Author |
Message |
Greenlantern
| Posted on Tuesday, April 21, 2009 - 08:25 am: |
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http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=7380774&page =1 |
Ft_bstrd
| Posted on Tuesday, April 21, 2009 - 09:16 am: |
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Looks like either intentional or accidental feed contamination. Probably some Animal Liberation Front nut job who thought it would be better to kill the horses than to allow them to be degraded by being forced to play this sadistic game. |
Rfischer
| Posted on Tuesday, April 21, 2009 - 09:22 am: |
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No, it appears the Venezuelan team was targeted. Any number of suspects could have a motive for that. |
Xblaw
| Posted on Tuesday, April 21, 2009 - 09:34 am: |
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It may have not been foul play. Feed will occasionally have unsafe levels of toxins, such as aflatoxins, that can lead to death. The reason it only affected the Venezuelan horses is because they probably brought their own possibly contaminated feed which would limit the toxin intake to their horses. Just a theory. |
Ft_bstrd
| Posted on Tuesday, April 21, 2009 - 09:50 am: |
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Xblaw, my thought exactly. Horse owners nearly always bring their own feed with them. The feed formulations are very exacting particularly for high performance horses like these. If it wasn't intentional, it could have been something contaminating the grasses bailed for feed. Usually horses are finicky and won't eat anything contaminated. This was evidently something that virtually none of the horses detected. |
Jaimec
| Posted on Tuesday, April 21, 2009 - 10:41 am: |
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Being a conspiracy theorist, and knowing how most Americans feel about Chavez, I believe those horses specifically were targetted... |
Ft_bstrd
| Posted on Tuesday, April 21, 2009 - 10:53 am: |
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I seriously doubt that it was political. I don't see horse people doing something like this. |
Wolfridgerider
| Posted on Tuesday, April 21, 2009 - 11:21 am: |
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You wouldn't believe how sensitive a horses digestive system is. My father has a few and when he first started breeding them he was having a lot of foals being stillborn. It ended up being the grass the mares had been eating. I think they can get colic just by thinking about eating the wrong stuff.... |
Ft_bstrd
| Posted on Tuesday, April 21, 2009 - 11:25 am: |
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If the grass is too finely cut, the horse can founder because the grass becomes compacted in the digestive tract. Unlike cows, horses lack multiple stomachs. They must have much higher grade feed in order to be able to pull the nutrients out. Additionally, their tract is much more intense in the way it extracts nutrients. Therefore even small adulterants in the feed are absorbed at a much higher rate than in other animals. It could have been something as simple as exhaust fumes contaminating feed on a flatbed semi. |
Reindog
| Posted on Tuesday, April 21, 2009 - 11:43 am: |
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My client, Don Corleone, doesn't ask for a favor a second time after he has been refused the first time. Kidding aside, this is really sad. |
Court
| Posted on Tuesday, April 21, 2009 - 11:50 am: |
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Great day to be in the dog food business . . . |
Ft_bstrd
| Posted on Tuesday, April 21, 2009 - 12:07 pm: |
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I have a strange interest in horse feed. |
Rfischer
| Posted on Tuesday, April 21, 2009 - 01:14 pm: |
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My eldest daughter is in the GP show-jumping biz. Other than what may be required during transport, feed is bought at the event as needed. Individual barns or trainers may have preferred blends of feeds, supplements, and nutrients, but they source it at the shows and events. It is simply a logistical matter; trucking or flying large quantities of feed with the animals is uneconomic. The apparent "targeting" of the Venezuelan horses may be only a bad lot of feed delivered on one day, or something more sinister. Investigations will no doubt reveal which it is. In any event, a sad situation. Tho' I gotta say, my daughter's profession notwithstanding, personally I'm with Court. I've always considered a horse livestock;, no more than a lifetime supply of dog food that hasn't made it to the can yet. Over the years my daughter has had an occasional horse that seemed to have a fairly agreeable disposition, but I've never been tempted to consider one a pet or a companion. |
Jaimec
| Posted on Tuesday, April 21, 2009 - 01:29 pm: |
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If you've invested in glue companies, expect the price of glue to drop because of an abundance of raw materials... |
Hootowl
| Posted on Tuesday, April 21, 2009 - 04:14 pm: |
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My sister has a horse, and has had one for most of her life. It is an 800 pound money sink that has caused her no end of financial hardship. I wish (and I mean this in the nicest way) that it would die and unburden her. She doesn't feel that way of course. I just don't get it I guess. |
Swordsman
| Posted on Tuesday, April 21, 2009 - 04:26 pm: |
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People have bred those things to a point that they simply can't survive without human intervention (not including wild mustangs). The slightest thing goes wrong and they kick the bucket. Giant useless things IMHO. I'd rather like to try one in burger form. I bet they're tastier than cows. That said, my wife is a horse nut, and has always had one since she was little. I can't complain though, because her horse expenses are the reason I get a bike allowance. ~SM (Message edited by Swordsman on April 21, 2009) |
Fast1075
| Posted on Wednesday, April 22, 2009 - 08:09 am: |
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When I was 8 years old, we had a hurricane come thru that took out the power supplies and flooded the area so bad that you couldn't drive....the National Guard was called in to distribute emergency food and water. One of the food items was canned horse meat...it was actually quite tasty.... |
Jaimec
| Posted on Wednesday, April 22, 2009 - 08:24 am: |
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I haven't seen any follow up stories indicating the cause of death, have you? All we're doing here is speculating... |
Rfischer
| Posted on Wednesday, April 22, 2009 - 09:33 am: |
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Still doing autopsies on the horses and lab work on the suspect feed. |
Midknyte
| Posted on Wednesday, April 22, 2009 - 10:13 am: |
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waiting to hear it was Chinese sourced food... |
Greenlantern
| Posted on Wednesday, April 22, 2009 - 10:22 am: |
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Being a conspiracy theorist, and knowing how most Americans feel about Chavez, I believe those horses specifically were targetted... I was going to state that you were a screw loose chicken little.....then I got this and all the pieces suddenly fell in place
I warned you all!! Now watch, the Swiss will soon be making their move. |
Jaimec
| Posted on Thursday, April 23, 2009 - 11:54 am: |
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Just found this: http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/04/22/polo.horses/index .html I'll put away my aluminum foil hat (for now). (Message edited by Jaimec on April 23, 2009) |
Rfischer
| Posted on Thursday, April 23, 2009 - 12:18 pm: |
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OK - nice to know the probable cause. But still an unpleasant event. |
Scottykrein
| Posted on Thursday, April 23, 2009 - 02:07 pm: |
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Follow up http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/04/23/polo.pony.deaths/ index.html?eref=rss_topstories |
Jaimec
| Posted on Thursday, April 23, 2009 - 02:43 pm: |
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Geez, THAT'S gonna cost 'em a pretty penny... anyone want to take a stab at the price of 21 trained polo ponies?? |
Ft_bstrd
| Posted on Thursday, April 23, 2009 - 03:11 pm: |
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Approximately $2.1M. |
Jaimec
| Posted on Thursday, April 23, 2009 - 03:19 pm: |
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Plus the costs and logistics involved in flying over a team and their support crew to participate in the tournament in the first place... Damn! |
Swordsman
| Posted on Thursday, April 23, 2009 - 03:46 pm: |
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Hope that pharmacy has insurance. ~SM |