Article December 16, 2002 Issue

Comfort welcomed for abused horses

She finds no room for abuse of animals in God's creation.

By Susan Clay

It was anything but a pretty picture. Last month in Houston, Texas, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) gained custody of 17 extremely emaciated horses found in a muddy field south of the city. Another 12 horses in the same grassless pasture were already dead or so weak that they soon expired. Just a few weeks earlier, the SPCA had seized four starving horses from another site. Local TV stations aired both rescue operations on the evening news.

Some observers think the owners, whether intentionally callous or irresponsibly careless, should be made to endure a similar fate. This wish for Wild West justice captures their frustration with tame laws against animal cruelty and lenient enforcement of those laws.

What devastates animal lovers most is that animals often are returned to violators, who go unpunished despite damning evidence against them.

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