Investigators arrived at 8:30am. In the parking lot, trailers were lined up to unload horses. There were already close to 30 horses in the pen area. Most of the pens had no water or feed. Several of the pens were extremely muddy and the horses were standing in mud above their fetlocks. All horses were in good condition with the exception of 1 severely emaciated, blind horse (BCS 2), 4 horses with overgrown hooves and 1 horse with a facial wound. The emaciated horse was a 20 year old bay gelding, sale tag # 108. He was brought in from Gypsum, CO.
Kill buyer Jason Fabrizius arrived with his medium size semi and long stock trailer and backed into the chute area. He moved 3 horses and a mule out of the pens, saddled them and then tied the animals to the trailer.
At 10:40am, Charles Carter arrived in his burgundy pickup truck with stock trailer. The auction started at 1:00pm. 118 horses sold in 2 hours and Carter & Fabrizius bought a lot of them. Again, Carter was observed driving the price up on horses the local rescue organization wanted to buy.
Nevertheless, the Spirit Wind Horse Rescue was able to save 7 horses, among them the emaciated gelding and the horse with the facial injury. Animals’ Angels is currently investigating the previous owner and will follow up with local law enforcement.
We would like to thank Spirit Wind for saving these horses and for their assistance with this investigation!