Millstone Farm
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I am posting this at the request of Cindy Moses, who has worked very hard to rescue as many of the horses at this farm:
Re: The Upton, Massachusetts Miniature Horse Abuse case
Commonwealth of MA vs Maria Kelleghan and Jerrold Arnowitz
Hello everyone. This is very long. I apologize, but urge you to skip to the end if you are impatient, because I will be asking all of you to send an email in a last desperate attempt to help the remaining horses before winter.
It has been many months now since I last updated you on this case. Progress on its prosecution has been agonizingly slow, with postponement after postponement and numerous requests for delays and pretrial hearings – all on the part of the defendants. The last hearing, for suppression of some of the evidence supplied by MSPCA officials’ testimony, was scheduled for 11/28, and now will be heard on 12/19.
We have not been idle while all this has been going on, and have been tracking the horses as much as possible. To recap, from the original 50 +- found starved and sick and dying last April, 15 were purchased by Jodie-May Rose and her family. These were the most severely debilitated horses on the property. Several died early on, and the rest are in varying stages of recovery. Some may even be available for adoption shortly.
I was personally able to purchase the 15 year old stallion NFC Peppy’s Playmate after months of frustrating and heart wrenching negotiation and disappointment. This is the stallion I testified about in court, that I had recognized as a shadow of his former self, when we toured the property with court officials on one of the hearing days. I made Peppy a promise then, and 3 months later was able to keep it. He is doing well after 12 weeks as you can see in his picture which I have attached. This ‘after’ picture is in stark contrast to the picture of ‘Jimmy’ you all saw last June, which I will also attach. Jimmy, the chestnut yearling who was nothing but a skeleton, continues to improve and is enjoying life with Jodie-May at last report.
Despite Peppy’s current diet, which would rival the regime of any Olympic athlete, and which he receives 4 times a day, he continues to vacuum up anything remotely organic he comes across – dead leaves, sticks, pine needles, bark. I get this same report from the other adoptee homes. These horses were so long occupied just trying to survive. They long ago learned not to expect a meal. I am reminded of the flimsy plywood ‘structure’ masquerading as a barn, that was being eaten by perpetually hungry horses when I made that tour in June.
We were also able to rescue/purchase another older stallion from them, again after much - bizarre is the word that comes to mind – negotiation. He is in his adopted home, has been gelded, treated for a terrible lice infestation, and on the road to a healthy, happy life. He was: not for sale, not for sale, ok for sale at an astronomical price, for sale only with his ‘buddy’, yes, we’ll buy both, no, not for sale any longer……then Kelleghan called back and we were able to buy him for a pittance. As I said, bizarre.
10-15 horses, perhaps more, were ‘fostered’ out by the accused couple from the first of July thru October. One of these homes was well aware of the situation, but the other people were told they were helping a family who ‘had come upon hard times’. These folks had very little knowledge about the case and were badly used by Kelleghan/Arnowitz. I personally visited the horses at this foster home, and though still very thin, they were getting good care, had been vaccinated, had been wormed, and had their hooves trimmed. Several horses were sold from this home, including two mares that we were able to purchase and place in adoptive homes. This woman told me at the time (mid Sept.) that she had no intention of keeping these horses over the winter, and indeed, they were returned to the Upton property as of late October, as were several from the other foster home. The two mares we bought have unfortunately been vet checked in foal—to which stallion is anyone’s guess, as are their due dates, since all were running together up until July 1. We have to surmise that the (at least) 6-8 mares now back in Upton are pregnant as well. Our volunteers, in the guise of mini shoppers, made valiant efforts to buy more of the horses, when they were at the foster home, and even after they were returned to Kelleghan/Arnowitz. Kelleghan now claims that none of them are for sale, at any price.
This is why I am compelled to write at this point, and at the end of this letter, I will be asking all of you to help us in an email campaign to Judge Calagione at the Milford District Court and to the local media. As you know, the judge back in July asked us to come up with a plan for these horses. We did – a very extensive, thorough and detailed plan, using all our available resources including several veterinarians, professional horse people and many dedicated, knowledgeable volunteers willing to spend personal funds. His final decision was that he was unable to remove the defendants’ ‘personal property’-- regardless of the fact that the property in question were sentient living creatures who were suffering and dying at the hands of same defendants.
Well, that was July. It is now December. For those of you in other parts of the country, it is 25 degrees as I write this here in NH, and snowing throughout New England. The horses remaining on the Upton property have shelter so minimal as to be non-existent. And since they are all crowded in together in that same small enclosure we found them in last Spring, it is doubtful many of them even have access to it.
When I picked up Peppy in September, the horses there at the time were picking through coarse, bright yellow stems of what appeared to be straw – I’m not talking poor quality hay, but straw. There was a stack of this stuff under a tarp. I had a discussion with Kelleghan - after Peppy was safely on the trailer – about how she was courting more harassment and charges if she didn’t at least get a load of decent hay, move the remaining stallions so that at the very least they were not stealing hay from the timid mares, and take proper care of these horses! SHE DID NOT HAVE A CLUE ABOUT THE ‘HAY’, AND ADMITTED THAT TO ME. She told me they were all getting grain and daily wormer, yet I saw no evidence of feed or any place for the horses to be fed, and believe me, none of the horses looked grain fed or wormed. Kelleghan knew what to say if someone asked. And she will come straight out and say that she would rather be somewhere else in the winter.
I am worried sick that we will find more dead horses if they are allowed to stay there – totally unmonitored – over the winter. Kelleghan/Arnowitz will still not admit to any wrongdoing. Since they feel they have been doing nothing wrong all these years, they see no reason to change anything. They think that ‘survival of the fittest’ is proper animal husbandry, that our domestic animals can survive ‘on the land’ even when the ‘land’ consists of a filthy dry lot. There is not even any bark left on the trees. And will fresh, unfrozen water be available when it’s 10 below or we’re having one of our nor’easters? The attitude I have experienced first hand from conversations with both of them tells me no. What I have also experienced first hand, is that when ‘company’ comes – the court visit, people coming to buy or pick up horses, the horses at least are fed hay, and water is available.
Therefore what I want us to ask the court, to beg if necessary, is that it mandates some sort of regular monitoring system, and to insist on adequate shelter and proper care and feed.
In any other state that I’m aware of, even if criminal charges had not been brought, this would be the case, at the very least. Many states would have removed all the horses immediately. Once there had been a complaint, most states would insist on shelter and food and water and proper care, and have the authority to check on all of the above.
The horses that are on the property are still in a debilitated condition. They still appear wormy and underweight – angular and bony despite thick winter coats, and the mares that are pregnant will begin to take from their own bodies to maintain their pregnancies. That is what happened last winter. That is why dead (aborted or full term??) foals were found in the dumpster and on the ground. That is why one of the previously adopted mares is still struggling months later to maintain her weight (her foal died after weeks of rescue care from an apparently underdeveloped immune system –her mother had no immunities to pass along to her). There is danger of the pregnant mares on the property aborting with no one in attendance. Late term abortions can be very dangerous, even deadly for the mare, since the foal is not yet in position.
Kelleghan actually told a ‘purchaser’ that she had a neighbor’s mare in for breeding – in late October! – said she was in the breeding business after all – despite the fact that she has not filed any paperwork with either registry since 1999, and only EVER, since 1995, registered three (3) horses with her prefix.
A miniature horse puppy mill in the worst possible sense. How can the state of Massachusetts turn its back on this?
I did not intend this to be so long or so emotional. I can start out writing objectively, but then I begin to remember what happened to these horses over so many years -the suffering and dying, the bloody attacks by dogs, the foal carried off by a coyote, the baby frozen to the ground, the ones in the dumpster, the horse whose chin whiskers were attached to his chest, those pictures of Spirit and Jimmy and Tinkerbelle…….and despite all the eyewitness testimony, the court tells us it can do nothing til the actual trial. And so the suffering continues.
Here us where you all can help. I would like to ask that all of us email or fax the court prior to the December 19 hearing. I feel we will make a bigger impact if we all send our emails on the same day. Let’s try to send these on Monday, December 12, or Sunday night, the 11th. If you miss that date, send yours anyway.
You may write whatever you wish, but we want the court to take us seriously, so I remind you to be respectful, and to keep it brief and to the point. I will include the email I am personally sending (I have a hard time being ‘brief’ on this subject), and you are welcome to copy or use any part of it. Please include your name, a title or affiliation or name of your farm, or ‘concerned citizen’, and your location (city and state).
Here is mine:
To: Hon. Robert B. Calagione
Milford District Court
Re: Upton Miniature Horse Cruelty case
Your Honor: I would like to express my extreme concern over the welfare of the Miniature Horses remaining on the property of Maria Kelleghan and Jerrold Arnowitz, who were charged in June, 2005 with 5 counts of animal cruelty, and who have appeared before you many times since then, with the trial date still not set.
Winter has arrived in New England, and I have been informed by reliable eyewitnesses that these animals, who are still in a debilitated condition, and many of whom are now pregnant, have no adequate shelter, and are still not being fed properly. There are now reportedly 12-15 horses on the property. No improvements have been made regarding shelter since District Attorney Bob Shea was invited to visit along with several others, including myself, in June. There is no place for these horses to get adequate protection from the harsh New England winter. The food source noted there in Sept. was a straw-like coarse roughage, with no nutritional value.
Last winter, many horses died on this property, and we are very concerned that the same thing will happen again. The accused couple shows no remorse or willingness to change the way they treat their horses. They show no interest in learning how to care for their animals. They flaunt the fact that no one can tell them what to do with their ‘property’.
We implore you – please order that someone you appoint, someone with a background in the care of equines, check on these horses weekly until the outcome of trial. Their lives depend on it – and on you.
Thank you.
Respectfully,
Cindy Moses
President and Rescue Committee Chair
Northeast Miniature Horse Club
Here is the link for the Milford District Court judges’ contact information if you care to write an actual letter, or fax.
http://www.mass.gov/courts/courtsandjudges...districtjl.html
Use the email address for the Head Administrative Assistant [email protected]
I have also emailed MA Governor Mitt Romney, and have included a link to his email as well. This is an involved process, but if you have the time, might be helpful. I know that Mrs. Romney is a horse owner.
http://www.mass.gov/Agovwebmail/WebMailPostControl.ser
Also, if anyone has any media connections, by all means contact them.
Thank you all for your efforts. I’m at a loss at this point of what else to do for these horses. Let’s hope and pray that an outpouring of concern can make a difference.
Cindy
Re: The Upton, Massachusetts Miniature Horse Abuse case
Commonwealth of MA vs Maria Kelleghan and Jerrold Arnowitz
Hello everyone. This is very long. I apologize, but urge you to skip to the end if you are impatient, because I will be asking all of you to send an email in a last desperate attempt to help the remaining horses before winter.
It has been many months now since I last updated you on this case. Progress on its prosecution has been agonizingly slow, with postponement after postponement and numerous requests for delays and pretrial hearings – all on the part of the defendants. The last hearing, for suppression of some of the evidence supplied by MSPCA officials’ testimony, was scheduled for 11/28, and now will be heard on 12/19.
We have not been idle while all this has been going on, and have been tracking the horses as much as possible. To recap, from the original 50 +- found starved and sick and dying last April, 15 were purchased by Jodie-May Rose and her family. These were the most severely debilitated horses on the property. Several died early on, and the rest are in varying stages of recovery. Some may even be available for adoption shortly.
I was personally able to purchase the 15 year old stallion NFC Peppy’s Playmate after months of frustrating and heart wrenching negotiation and disappointment. This is the stallion I testified about in court, that I had recognized as a shadow of his former self, when we toured the property with court officials on one of the hearing days. I made Peppy a promise then, and 3 months later was able to keep it. He is doing well after 12 weeks as you can see in his picture which I have attached. This ‘after’ picture is in stark contrast to the picture of ‘Jimmy’ you all saw last June, which I will also attach. Jimmy, the chestnut yearling who was nothing but a skeleton, continues to improve and is enjoying life with Jodie-May at last report.
Despite Peppy’s current diet, which would rival the regime of any Olympic athlete, and which he receives 4 times a day, he continues to vacuum up anything remotely organic he comes across – dead leaves, sticks, pine needles, bark. I get this same report from the other adoptee homes. These horses were so long occupied just trying to survive. They long ago learned not to expect a meal. I am reminded of the flimsy plywood ‘structure’ masquerading as a barn, that was being eaten by perpetually hungry horses when I made that tour in June.
We were also able to rescue/purchase another older stallion from them, again after much - bizarre is the word that comes to mind – negotiation. He is in his adopted home, has been gelded, treated for a terrible lice infestation, and on the road to a healthy, happy life. He was: not for sale, not for sale, ok for sale at an astronomical price, for sale only with his ‘buddy’, yes, we’ll buy both, no, not for sale any longer……then Kelleghan called back and we were able to buy him for a pittance. As I said, bizarre.
10-15 horses, perhaps more, were ‘fostered’ out by the accused couple from the first of July thru October. One of these homes was well aware of the situation, but the other people were told they were helping a family who ‘had come upon hard times’. These folks had very little knowledge about the case and were badly used by Kelleghan/Arnowitz. I personally visited the horses at this foster home, and though still very thin, they were getting good care, had been vaccinated, had been wormed, and had their hooves trimmed. Several horses were sold from this home, including two mares that we were able to purchase and place in adoptive homes. This woman told me at the time (mid Sept.) that she had no intention of keeping these horses over the winter, and indeed, they were returned to the Upton property as of late October, as were several from the other foster home. The two mares we bought have unfortunately been vet checked in foal—to which stallion is anyone’s guess, as are their due dates, since all were running together up until July 1. We have to surmise that the (at least) 6-8 mares now back in Upton are pregnant as well. Our volunteers, in the guise of mini shoppers, made valiant efforts to buy more of the horses, when they were at the foster home, and even after they were returned to Kelleghan/Arnowitz. Kelleghan now claims that none of them are for sale, at any price.
This is why I am compelled to write at this point, and at the end of this letter, I will be asking all of you to help us in an email campaign to Judge Calagione at the Milford District Court and to the local media. As you know, the judge back in July asked us to come up with a plan for these horses. We did – a very extensive, thorough and detailed plan, using all our available resources including several veterinarians, professional horse people and many dedicated, knowledgeable volunteers willing to spend personal funds. His final decision was that he was unable to remove the defendants’ ‘personal property’-- regardless of the fact that the property in question were sentient living creatures who were suffering and dying at the hands of same defendants.
Well, that was July. It is now December. For those of you in other parts of the country, it is 25 degrees as I write this here in NH, and snowing throughout New England. The horses remaining on the Upton property have shelter so minimal as to be non-existent. And since they are all crowded in together in that same small enclosure we found them in last Spring, it is doubtful many of them even have access to it.
When I picked up Peppy in September, the horses there at the time were picking through coarse, bright yellow stems of what appeared to be straw – I’m not talking poor quality hay, but straw. There was a stack of this stuff under a tarp. I had a discussion with Kelleghan - after Peppy was safely on the trailer – about how she was courting more harassment and charges if she didn’t at least get a load of decent hay, move the remaining stallions so that at the very least they were not stealing hay from the timid mares, and take proper care of these horses! SHE DID NOT HAVE A CLUE ABOUT THE ‘HAY’, AND ADMITTED THAT TO ME. She told me they were all getting grain and daily wormer, yet I saw no evidence of feed or any place for the horses to be fed, and believe me, none of the horses looked grain fed or wormed. Kelleghan knew what to say if someone asked. And she will come straight out and say that she would rather be somewhere else in the winter.
I am worried sick that we will find more dead horses if they are allowed to stay there – totally unmonitored – over the winter. Kelleghan/Arnowitz will still not admit to any wrongdoing. Since they feel they have been doing nothing wrong all these years, they see no reason to change anything. They think that ‘survival of the fittest’ is proper animal husbandry, that our domestic animals can survive ‘on the land’ even when the ‘land’ consists of a filthy dry lot. There is not even any bark left on the trees. And will fresh, unfrozen water be available when it’s 10 below or we’re having one of our nor’easters? The attitude I have experienced first hand from conversations with both of them tells me no. What I have also experienced first hand, is that when ‘company’ comes – the court visit, people coming to buy or pick up horses, the horses at least are fed hay, and water is available.
Therefore what I want us to ask the court, to beg if necessary, is that it mandates some sort of regular monitoring system, and to insist on adequate shelter and proper care and feed.
In any other state that I’m aware of, even if criminal charges had not been brought, this would be the case, at the very least. Many states would have removed all the horses immediately. Once there had been a complaint, most states would insist on shelter and food and water and proper care, and have the authority to check on all of the above.
The horses that are on the property are still in a debilitated condition. They still appear wormy and underweight – angular and bony despite thick winter coats, and the mares that are pregnant will begin to take from their own bodies to maintain their pregnancies. That is what happened last winter. That is why dead (aborted or full term??) foals were found in the dumpster and on the ground. That is why one of the previously adopted mares is still struggling months later to maintain her weight (her foal died after weeks of rescue care from an apparently underdeveloped immune system –her mother had no immunities to pass along to her). There is danger of the pregnant mares on the property aborting with no one in attendance. Late term abortions can be very dangerous, even deadly for the mare, since the foal is not yet in position.
Kelleghan actually told a ‘purchaser’ that she had a neighbor’s mare in for breeding – in late October! – said she was in the breeding business after all – despite the fact that she has not filed any paperwork with either registry since 1999, and only EVER, since 1995, registered three (3) horses with her prefix.
A miniature horse puppy mill in the worst possible sense. How can the state of Massachusetts turn its back on this?
I did not intend this to be so long or so emotional. I can start out writing objectively, but then I begin to remember what happened to these horses over so many years -the suffering and dying, the bloody attacks by dogs, the foal carried off by a coyote, the baby frozen to the ground, the ones in the dumpster, the horse whose chin whiskers were attached to his chest, those pictures of Spirit and Jimmy and Tinkerbelle…….and despite all the eyewitness testimony, the court tells us it can do nothing til the actual trial. And so the suffering continues.
Here us where you all can help. I would like to ask that all of us email or fax the court prior to the December 19 hearing. I feel we will make a bigger impact if we all send our emails on the same day. Let’s try to send these on Monday, December 12, or Sunday night, the 11th. If you miss that date, send yours anyway.
You may write whatever you wish, but we want the court to take us seriously, so I remind you to be respectful, and to keep it brief and to the point. I will include the email I am personally sending (I have a hard time being ‘brief’ on this subject), and you are welcome to copy or use any part of it. Please include your name, a title or affiliation or name of your farm, or ‘concerned citizen’, and your location (city and state).
Here is mine:
To: Hon. Robert B. Calagione
Milford District Court
Re: Upton Miniature Horse Cruelty case
Your Honor: I would like to express my extreme concern over the welfare of the Miniature Horses remaining on the property of Maria Kelleghan and Jerrold Arnowitz, who were charged in June, 2005 with 5 counts of animal cruelty, and who have appeared before you many times since then, with the trial date still not set.
Winter has arrived in New England, and I have been informed by reliable eyewitnesses that these animals, who are still in a debilitated condition, and many of whom are now pregnant, have no adequate shelter, and are still not being fed properly. There are now reportedly 12-15 horses on the property. No improvements have been made regarding shelter since District Attorney Bob Shea was invited to visit along with several others, including myself, in June. There is no place for these horses to get adequate protection from the harsh New England winter. The food source noted there in Sept. was a straw-like coarse roughage, with no nutritional value.
Last winter, many horses died on this property, and we are very concerned that the same thing will happen again. The accused couple shows no remorse or willingness to change the way they treat their horses. They show no interest in learning how to care for their animals. They flaunt the fact that no one can tell them what to do with their ‘property’.
We implore you – please order that someone you appoint, someone with a background in the care of equines, check on these horses weekly until the outcome of trial. Their lives depend on it – and on you.
Thank you.
Respectfully,
Cindy Moses
President and Rescue Committee Chair
Northeast Miniature Horse Club
Here is the link for the Milford District Court judges’ contact information if you care to write an actual letter, or fax.
http://www.mass.gov/courts/courtsandjudges...districtjl.html
Use the email address for the Head Administrative Assistant [email protected]
I have also emailed MA Governor Mitt Romney, and have included a link to his email as well. This is an involved process, but if you have the time, might be helpful. I know that Mrs. Romney is a horse owner.
http://www.mass.gov/Agovwebmail/WebMailPostControl.ser
Also, if anyone has any media connections, by all means contact them.
Thank you all for your efforts. I’m at a loss at this point of what else to do for these horses. Let’s hope and pray that an outpouring of concern can make a difference.
Cindy
