Dear Supervisor Joan Hartmann,
I’m reaching out to you after years of nothing being done for inhumane treatment of the horses in Buellton and others, still without the “minimum standards of care” applying to horses considered livestock. When we had a conference call back in 2023, you required me to get a petition signed by the horse ranch owners in Santa Ynez Valley, not the general public.
Some agree that something needs to be done and how bad it is for those horses; however, they won’t get involved. Others are equally cruel. I recently came across a person that was getting petitions signed and told me that if the petition is not drafted by an attorney it is invalid and won’t stand up in the courts. Why would you send me on a wild goose chase when these horses are still suffering?
You informed me years ago that spring of 2024 the Santa Barbara Board of Supervisors were supposed to address this very serious issue. Has anything ever been done?
Every single season hundreds of these horses are exposed to extreme heat and sun blazing on them with absolutely no shade. This is heartless cruelty, and it falls on your plate, supervisor, where they are in your district and backyard.
They just suffered another atmospheric winter with 50 mile per hour winds, freezing cold, standing and laying in a mud cesspool again, that is now shifted to 100 degrees with blazing sun, not even spring yet. Please let me and the community that cares know what you’re going to do about this?
