Edmond ranch will stop taking donations of horses

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By David Zizzo
Published: July 23, 2008

An Edmond boys ranch that for years sold donated horses, some of which may have gone to slaughter, will no longer be accepting donations of horses, a spokesman said on Tuesday.

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Steve Childers, spokesman for the Oklahoma Baptist Homes for Children, said the organization received many e-mails, some expressing outrage and others support, after The Oklahoman published stories about the ranch's policy.

He said the organization's staff decided to no longer accept donated horses.

The ranch, which is home for dozens of boys, keeps only 12 to 15 of the most suitable horses, officials said, and sells the rest to help run the ranch.

Some of the horses might have been bought for slaughter, organization officials said, although the organization does not track who buys.

‘Glad that this is over'
Patti Deiter, who owns a Tuttle horse breeding farm, said two horses she donated to the ranch were sold at auction after she was told the animals would be given a good home.

She said she determined at least one went to a buyer who planned to take the animal to Mexico for slaughter.

She managed to locate the buyer and retrieve the horse, and complained about the ranch's policy.

"That's wonderful,” Deiter said Tuesday after hearing that the ranch no longer will accept donated horses.

"This was just wrong, and it needed to be righted,” she said. "I'm just glad that this is not going to be happening to any other owners or horses. I'm just glad that this is over.”


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I totally agree with Jack!
D, MAYSVILLE - Jul 23, 2008 3:33 PM
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Well said, Jack. Society has turned our morals upside down. When is the life of a child less important than that of a horse or any animal that we choose to make our "soap box" of the week? I'm not thrilled with the idea of slaugtering horses, but who is willing to make up the difference now in their budget? Will you Marjorie?
Janelle, Visalia - Jul 23, 2008 11:11 AM
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Here we have a group of people who are trying to take care of some kids that we as an sophisticated society/government/etc. refuse to care for. Why do we refuse to care for them? Because it costs us time/money/resources that we have, but are unwilling to part with due to our greed. Now remember, these people are caring for our thrown away kids. To fund this effort they take donations of all sorts, and in this case they accepted horses. Some organizations take cars, what do you expect they do with those? Keep them all? No, they keep the best ones to serve their purposes and sell the others at auction to fund the efforts of their cause, and I don't care what they due with my thrown away cars, I just want them to care for my thrown away kids. In this case, we have donated (or thrown away) horses, and for a nice tax write off I would guess due to my greed. Like any smart consumer, they kept the best for themselves to serve the purposes they need and sell the rest at auction to try to offset the expenses of caring for our thrown away kids. The irony of the whole situation is we now have an uproar over a thrown away horses, that we were greedily granted a hefty tax write-off for and not what we should be in uproar over which is the thrown away kids. If you give a care about the horses over the kids, then you have a messed up view of the world, you greedy scum. And scum on the person/reporter who threw these people under the bus over the horses and not seeing the fact that they are taking care of our thrown away kids.

Jack, Oklahoma City - Jul 23, 2008 10:03 AM
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I'm very glad that they did see how wrong this was and that it is now stopped.

Selling horses to slaughter is like following in the steps of Judas.
Marjorie, New York - Jul 23, 2008 6:59 AM
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