rules are being more enforced now that in the past at breed shows. The Arabain Horse Association maintains the Equine Stress committee which addresses issues such as cruelty and other diseases effecting our horses. Members can address their concerns through this committee. This is at least a start and they have passed resolutions at the national convention to try and control some of this abuse. However, it still is imperative that the abuse is reported. I don’t think the breed associations come down as hard as they should on violators. There was an Arabian trainer who cosmetically had a stallion altered. This guy was suspended for a certain length of time. Was his business effected? Not hardly because his brother was also a partner in the training business. I believe all those connected with the training farm should have been eliminated in the show ring period. It is a wonder we have any horses because of the greed that is a part of this industry. The bottom line is the violators MUST BE REPORTED, MUST BE FINED AND POSSIBLY JAIL TIME. The sad part about this is that other major criminals are being left out of prison because of the overcrowding. Prison is not a fitting place for these people – These violators should suffer the same treatment – Lets apply acid to their feet and hook wires up to their genitals and see how it feels. And each time they scream in pain the should be told to remember the all the poor animals that they did this to. We all as horse men and women have got to start taking an active role in stopping all the inhumane treatment in all aspects of the horse industry. As I have said before as a past hooved humane investigator the BLM should be charged for the cruelty that they are constantly inflicting against our Wild Horses and Burros because no matter how you they try to defend it, it still falls under the inhumane treatment to animals. Its a shame that the federal government interprets the law so loosely.
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Word is out that Jackie McDonnell cut a plea bargain and will only get probation, IF the judge agrees.
In an article by Duane Gang writing for The Tennessean: “The guilty plea is not final until U.S. District Court Judge Harry S. Mattice, Jr., accepts the agreement. That decision is expected at a Sept. 10 sentencing hearing. Carter said he would recommend Mattice accept the plea agreement but would point out the provision on probation. He called it unusual. If Mattice does not accept the plea agreement, McConnell would have the right to withdraw his guilty plea and go to trial.”
One commenter, Peggy Kuhn, wrote “Please to all invloved and following the Walking Horse verdict on Jackie McConnell I just spoke with the Judges office…They ask that we all write letters concerning this matter hand written or typed letters no e-mails or calls…..LETS START WRITING AS MANY LETTERS AS WE CAN. ….Send to 900 Georgia Ave. RM#104 Chattanoga TN.37402 Attention Judge Mattice Jr. LETS GET TO WORK to get the maximum sentence…”
Perhaps if the judge can hear from all of us just what we think of this farce of a deal, then perhaps he will reject it and Jackie McConnell and company will have to stand trial for their crimes and face true punishment. This man’s past history of soring violations date back to 1979 and should count for something – old age indeed! If he can abuse an animal, he can do the time.
Folks, let’s do as Peggy has asked and let the letter writing to Judge Mattice begin. It appears that WE, and not the prosecutors, are now the only voice for those horses. Let’s do our best to see that real justice is served.
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They should lock them up and throw away the key.
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The practice or knowingly and deliberately causing torture and suffering to innocent and defenseless living beings is completely without justification or excuse and is highly objectionable!! It is CRIMINAL and Sadistic and MUST be STOPPED!
Consider the outrage that went up about “waterboarding” of the prisoners accused of terrorist acts against the USA. Yet.. how much WORSE the torture that people put the horses through – constantly, for countless years of suffering – and where’s the outrage?? Where’s the outrage about the mistreatment, removal, and endless trauma BLM inflicts on the Wild horses and burros??
We have to do everything in our power to speak up and register our outrage for the innocent ones who can not speak for themselves.
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SO HAPPY jerk McConnell finally had to be accountable for his actions…reports state it has been going on for years; just think of all those horses under his sadistic care. An old Indian legend is when you abuse or kill an animal for the “sport” of it, your soul will never rest….you are going to be quite tired Jackie……you are a piece of shit!
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NOW… to shut down the industry altogether. For it IS an INDUSTRY where only the people.. (the abusers… the selfish owners.. the violent trainers) benefit, while the innocent, defenseless horses suffer horrific torture to make huge winnings and stud fees for those who care nothing for their “Golden Goose”.
One can only hope that some kind of justice will be meted out beyond the grave. Because, they certainly are getting off light when the “legal” system deals with them. If any punishment at all is alotted to the criminal abusers, it does not fir the crime, and too often, they go right back to the same evil practice under another name, some even stepping up the level of violence, as if to punish the horses for themselves getting caught.
There could be nothing worse than harming, torturing and killing the innocent and defenseless, unless it is profiting from those evil deeds.
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Hello, 26 years ago I lived in Tennessee. A man outside of the town of Lewisburg hired me to help train the walkers. It was my first time working with horses. Things were fine for a while. One evening he gave me a jar of some kind of ointment. Told me to rub it on this one horse’s front legs. He told me to be careful not get it on my skin. I done what I was told. Then wrapped the legs also like I was told. The next morning I went to get the horse out of it’s stall, but it was down. The guy came, forced the horse up. It was so bad. It was literally walking on it’s back legs. If the horse stopped, he would hit it with a big stick. I saw him hit it the first time, I quit. If I had known what that ointment was gonna do to such a beautiful creature, I would have left the minute he asked me to put it on.
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