Detroit Free Press
September 26, 2007
By Bill Laitner
Page 3B

     Oakland County authorities seized a 12-year-old last week they said was starving and dehydrated, whisking him from poverty to a life of luxury and perfect nutrition.
     "He was approximately 250 pounds underweight," said Joanie Toole, administrative supervisor for the Oakland Pet Adoption Center.
     This week, the dark-bay thoroughbred horse was munching on lush grass and regaining weight at a 35-acre rescue farm in Orion Township where the county leases space for the largest animals it rescues.
     A dozen miles away from the farm, in Pontiac, county prosecutors had not yet decided whether to charge the horse's owner - whose name was not reseased - with abuse.
     Weeks ago, county animal-control officers warned the horse's owner - a single mother in Springfield Township - to get medical care for the horse.  Toole said that didn't happen.
     So on Sept. 18, deputies brought the horse to the rescue farm.
     "This horse was foudn in a small gated area with no food or water," Toole said.
     The farm's location and owners are kept secret because people facing animal-neglect charges have tried to steal back their animals, Toole said.
     The husband and wife who own the farm have 10 horses and ponies of their own.  On Monday, they looked on, smiling, as Toole and an assistant inspected the bony horse that the couple calls Slim.
     "He gets fed twice a day now - sweet feed and hay, and all the water he can drink," said the wife, 60.  "He's starting to fill out.  And his skin is better.  He's got what we call Michigan crud, a lot of waste on him - manure."
     County inspectors had found mounds of trash and animal waste in the horse's paddock, said Larry Obrecht, manager of Oakland County's animal control division.
     Obrecht said he was seeking donations to cover the cost of veterinary and other care for the horse, the only rescued animal currently at the farm, while the case is settled.
     That will cost as much as $3,500, he said.
     "For these large animals, we don't used taxpayer dollars," he said.  "But the alternatives are to put the animal down or sell it to the glue guys.  We'd prefer to make a plea to the public."

Donations can be sent to the Oakland Pet Adoption Center, Attn: Legacy Fund for Slim, 1700 Brown Road, Auburn Hills 48326.  To use a credit card, call Joanie Toole at 248-391-4100, 9-5:30 weekdays.