Ailing Horses Taken to Shelter

Two emaciated horses were removed from their Simi Valley home Thursday and taken to an Ojai shelter run by the Humane Society of Ventura County, the shelter director said.

“Those horses should never have suffered so long,” said Jolene Hoffman, who runs the shelter where the horses received immediate veterinary care. “We have to be the voice for these animals. We’re all devastated.”

Humane Society officials said Thursday that they would ask the Ventura County district attorney to file felony animal-cruelty charges against the horses’ owner, who rents a home on Rambling Road in Simi Valley.

The owner’s name was unavailable Thursday.

The 27-year-old mare, weighing about 710 pounds, was about 350 pounds underweight, Hoffman said.

“I’m really concerned about the mare,” she said. “When an animal is so emaciated, the system shuts down and there could be kidney damage and internal injuries.”

The 5-year-old Arabian gelding, a smaller-boned horse weighing about 730 pounds, was about 200 pounds underweight, Hoffman said.

“He is not as underweight and we expect that he will be fine with proper food,” she said.

Humane Society investigators had responded to complaints at the Rambling Road site twice in the past year, Hoffman said. But each time, the horses were not as underweight as they are now and the owner followed the feeding directions of the veterinarian, so the case was closed, she said.

To make a donation to help with the horses’ care, call the Humane Society at 656-5031.