Walter Update

The last time Walter was at our house was on July 28^th when he escaped through the downed back fence.  This is the post I did about it 

http://terlinguadreams.blogspot.com/2012/07/little-john-walter-deere-has-been-bad.html 

After that incident he disappeared for about two weeks.  When I inquired about his whereabouts the owners kid told me Walter had been sent to their cousin’s house.  They brought him back two days before I left for Houston thus had not had a chance to see him.

The day I returned from Houston I saw there was a new bale of hay outside of his corral.  Two days later mother and I walked over to see him and I noticed how thin he was and how sad his eyes looked.  There were flies around his eyes, his sores and practically everywhere.  His owner does not get rid of his poop instead he dries it out in the sun and then lays it as ground dirt inside his corral.  Is this an acceptable practice?

I try to make sure no trees grow close to the cinder block fence that divides our properties but two years ago I let some mesquite grow in that area to provide some shade for the corral.  At the time his owner had four horses and they had no shade to speak of.  Walter looked desperate and as I got closer I could see a barrel of water was downed and when I asked him if the other barrel had water…it was like he understood…he went over and knocked it down to let me see that there was none.

I came back with a hose, a five gallon bucket as well as my pruning shears and chopped down the mesquite limbs so I could hold the bucket to his face…of course I only put 2 gallons as that is all my back will let me lift.  I filled that bucket 6 or 7 times until he was full.  It made me wonder how long he had been without water and why.  Came back that afternoon and this time he drank about 10 gallons.

What really alarmed me was seeing that he had not been fed in two days and yesterday I saw him eating his own feces!  That is when I called Deputy Mendez but did not get a call back until this afternoon from Sergeant Lopez who informed me that Deputy Mendez was on leave so I had to go into detail once more with him.

This morning I walked over there and saw that they had given him some hay…a small portion I might add for a horse his size.  Noticed that his owner is either on vacation or he no longer works out of town.  This makes me even madder that being in town he does not give a hoot about his horse’s welfare.  People like him should not be allowed to own any kind of animals.

Oh yeah…that bale of hay…well it looks like it is still new.  Think it is just there to fool the sheriff’s that drive-by.  It is a shame that they cannot give animal abuse cases continuity in Val Verde County and offenders go unpunished to continue abusing their animals.  This particular individual has been doing it for years.

Good night.  May there be justice for Walter as well as other animals in the same circumstances as him.