After the Webinar: Tomorrow We Ride! Investigating and Processing Equine Cruelty Cases. Q&A with the Presenters

Webinar presenters Kim Mosiman and Linda Fielder answered a number of your questions after their presentation, Tomorrow We Ride! Investigating and Processing Equine Cruelty Cases. Here are just a few of their responses.

Audience Question: Can an animal hoarder or hoarding situation be considered a disaster so that municipalities can use our emergency management staff and tools to assist the animal control agency and the animal control officers?

Linda Fielder: Well, that’s a really great question and really creative thinking. And we often refer to large-scale animal cruelty cases as mass casualty events, just in the way that they have to be approached, and the way those crime scenes are processed. I think, would be worth having that kind of a proactive conversation with the disaster response group, or the city that you’re in a municipality, and see if that’s something that they would be interested in helping you with. And then, developing an MOU if needed for those types of cases. Again, communication and training for both parties are going to be crucial. So, taking that on and having those conversations before you need them is a great way to see it as something that will work for you, and I think that’s a great idea.

Audience Question: We are very limited on equine rescue groups in our region. Are there sample agreements or MOUs that can be shared that can help spark a conversation? And I’m guessing, Linda, you’ve probably seen a few out there.

Linda Fielder: Yeah, for sure. That’s something that Kim or I could help you with offline if you e-mail us and then I should probably let everyone know that. The book that you see on the right there, contains hundreds of usable and editable templates, and sample search warrants, foster care agreements. Everything that really basically everything and more that you need in terms of forms and written resources that you can use in the field right away.

Audience Question: Is founder caused by diet and is it more commonly found in ponies?

Kim Mosiman: Sure, I can take that one. Founder is a type of laminitis, so they can get laminitis from an abscess. They can get laminitis from stress or colic. But the more common one is caused by founder, which is usually this time of year, especially in Oregon. You’ve got sugar-rich diets and an overload that kind of sets up the whole metabolic chain reaction. So, it’s very common to see it as laminitis as caused by foundering. Ponies definitely are more susceptible because their diet requirements are a lot less. And if you see a little pony out on a big, luscious field of grass, I can almost guarantee you that if it’s out there for more than an hour, so that it will have founder. So, definitely, just because they don’t need all those calories, and they certainly don’t need that sugar. —————————————————

Audience Question: Where can they find the book that is on your screen there? Is it at Amazon, or where is it out?

Linda Fielder: It’s available on Amazon. And I believe through Targets online purchasing or you can buy directly from our publisher, which is Wiley Blackwell. But the easiest way is just to go to your Amazon account to the search bar and type in, Victim to Verdict. and that book will come up.