“This should have never happened. This should have been caught months ago,” Ray Field, Executive Director of the Wild Horse Foundation, says as he looks at the field of malnourished horses.

150 horses, so tired they can’t hold up their heads. So weak, they can’t stand. So malnourished, you can see their ribs and back bones.

Officials with the North Texas Humane Society, Hill County Sheriff’s Office and the Wild Horse Foundation seized 150 horses and 50 cows from a ranch in Blum where horse carcasses were scattered on the land.

The owner, who’s accused of neglecting the animals, was arrested after he approached deputies with a shot gun.

Field is now caring for the animals at a ranch in the McLennan County town of Mart.

“My initial reaction was how could somebody actually do this to a living being. And it’s bad, I mean, there are some good horses in here but the majority of these have been starved, it’s bad. There’s no way anybody responsible would do this,” Field says.

Field says the horses were going to be sold to a slaughter house in Mexico.

Now they’ll be nursed back to health, but that comes with a cost; for shots, $100 per horse and food, $2 a day per horse.

But what bothers Field the most is the fact that seizures like this one are expected to be the norm this year because of the economic recession.

“This is probably the first of many seizures we’re going to see here, this year, this size because ranchers are loosing out too. The price of corn’s gone through the roof, price of diesel hasn’t been favorable for us, cost of hay to produce is high with fertilizer and stuff, yes, it’s breaking a lot of small ranchers,” says Field.

In two weeks a hearing will decide which volunteer organization will obtain the horses and after they’re nursed back to health, they’ll be put up for adoption.

Until then, they’ll be in the care of the Wild Horse Foundation.

For more information on adopting one of these horses or to help the Wild Horse Foundation you can go to www.wildhorsefoundation.org.

Reported By: Ashley Goudeau