Unanswered Questions, Unreleased Paperwork Hamper Efforts to Clarify Lyme Horse’s Demise
The reason for loss of life and burial location of a Lyme present horse that died below unclear circumstances at a Marlborough boarding barn almost three months in the past stay a thriller to the horse’s proprietor as she awaits the outcomes of an investigation by the state Division of Agriculture.
And requests made greater than three weeks in the past to the division by CT Examiner for public paperwork below state Freedom of Data legal guidelines have gone unfilled. The requests are for reviews of any earlier inspections, complaints or investigations involving the Marlborough barn and the horse transporter that eliminated the horse’s physique from the barn and buried it in an undisclosed location.
An e-mail despatched this week to Agriculture Commissioner Bryan Hurlburt and his workers lawyer, Carole Briggs, asking for the standing of the requests drew no remark from Hurlburt and a one-sentence reply from Briggs.
“I’m nonetheless ready to see what data can be found,” she wrote.
An emailed assertion from the barn’s proprietor to CT Examiner on Friday — the barn’s first public touch upon the matter – learn: “We’re withholding remark so we don’t intervene with the investigation by the state of CT. We shall be blissful to speak to you after they’ve accomplished the investigation and shall be more than pleased to have you ever out to the farm.”
The horse’s proprietor, Dana Ramsey Maxwell, stated she has been rebuffed in persistent makes an attempt to acquire the placement of the physique in order that she will be able to exhume and examine it.
“Are you able to please clarify why I’m not legally allowed entry to my horse – if that’s even my horse?” Maxwell requested investigating state Animal Management Officer Tanya Wescovich in an Oct. 12 e-mail.
“Your lawyer is the one that may have the ability to get you the placement and the permission to entry the physique if it’s potential to take action,” replied Wescovich, who beforehand acknowledged the division is conscious of the burial web site. “I don’t have the authority to offer you or anybody else (together with myself) entry to the property.”
“I don’t want an lawyer to ask questions,” Maxwell wrote to Wescovich. “I’m asking you since you are or have been doing an investigation and figuring out the horse’s physique could be a part of that.”
Maxwell stated Wescovich’s response solely provides to her rising dissatisfaction with the division’s dealing with of the case.
“As a result of they received’t disclose the placement of Beatrix’s physique, I can’t even do my very own investigation,” she stated Friday.
The case has drawn vital consideration within the equine neighborhood and on social media, and Maxwell stated she has obtained info that makes her suspicious concerning the circumstances of the incident.
“I do know sufficient to know that a whole lot of tales aren’t lining up,” she stated Friday.
Wescovich advised Maxwell earlier this month that her preliminary conclusion was that Beatrix died of a mind aneurysm and was not topic to any type of cruelty, based mostly on the opinion of a state veterinarian and a non-public veterinarian contacted by the barn the day of the incident.
It’s unclear if the veterinarians really inspected the horse’s physique or if a necropsy has been achieved – or in the event that they made that discovering solely on witness accounts.
Beatrix was a registered Hanoverian and a champion hunter-jumper whose present title was By All Means.
Maxwell had leased the horse to a Haddam lady who started boarding it on the Marlborough barn on Aug. 31 – 4 days earlier than it died.
In keeping with Maxwell, the Haddam lady advised her that the barn had notified her that Beatrix died of a suspected aneurysm after shaking, rearing up and collapsing whereas being led to a barn from an outside paddock, the place she had spent the night time.
Maxwell stated the transporter she employed to take away Beatrix’s physique from the barn property advised her that it was extraordinarily bloody, bloated and in obvious superior rigor mortis when she arrived a number of hours later.
The transporter, who Maxwell described as a buddy with whom she has achieved enterprise for a decade, has subsequently refused to inform her the place the horse is.
Maxwell stated she is hoping that the investigation will lastly reveal the placement of Beatrix’s physique, and whether or not the loss of life was preceded by violence in any style by an individual or different horses.
She emailed Wescovich on Friday inquiring concerning the standing of the investigation.
“I shall be submitting my report for evaluate shortly,” Wescovich replied, and “I’d think about that will probably be accredited by the tip of subsequent week.”
Maxwell stated the protracted seek for solutions has been painful and all-consuming.
“It’s been distressful past my creativeness,” she stated, “and I’m decided to get the reality.”