To the Editor:
(Regarding “Waldoboro Police make arrest in horse abuse case,” Page 1, 1/21/10)
“Milena, who requested her last name not be published, adopted a mother and baby. The mother was going to be put down due to an untreated knee problem.
“Her knee is the size of a grapefruit,” Milena said. “She’s not ride-able, but she seems okay. She has the sweetest disposition, and sometimes now she’s bucking and acting like a normal horse.”
That horse, the Cremello Mare was given to Mr. Genthner a few years ago with that “knee problem.” That knee problem was examined by doctors and deemed untreatable. To say or infer that this is the fault of Mr. Genthner just epitomizes the inflammation and lack of facts printed in the media. It is pure assumption and putting that mare down based on that assumption would have been the real crime.
She always behaved like a “normal” horse and she hasn’t been “ride-able” for many years. I am sure there are medical records and vet testimony as well as grain and hay receipts readily available to anyone who cares to investigate. Researching the facts should be done before inferring anything.
I have known Don Genthner for years, and at one time he took care of my horses. In my estimation, Mr. Genthner is the most kind and caring horse owner I have met in Maine. I would trust him implicitly with any of my animals. Certain people wanted some of his horses and he would not sell and this is how the vitriolic crusade began.
I think Mr. Genthner needs to speak out and tell his side of the story and sue everyone proven to have spoken or acted from malice and lies. There is a saying “If you are looking for something wrong, you can find it”; everything lies in people’s choice of perception.
I could go into the nicest and cleanest barn and find something wrong if I wanted to. Fact is, most horse owners are somewhat negligent and/or abusive in one way or another. Some don’t worm often enough, some skimp on grain and hay during the winter, some beat or whip their horses, some leave their horses out in snow and rain, some don’t get farrier service except once a year. Some don’t get shots, some don’t muck daily, some keep their horses cooped up in barns, some feed their horses chocolate and junk, some never groom or bathe their horses, some leave their horses to graze amid toxic plants and I could go on and on.
In fact, some of the “horse people” who have now turned their backs on Mr. Genthner are guilty themselves of much of the negligence and many of the cruelties mentioned above. If people want a witch burning, they should examine themselves and the state of Maine.
If hardship hits horse owners, Maine does not provide emergency Vet care or feed and hay vouchers. Some people are forced to sell their horses and sometimes can’t before the animals suffer, but the state and the animal control folks are quick to jump on a witch hunt to avoid the state’s brutal inadequacies. If Maine really cared about its animals, there would be services and feed available in times of need.
In places where winters are hard and heat is so expensive, there should be help for animals too, during the crisis, not after the fact.
“You cannot separate the just from the unjust and the good from the wicked; for they stand together before the face of the sun even as the black thread and the white are woven together. And when the black thread breaks, the weaver shall look into the whole cloth,
and he shall examine the loom also.” …Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet
Leslie Schafer, Frankfort
