Komo TV has broken the story on Pacific Equestrian Center, run by Dean Solomon - their coverage includes information about the horses seized and the animal cruelty charges she faces.

Solomon's arraignment will be April 29th in King County Superior Court.

The situation at PEC has been brewing for a long time. In January, emails and a Craigslist posting publicised the situation, followed by rebuttals. Jenny Edwards of Hope for Horses wrote about the situation in her blog.

Other rescues tried to help remedy the situation, including Patricia Clark at Serenity Equine Rescue, who took horses from the overpopulated property and began to rehab them for placement through her own rescue.

However, conditions remained bad at Dean Solomon's faciity.

In a wet Western Washington winter, mud can easily get out of hand. In itself, mud isn't dangerous - but when a horse stands day long in mud that is mixed with manure and uneaten hay, it is like a bacterial soup, and scratches, thrush, soft hooves and other nasty and painful conditions can result.

When kept in crowded pens in group situations, the herd pecking order ensures that the dominant horses get enough food. Unless the horse keeper pays particular attention to distributing hay in widely separated piles, hooves fly and the weaker horses are driven off and sometimes injured. Their condition can deteriorate dramatically even while others may be getting enough to eat. In these kind of situations, nasty infections like strangles can take hold, even in the apparently healthy horses.

The Pacific Equestrian Center website and the Washington Thoroughbred Transitional Facility websites disappeared last summer. Dean Solomon has found a new outlet through the rescues only board. Members have now formed a new "rescue" calling themselves Rescues Only. The group is private, so I am not sure ishe is a bona-fide member, but she has made several postings publicising their efforts.

Rescues Only purchased seven horses at the Enumclaw Auction on April 6th, which can be seen at their website. I am not attacking their efforts, just hoping these horses are kept somewhere besides Solomon's property. The site is thin on information, although it does list the costs of acquiring and maintaining the horses. The adoption contract and follow up policies are not specified there.

The charges against Solomon may divide the local rescue community just at a time when drawing together would be most productive. Too bad - but it's about time the curtain was pulled back on this messy, mucky situation.

EDITED TO ADD:

Of course Fugly Horse is all over this mess. Warning - you will need a XXL pair of hipwaders.