Final Day Of Heydon Trial

Yesterday all the testimony was concluded in the Heydon Animal Cruelty trial and the jury began deliberation. The courtroom was still full to overflowing on the third and last day of the trial. The jury was in deliberation late into the night, and will reconvene today at 10:00 am. Last night some of the people who have been attending or following the proceedings gathered to await the verdict and share dinner. During the friendly discussions of the evening, one man said something to effect of: even if these men are not convicted, not held accountable for their indifference to suffering, much good has still come out of the series of events. And that is true - many community members are working very hard for new and effective animal protection legislation, Willing Servants was formed to provide support and services to assist horses and owners, and others in the community consistently make themselves and their resources available for rescue or assistance efforts on their own. In the grand scheme of things, the Heydons are no longer really significant. Working to ensure that people like them cannot just walk away from abuse and neglect, that penalties are in line with offenses, that prosecution is sure and swift and fair, that people in the community have support for their horses when they need it - that is what is really important here now. Let's remain steadfast in our commitment to these excellent efforts.

To see the Ravalli Republic newspaper account of yesterday's testimony, click here.

Media News Today!

This morning Theresa had a great interview on KLYQ talk radio in spite of having a pretty bad cold! She was afraid she would sound like a frog, but sounded downright normal as she used the opportunity to spread the word about the mission of Willing Servants to serve as a safety net for horses and horse owners (maybe they have some kind of a croaky voice filter at the radio station :-) ). She gave details about the upcoming Final Act of Kindness euthanasia service that is scheduled for January 29th, and the exciting keynote lecture by very well-known Douglas Corey DVM coming up on February 10th. Check the website for details about these events.

Also, today Willing Servants' new biweekly column, In The Round Pen, shows up in the Ravalli Republic newspaper. The first article is Knowing When To Report A Case Of Horse Abuse and has some good, concrete information about easy to use body condition criteria and step-by-step guide for how you can determine equine neglect/abuse and what to do about it. If you see what you believe to be neglect or abuse - remember that you may be all that stands between that horse(s) and its suffering. I will get the article posted on the website tonight and add a link to it from this post. Here's the closing paragraph of the article.

"The lord has given us dominion over the animals, but to whom much has been given, much is expected. With horse ownership comes responsibility, 24/7, 365 days a year, especially when it's 20 below."

To link to the full article click here.