I thought for today’s post, I’d branch out a little from the clusterfuck that has become #OTTB20 and maybe touch on a big part of the reason I felt the need to speak out about what was going on with HiCaliber. There are many people who have been quietly tracking what has been going on with this organization as they become more and more brazen with their brand of `rescue’ for a lot of different reasons. Personally, I really don’t care if Charles Manson Michelle wants to be a vulgar piece of trash every time she comes on live feed. I get it. That’s her`thing’ and part of the brand she has created for herself. I actually kind of feel sorry for her that she’s so classless that she can’t suck it up and be appropriate when needed, but whatever. Everybody needs a rallying cry and `Eat a dick!’ seems to be hers. Again, not really my issue with HiCaliber. Where my issue comes in is the horse husbandry or lack thereof. The Munchausen by proxy syndrome these voiceless souls are being subjected to and the suffering going on in the name of rescue. So, with that in mind let’s get things started.
Say goodbye to Flloyd. He was just shipped 1700 miles from Louisiana on 3 legs to end up with a bullet in his head a week later. All because Satan Tara, told HiCaliber that a simple $300 check ligament surgery would fix him right up, they thought it prudent to subject him to that long truck ride on 3 legs. That’s what happens when you send in two morons to triage a load of horses. I’m not saying he deserved to die of starvation and/or disease on Thompson’s lot, but the kind and compassionate thing to do for him would have been to take him to a local rescue to have him assessed and ultimately put down. They didn’t even know enough to put support bandages on him for the ride. Of course Michelle’s ego is such that she frames it as their vet agreeing with her that he was too far gone to keep alive; like she has some sort of special knowledge and insight to be able to see what anybody else with at least one functioning eyeball couldn’t have seen for themselves. You don’t even need to be a horse person to see the clips of this poor horse trying to walk to know that he was crippled. Nice call from the 30% vet . She claimed she just had to buy `rescue’ these horses to so she could `tell their stories’. She neglected to mention that they would be horror stories and mostly made up. RIP Flloyd, you sure deserved better.
The horse above was Phelps. He is one of the latest to get a bullet in the brain. At least he got a nice goodbye post from a volunteer that cared about him unlike so many more at HiCaliber that just get shot without a mention. The tribute post is a bit vague, only making reference to sore knees, but as concerned horse people predicted would happen, there have been quite a few horses getting shot since the Louisiana clusterfuck came to fruition. Any fool could see they had no place to stash an additional 30 plus animals and HiCaliber isn’t big on regular updates once the thrill of the save has passed. This makes it easy enough to get rid of a few on the sly and claim they went to a great home if anybody does think to ask. Despite being `Romney’s boyfriend’ and one she claimed to love, Phelps was on shaky ground by virtue of being a pasture ornament. I didn’t see the horse in person, but I don’t find it a big leap that he was getting more and more stove up with no place to move around properly. Arthritic horses generally do better when not confined. RIP Phelps
HiCaliber Stanley was bought at auction on May 2nd. Despite his wonky legs and sweet personality, he didn’t generate enough interest aka cash flow from the village idiots to justify keeping him alive. He got the bullet at some point during the past few weeks along with another horse I can’t seem to recall the name of. That makes me sad too, because I recall the poor thing, along with HiCaliber Stanley was only mentioned in passing. No tribute post for them, they were just part of the frequent flyer pick-up from the body removal man. RIP Stanley and RIP to your friend.
HiCaliber bought Othello from their favorite kill buyer, David Misner, on Tuesday the 23rd for $300. They said that he had him for a bit and had even put some corrective shoes on him, but the horse was still lame so he wanted him off his lot. That is code for Misner can’t move him or make any money off him, so he gets HiCaliber and the village idiots to pay for the privilege of cleaning up his mess. Win/win for Misner since he saves on the cost of body removal AND he still makes money. Sadly, this poor horse could hardly walk but still got to endure a two-hour plus trailer ride back to the ranch so they could shoot him. That’s not before Robyn, hit him with Banamine at the auction yard and then wondered why he was fussing and getting hives. Seriously, what is it with HiCaliber and drugs, specifically Banamine? It’s like they think it’s some sort of magic potion or something. Maybe they own stock in the company that sells that and Rompun because they sure go through a lot of both. They drug the crap out horses and then fail to take that into account when it wears off that they had just masked much of the issue for the past several hours so of course things are going to look worse. At any rate, as seems to be the norm lately, poor Othello was made to suffer more than normal before finally getting shot in the face by Charles Michelle. RIP Othello. You certainly deserved more respect.
By no means was the above list complete as far as which horses had a date with the body removal man the past few weeks, but I think the point is made. There are a few that seem to be on pretty shaky ground which will likely vanish over the next week. This brings us back to the Munchausen by proxy issue. I think most horse people can give shots and do a bit of first aid and maintenance work on their own. I don’t really have a big issue with that either. I do it myself. Vets are expensive, I get that. Where I have to draw the line is when somebody can’t accept their own limitations and lack of knowledge. It is no secret that Michelle fancies herself a vet tech even though she has never actually produced any certification, just like she has never shown the euth cert she claims to have either. She has stated she knows 30% of what any vet knows and has taken to performing some procedures on the rescue horses herself whether they need them or not. The above clip was actually taken after the one below. The horse in it was Boyer and he had only been bought at auction the week before. In it Dr. Michelle informs us that you can’t brush or clean up horses that aren’t feeling well among other pearls of wisdom that nobody has ever heard of before. The video clip I’m going to post below is even more disturbing. Boyer was made to stand in the aisle for days while Charles Michelle played doctor until it was too late to save his life. The video is painful to watch as the horse continues to try to make himself comfortable and Michelle continues to think he’s straining to pee and not giving much weight to the colic that was playing out right in front of her. For somebody that gets off on strutting around with a stethoscope draped around her neck, I’ve never actually seen her listen for gut sounds or even reference that. (watch her to start doing just that in the near future as she is an avid reader of this blog). This went on for literally days until the horse was hauled into the clinic where he died a few days later. He was only brought to the clinic because they were bringing in another colicing horse that ultimately died too. (#HiCaliberPraline) Necropsy results were never shared as promised but this all came about during a time when they lost a handful of horses to colic over a few weeks and they also had a strangles outbreak at the ranch. As you can see in the video, no quarantine measures or biosecurity measures were being practiced with these horses being fresh in from auction.
The horse featured in the second part of the above video, Shara, also died soon after that was filmed. Unlike Boyer, she did not get to go to the clinic but ended up under the blue tarp with a bullet in her head instead. She had been at HiCaliber since the previous July but somehow ended up with her foot sloughing off while Dr. Michelle practiced doing a regional limb perfusion on her rather than let a vet handle things. Note the heavy sedation and IV bags at the ready. Dr. Michelle loves to hang those jugs. There never really was an explanation as to how she got this way or how long she’d been like this. The only logical explanation is that nobody noticed until things became glaringly obvious. Michelle, herself, is not known to lower herself to do chores or look at horses that she can’t play doctor with or heave herself up on. I don’t even blame the volunteers that do the feeding as many of them only know what they have been taught by the HiCaliber red shirts and we haven’t seen a lot of evidence of horsemanship from any of them.
I’m sure to the volunteers or anybody that really hasn’t spent a lot of time around horses and vets, that Charles Manson Michelle seems really knowledgeable. She likes to spew a lot of jargon and jargon can be impressive to a neophyte. Where it gets funny is that she never quite gets things right. I know she attended a one or two day info course at UC Davis and won a vet book, so that should qualify her to do all sorts of procedures, but she must have been sleeping when they came to the part about how to pronounce words so you don’t sound like an asshole. It actually took me a bit to understand wtf she was talking about the first few times I heard her say `knee crawpsee’ or who the hell `Annie B Otic’ was. Turns out she meant necropsy and antibiotic. It’s not really all that big of a deal if you don’t mind sounding ignorant though. I totally got confused when she kept talking about the horse Saint getting `chiro’ on his feet. I know a chiropractor can work an entire body, but it didn’t really make sense considering that #HiCaliberSaint is known to have a form of canker in his feet. That’s when it finally dawned on me that she meant cryo as in cryotherapy, which has nothing to do with chiro, although I suppose you could have both if you were so inclined. I shouldn’t be surprised about that either because more than once I’ve seen them spot a horse at auction that had cryo marks on it, only for them to proclaim it had been pinfired and raise the alarm. What this is a prime example of is a little knowledge being a dangerous thing; especially when there is a never-ending supply of banged up horses to live out your fantasy of being a vet and a captivated village just itching to hand over their social security checks. HiCaliber is rapidly becoming a shop of horrors and not the fun kind. There has been rumblings that Dr. Michelle performs rectal exams on horses as well as her own necropsies. They have recently admitted to harvesting reproductive organs to sell for some studies and there was some allusion to selling bodies to big cat sanctuaries or zoos as long they knew the history horse for a length of time. What horse at a rescue should die of a bullet that hasn’t been on meds of some kind? What legitimate rescue would shoot a perfectly healthy animal?
I figured I should briefly touch base on the survivors of the Louisiana debacle as they are providing Dr. Michelle endless opportunities to wear her special scrubs top and to experiment with things she has googled or read in a book. Because taking a cross country trip stuffed in a tin can in 111 degree heat wasn’t enough to put a horse through for one week, they figured now would be as good a time as any to geld the colt that just got in from Louisiana a few days ago. They mentioned on live feed that they were going to let the mares settle a bit before preg checking, presumably because an ultrasound is more traumatic than getting your nuts cut off. I don’t have nuts myself, so I really can’t say. Maybe they were hungry and needed the balls for dinner again or something. While this was going on, HiCaliber Sully seems to spend the majority of his days drugged to the point of staggering while the 30% vet hangs endless jugs on him and hits him with Banamine. Presumably, this will make up for the non-existent refeeding program that is going on. They like to claim that they follow the UC Davis refeeding protocol, but given the fact that the horses are in large groups in pens, it’s pretty much a fight it out situation for their feed and impossible to monitor what any one horse is getting or that he is eating enough and as often as need be. Don’t be surprised to see horses continue to crash in the next week or so and look for Dr. Michelle to blame it on shipping fever and blow it off as a `fail forward’ situation.
It looks like my prediction about the third and future loads being not exactly transparent was correct. Becky and Robyn tried to make it sound like Dana was not on her way to Louisiana, but it was mentioned on a later feed that more horses were loading out from Louisiana on Friday. Bubba Misner is still unaccounted for and we know Thompson has a truck headed this was too, so look for the next bunch to show up any time between now and Monday and expect them to not be in great shape. Sadly, despite already sending a few from the first truck out to foster, they don’t have nearly enough room for the 14 plus horses that are headed this way, so more ranch residents will likely be getting the bullet soon. Maybe the removal man gives them frequent flyer perks or has a twofer Tuesday program for HiCaliber. After all, he is a great guy and practices humane removal according to one of their resident parrots whose main function is to live on the live feeds and regurgitate everything that falls out of Michelle’s gaping maw. I’m completely curious as to what `humane’ removal looks like vs. inhumane removal. I wish they were as concerned about humane treatment of their living animals as they appear to be about their dead.
I could probably write several thousand words more about the chicanery going on at HiCaliber these days, but I think most people get the point. It’s actually hard to believe that people are this evil and/or dumb. How do you experiment with medical procedures on another living creature and how does somebody that purports to care about horses, shoot so many right in the face on a regular basis? I swear Charles Michelle is actually pretty upbeat after she gets to shoot something. Despite showing some random pictures of xrays without names on them, there still isn’t really any transparency getting practiced at HiCaliber. No receipts or invoices are ever posted, so the cost breakdowns are just whatever numbers Charles Michelle pulls out of her ass. I’ve paid a lot of vet and feed bills and I can assure you that they very rarely ever end up being a nice round number like she constantly claims. I realize that HiCaliber has adopted the policy of deleting any comment or question that they deem to be negative aka anything that sheds a light onto their dubious horse husbandry and financial practices. That isn’t transparency any more than buying from a kill buyer is rescue. Because of all this and more, I just can’t sit on my hands and allow this to pass without comment. Hopefully, other people feel the same and will begin to feel safe enough to speak out. It’s time to speak up!
Oh wow, I somehow missed Dr. Michelle’s regional limb perfusion. Yikes. I did catch the chiro/cryo and every time she says “EVH”. Remember she has that “decade of horse experience”, and brags about being self-taught on most things. Maybe time to try learning from someone who actually knows what they’re doing (and let vets do the vet work).
I’m beginning to question WTF with the actual vet they do use that makes the farm calls.
Funny, the “self-taught” thing reminds me of Andrew Fice’s ranty response to the haters. One of his main points was that he had never asked for help or taken advice from anyone or looked for answers anywhere… that he learned by trial and error.
How on God’s green earth is that something to be proud of?! Willfully ignoring resources and ignoring the advice of more knowledgeable people is something I can not abide, especially when the welfare (or life, when it comes to Michelle) of a horse is at stake.
Side note – nickname idea: Knuttila the Hun?? I crack myself up.
Michelle is the Josef Mengele of the equine world. She was diagnosed with mental disorders by an SDCERA hired psychiatrist including histrionic personality disorder and somatization disorder when she applied for and was eventually denied Service-Connected Disability Retirement in October 2014 (the SDCERA video is public record). Wonder if it also included narcissistic sociopath, too. She cannot be stopped soon enough IMO.
Wow, I did not know this and was not familiar with histrionic personality disorder but holy shit, the description of it (thank you, Wikipedia) fits her to an absolute T!
Just Google Michelle Knuttila and you can access the link with the video. It was the Administrative Board Meetings – Oct 2nd, 2014. Under the video, scroll to that section of the agenda with her name and click to start the video from that point. Very telling IMO.
Do you have a link the video? I can’t find it by Googling her name. Thanks.
http://sdcera.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=552
Under the video, scroll down to the following and click on it to start the video at that point.
1) Member application on Michelle Knuttila for a Service-Connected Disability Retirement. Whether to adopt the Administrative Recommendation that the application for a Service-Connected Disability Retirement is denied.
I found it. Haven’t watched it yet. But did discover that was on Dr. Phil with her abusive ex and she won a settlement for sexual abuse and she also had a Pitbull Rescue for a while…………………things that make your go Hmmmmm……..
Michelle was the one that was actually charged with domestic assault. Keep that in mind.
@Lyn Chambers – It was a sexual harassment lawsuit.
http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sdut-cal-state-settles-harassment-suit-2004dec17-story.html
Drama, drama, drama. Funny that somebody as vulgar and inappropriate as her would play the sexual harassment card.
The Dr. Phil link…
http://www.drphil.com/slideshows/dr-phil-takes-on-abusers-aaron-and-michelle/
can you post the link to Administrative Board Meetings – Oct 2nd, 2014
It’s posted in an earlier comment (three above yours).
Wow…. that’s a very interesting video, and the conclusions of the doctors who examined her sound NOTHING like the story HiCaliber uses:
“In 2010 Michelle suffered an on-duty traumatic brain injury that cost her her finances, home, marriage, career and almost her ability to care for, rescue, train or ride horses. The anxiety she felt, waiting for the next rug to ripped out under her brought her training philosophy to a new level. The only thing familiar about her pre-injury life was horses. She vowed not to let her injury take them from her. She fought daily with health issues – chronic pain, cognitive and receptive processing, vestibular issues, memory troubles and depression.”
They are talented fiction writers at HiCal!
And she’s so disabled and unable to work that she’s able to ride and take care of horses all day (well… you know what I mean).
She’s got an endless supply of cash and an army of volunteers. Why work for a living?
We can ALL do the following:
Go to: http://www.10news.com/team10
Scroll to the bottom and fill out the form. If they get enough people doing this, they’ll have no choice but to investigate!
This is the same news station that recently (5/15/2017) did a piece on them which was very poorly researched. The reporter was Emily Thode. Doubt they would pursue this further.
http://www.10news.com/news/former-race-horses-rescued-from-slaughter
They didn’t seem overly interested in telling the truth the first time around.
They did not know the truth the first time! They only knew what hical wanted them to know. That’s why we must speak up!
I’m offering one of many possible ways to bring their crap to light. Try it. If it doesn’t work, you are no worse off than before. Squeak the damn wheel! At least everyone can try, rather than preaching to the choir here…
I encourage people to stand up and speak out as well as report things they feel are wrong.
Who is the vet that keeps handing these two cooks Babanime like it is a soft drink? Doesn’t CA have laws against people who are not licensed vets making diagnoses and practicing without a license? Someone needs to get the law after these two before they kill more horses in the name of “rescue.”
They reference a Dr. Spini often. But has mentioned other clinics in the past too. They likely use several. And who knows what they tell the vets to get what they want/need.
Dr. Spini seems to be the only one that is at the farm on a regular basis and she is pretty fresh out of vet school and seems to be easily run by Michelle. It will be interesting to see who replaces her when she’s on her maternity leave.
I thought it seemed like Michelle basically bosses Dr. Spini around. “Spini, tell Facebook we are justified in shooting this horse” then Dr. Spini nicely says how the kindest thing is to let the horse be out of pain.
I guess the vets I know are different. I think they’d fire me as a client if I pulled half the shit Michelle does and I’m pretty freakin charming when I want to be too!
I’ve always had good relationships with my vets, and I do a lot of things for myself (on my OWN horses). I also have more than “a decade” of horse experience and have actually worked for vets. I still would never walk around in scrubs and a stethoscope pretending to be one instead of letting the vets actually do their jobs (especially after fundraising for vet costs!)
Same here. I also don’t refer to my vets as my `colleagues’ like Michelle does.
The vets I have worked for would not want their name or their conscience associated with this train wreck.
I agree with you RE Michelle’s breakdown of expenses (as per usual with no invoice/proof to back it up) being a little suspect.
For both Breen and Othello, only one view of each leg was posted, but they were apparently charged $200 for Breen and $300 for Othello (note no X-rays posted for Floyd). I don’t know about you, but to me that seems VERY steep for 2 views total, especially for a vet that supposedly helps them out cost-wise wherever possible.
It also seems like they are getting more and more casual about the whole *shooting horses* thing. They’re not actually admitting to shooting horses unnecessarily (guessing that won’t be happening any time soon), but it doesn’t seem like they are all that concerned with pretending they still fork out for humane euthanasia. (For example, Breen’s breakdown of expenses listed the cost of post-euthanasia removal, but not the cost of the euthanasia itself. No dignified, vet-supervised end for that poor girl.)
This is despite claims by Michelle, when her shooting of horses first started coming to light, that horses are only shot when A) they are too “traumatized” or “damaged” to be tended to by a vet – in which case it seems unlikely all veterinary treatment options have been exhausted before the bullet – or B) it’s a catastrophic emergency and the horse needs to be put out of its misery immediately.
Doesn’t seem like either of those things have been true for any of the horses that have been put down recently 😦
I wasn’t aware that they had shot Breen yet. I agree the xray costs are outrageous considering what a big account they are for that vet and that they never seem to show more than one leg. Michelle is basically defiant in her choice to shoot horses over chemical euth. What angers me is the misinformation she spreads about that. So, you have the Louisiana horses taking cross country trailer rides in the heat. They are stuffed into crowded pens with no shelter and then the one was shot in the head. What is different about that than slaughter aside from the disposal of his body? To him it was no different.
Not a thing different…except HiCal and TMS made a lot more money on that poor creature than they would have from slaughter.
Whoops, no you are correct, doesn’t look like they have shot Breen yet. Maybe she will get lucky.
Folks a few years back wanted to have their dog and cat teth cleaned, but hired lay people to do it. That caused the state pplice to gather and raid. HOW do these medical procedures pass?
Maybe she has protection from her buddy Misner’s connections but this is horrendous. These horses have become her little experimentation lab.
Or maybe they actually end up back on Misner’s truck headed to MX?
Wouldn’t be the first time.
I finally caught one of their “minions”, Emily, in a question about what makes these (the horses they picked from LA) so special and what about the rest of the horses that were behind those that they were going to leave behind in LA. Also, what about all the horses in the rest of the kill pens across America and if they were going to help those too, and I got blocked from their page. If you catch them in a question they can’t answer they just block you. They don’t have the balls they say they have.
That’s what passes for transparency there.
So transparent
At first I called BS on her saying they harvest organs to provide to researchers for a repro study because a random set of ovaries here and there occasionally isn’t going to be much use…and they would likely need to be collected and preserved in a particular way. Well…if they are shooting this many horses on the regular…I suppose the lab folks could get all they need and be ready to collect on twofer Tuesday.
Whatever vet is supplying them the drugs must have no idea what they are doing with them…or doesn’t care. Their state veterinary medical board might care.
I’m calling BS on organ harvesting. I think she just decided to say they do because a few days ago on a live feed,someone asked if they do something like that for local colleges and ask if th can donate the bodies to local vet students fm such things and I swear I think I heard the wheels,spinning in her head at that moment. She pretty much said no they didn’t, but now all of a sudden they do? Who actually performs this procedure? You’d need the proper tools, a clean environment, and the proper storage and containment. Nope, not buying it.
This is also the first I have seen more than a casual mention on organs being “harvested.”. How can any of this happen on a filthy (“dirty” horses everywhere) and who is qualified to do so? You may not know of a case in Oregon regarding a TB whose bladder was cut out. The vet performing the necropsy stated the cut opening the body was practiced. Is this some sort of underground revenue source for rescues now?
It looks like she was on the Dr. Phil show!
Yes, she was. All was not as it seemed though seeing as she was the one that actually was arrested for domestic violence and not her ex husband.
Nobody will get the true story though. She ran right down to the court and sealed the documents. If you’re not guilty, why would you do that?
Would really like to see that Dr. Phil show… I can’t find it. I’m just curious to see her demeanor with Dr. Phil.
That was a long time ago. Michelle can come off as pretty engaging upon first contact. I’m sure she played her role to perfection.
Here’s the link. Not sure if there is video.
http://www.drphil.com/slideshows/dr-phil-takes-on-abusers-aaron-and-michelle/
Thanks, HorseLuv73. I found the written portion but no episode to watch. Oh well. I guess if I want to watch a show I can just go stalk the HiC page for those riveting FBLive videos… 😉
LOL!!!!
As a recent (now thankfully ex-) villager, I’m greatly alarmed by the increase of Michelle’s ‘playing Dr’. She is absolutely not qualified to triage these killpen horses from the other side of the country. She descends on them like a vulture to fresh roadkill. Where is San Luis Rey Equine when these horses roll onto the property? Munchausen by proxy is exactly what we’re witnessing. She brings ‘quaranteened’ (who are they trying to fool with that?!) horses into their barn, rolls her cart through the property spreading biohazard, let’s the dog roam freely tracking through whatever clings to her paws all the while making a show of ‘disinfecting’ her boots as everyone else clomps through the quarantined area and around the property. You’re supposed to change your clothing too! Official looking blue gloves are not enough. Nevermind Becky making out with a horribly sick horse and going about her business from there. Their biosecurity protocols need a massive overhaul. RIP to the long line of recently departed victims of Michelle Mengele (perfect comparison). In the years I’ve supported this killmill, I’ve not once seen a receipt or proof of diagnosis from any of their multiple vets. Didn’t their old vet leave the board also? Too much shady business for a professional to be associated with? Smart move. I can get past the potty-mouth and daily bitchyness of the alpha mare (although lending ear to a 12 yr old talking about anal beads like it’s corn flakes made me ill, an I’m surely no prude!) but this latest fiasco has made me wake up to the overall lack of accountability, knowledge and oversight that this org displays on a daily basis. I didn’t want to stop drinking their poison. But there comes a point when any reasonably intelligent person must say…ENOUGH! Why does a ‘rescue’ have so many detractors from all areas of the equine world? The plethora of ‘haters’ cannot all be wrong. Thanks to this blog and other individuals who have sounded the alarm for quite some time, I have learned much about the nefarious dealings of a place I once revered so highly.
Tara and Michelle are just plain bat shit crazy !!!!
Shara was deemed a Pasture Puff hero an issue with her back right leg. She was thrown out in a herd with wood fencing and some volunteers noticed she was lame and mentioned it to the Medical Gurus. Nothing was done. It was shrugged off as an abscess and that she would be fine.
Fast forward to the mare showing signs of colic, dehydration, and obvious pain and they hit her with an IV for fluid. Her back left leg was swollen to the hock.
A few days later she was shot and her legs were cut off “for research”… it was discovered that she had a puncture wound that had gotten infected to the point her leg looked like cottage cheese inside.
Charles Manson claimed they hit her with aggressive medications to treat her but the Medical Gurus Board of Meds had nothing listed for her during that timeframe, apparently…. I feel like they just got tired of caring for her and deemed her a lost cause and shot her then played with her limbs as they drove around the ranch in golf carts laughing.
Holy crap! That’s even worse than I had imagined 😦
WOW…
Oh and let’s not forget to bring to light how Robyn hit an emaciated horse (who had been down for over 24 hours and then dragged out of the barn stall on a tarp to make future removal easier) with banamine and then the horse died less than two minutes later….
Which one was that? I know the horse Clint laid in the driveway dying while they filmed him rather than calling a vet out.
It was Clint.
That was super hard to watch.
Yep! The worst things imaginable are happening there.
I will tell you right now that if HiCalorie doesn’t scale back on the theatrics, unsafe practices,lack of quarantine proceedure, goading the “haters” and all the various unsafe and unsound practices and proceedures, pissing off volunteers that have knowledge that could be harmful, that “resuce” that isn’t a “rescue” is going to fail big time. Many horses will lose their home at HiCalorie and the local fosters and other rescues will not be able to absorb the number of horses. Just the fraudulent donation drive of Saving 20 OTTBs from slaughter could be enough to lose there 501c status if their were enough complaints to the IRS. To buy retail overpriced sick mainly non thoroughbreds risk their health and safety to haul the 1700 miles and try to pawn them off as OTTBs is dishonest and totally unkind to innocent horses that just want to eat, play in the sun and hang out with their buddies. Dr NUTtila needs to scale back so far she disappears completely. The false hilarity of the villagers and staff, trying to convince that all was well with the horses, right after they put a bullet in Floyd’s sweet head, mad me physically ill. And the next day they were going to give Othello a little grain and then blow his brains out.Romney nees to realize the gig is up and more and more people are realizing that her tears can be turned on and off like water. Using her son’s memory to illicit sympathy donations,showing up at auction and having breathing fits is getting old. It’s one of the only things that is transparent!!!!! She is the ultimate drama queen and she needs to STFU, scale back the drama and be professionsal. Not saying “Um” every other word would help. Finishing sentences and staying on track would help. And for crying out loud will those that make the videos learn to adjust the sound for distance and not face into the wind. And I agree, what grown woman films themselves crying.? Has anyone ever seen Romney on a horse’s back? And the saddest part of all is the harm to the horses.
If those women really love and want to help thoses horses they really wil begin to practice “horses first”. They will set aside their egos, squelch their needs for attention, recognition and record setting and realize that it’s not the number of horses you have but the health and happiness of each horse. Michelle seriously needs therapy for her unmet and unhealthy need for attention. Michelle will need to stop treating her live and update videos as audition tapes. (GAG!) She will stop nearly pulling oer poor horses that she is to large to ride, when she mounts. She will realize that so many of the 40,000 plus people that like HiCalorie’s FB page have just tuned in to watch her make a food of herself. They aren’t all loyal “villagers”. They don’t donate.
Stop buying horses and start rescuing. Stop going to auction until you drastically reduce the numbers. Most of all grow and conscience.
I’m sure they’ll be at auction next Tuesday and they won’t stop any time soon. I don’t even know how they could salvage and trust or respect at this point.
Of course they will be at auction… that’s their Cash Cow.
We need to stage a peaceful protest outside the ranch is property, maybe even morph it into a candlelight vigil for the innocent lives that were taken in what amounts to the exact same horror as a ride on the slaughter truck would have been. (I’m sure there must be enough of us) The news stations need to be contacted so they can cover it, and then maybe the atrocities that are occurring over there can be brought out on a bit larger scale…
I wish the news stations would report what is actually going on there rather than puff pieces.
That’s why we need to do this!
I don’t understand how ANYONE defends or supports this rescue. The authorities need to step in at some point and stop these atrocities. Everyone needs to contact the media if the authorities will not help. Please don’t let these horses have suffered and died in vain.
In order for that to happen multiple people need to raise their voices instead of just the same few people that are brave enough to put up with the bullying and harassment from Becky and Michelle.
And the villagers…. they’ve threatened people and I wouldn’t put it past them to go to any lengths to silence their opposition.
The village idiots are mostly internet warriors aside from some locals, but lines have been crossed by the HiCal red shirts for sure. Funny how that is when they’re the first ones to play the victim card.
Like I said above: We need to stage a peaceful protest outside the ranch is property, maybe even carry it into the night for a candlelight vigil for the innocent lives that were taken in what amounts to the exact same horror as a ride on the slaughter truck would have been. (surely there must be enough of us) The news stations need to be contacted so they can cover it, and then maybe the atrocities that are occurring over there can be brought out on a bit larger scale…
They should have a load in from Louisiana tonight. The big truck won’t fit up their drive way though so they’ll be unloading and loading near by.
Totally agree. I have not seen a single *legitimate* (i.e. not the Malorees and Andrews of the world) trainer or other professional horseman who supports them; to me, that says something significant. But apparently the “village” either hasn’t noticed the lack of support from the educated horse community, or simply doesn’t care.
Given how they reacted (or rather, didn’t react) to HiCal being ostracized by other rescues, my money is on the latter. It is beyond depressing.
The problem with the village is, they are just as uneducated and inexperienced with horses as HICal and Michelle are. It’s the biggest case of the blind leading the blind ever known to exist.
It is a cult.
Exactly. The vast majority of local people I know (horse people) see HC for what they are. I don’t know any experienced horse-people who support them at all. That’s what’s so dangerous – non-horse people learning about horse care from HiCaliber live videos.
The sad part is that real and good legitimate rescues are being overlooked because they are so busy doing the work that they don’t have time to be a live-feed soap opera that seems to be required.
…and they’re responsibly caring for the horses that they have, not taking in dozens more so that they can make urgent posts to bring in donations.
For those of you that would like to fill out a complaint https://oag.ca.gov/…/pdfs/charities/charitable/ct9.pdf?
Hmm…it shows them to be Delinquent…
http://rct.doj.ca.gov/Verification/Web/Details.aspx?result=aca71381-1b40-4ca1-b4e9-231eceda7cae
That link does not work but I know what you are referring to. Here’s the link to the State of California Department of Justice, Office of the Attorney General – Registry of Charitable Trusts. The org’s registration is delinquent. My guess is that they filed an extension with the IRS to file late.
http://rct.doj.ca.gov/Verification/Web/Search.aspx?facility=Y
The nonprofit corporation’s status with the California Secretary of State is Active but it appears that they don’t file their annual report in a timely manner.
As someone who did rescue privately, i can honestly say this scares me, yes our vets were liberal about giving us med but NEVER Did they us he
tools to to euthanize, she is playing god!
What scares me is the rescue if you can call it that play on the real horse loving people and I feel they use it in a very inappropriate way,
I have worked around horses for 30+ years and watching them euthanize horses that given time would recover is mind blowing!
I took a OTTB from the track who had concussion founder and yes not easy road to go but 2 yrs later we have a happy heathy rideable horse?
My thought is if you don’t want to put the time in rescue then don’t do it!
I am so glad I did, he is now an amazing horse and baby sitter for my husband.
It seems to me of they can’t make more money from adoption thrust don’t give a crap!
Quick question. Please mind that I am trying to make sense of it all and agree with many of the points you make.
When this blog to expose the follies of HC was started, was there an end game in mind?
Trying to take them down?
Trying to make them better?
Get Michelle out?
Or just expose?
I see people saying a lot about taking HC down, but what then happens to the “200+” horses they have?
It’s not as personal as you’re making it out to be. If my own mother was doing this shit and wouldn’t stop, I’d be exposing it too. The `end game’ is for the horses to stop being exploited and shot for no reason. The `end game’ is accountability and real transparency because what they are doing is hurting true rescue and setting the anti-slaughter dialogue back by a bunch. So, what that looks like for Michelle is anybody’s guess, but if you saw a wrong being done would you be able to turn away or would you want to make it right? To ask what happens to the 200+horses they have is like saying what happens to all the horses in kill pens if we get that shut down? That is way far out in the future and not necessarily the end game. Horses first. ALWAYS.
Thank you.
I am still waiting for the DNA testing cause you know, the horses were lucky TMS had the sampling kits on hand, pulled hair (or was it blood?) took the 5 pictures and mailed it in to the Jockey Club lab. After all, the whole debaucle is about the HORSES and telling THEIR story, right?
Maybe it was blood, or hair, or no maybe it was both or maybe it was hair made out of blood. Who the fuq knows. (Depends who is commenting and if anyone has a clue or just taking TMS word for it like everything else she said).
Results should be in ANY DAY. 2 weeks and counting.
LOL!! I’m sure they haven’t even bothered to contact the JC for the kits. Maybe they just mailed them their SAA results and thought that would suffice?
@Tryingtofigureshitout – DNA testing to determine if the horse is a registered Thoroughbred has to be done using a kit purchased from The Jockey Club and sent to their registered lab. The JC has been using DNA since 2001. Prior to that, it was blood sampling.
There is a DNA test to determine bred but that has nothing to do with The Jockey Club and probably not 100% accurate.
I wouldn’t hold your breath for the DNA testing to be done.
@horseluv73 – yes, I am aware. There was just the slightest hint of sarcasm in my comment 😉
https://oag.ca.gov/sites/all/files/agweb/pdfs/charities/charitable/ct1-form.pdf?
If this link doesn’t work Google State of California form#CT-9. Print it out, fill it out and mail it in. Bitchng is great for a vent but actually doing something is the only thing that will get this shit stopped.
DO IT!
Wrong form. The URL says “…ct1-form.pdf”
Google State of California Form #ct-9 or
https://oag.ca.gov/sites/all/files/agweb/pdfs/charities/charitable/ct9-form.pdf?
Try this one.
Click to access ct9.pdf
@Notstupid Thank you! That is what I’ve been trying to tell everyone! Stop complaining here and complain somewhere where it will maybe do some good!
If they cannot/will not provide their 990, from any year, it is a violation of IRS code. Has anyone asked for it? It is public information, required to be available.
They are delinquent as of right now and subject to a fine. They can file for extensions as far as I know, but eventually it must be submitted and will be made public. They are likely hesitant due to the issue with Romney’s salary.
I believe it has been asked for just like invoices and receipts have been asked for and they never comply.
I appreciate that you can view the 990son the IRS site. However, 501c3s are required to provide their 990s when any member of the public asks. If they don’t, the IRS would be very interested in that documented (emails, messages, letters, etc) that show the request and the response, or lack of a response.
They have filed for extensions in the past. I believe they are caught up to 2015 on guidestar.
Links to Form 990
2014 – http://990.erieri.com/EINS/463960722/463960722_2014_0c191019.PDF
2015 – http://990.erieri.com/EINS/463960722/463960722_2015_0d6be58e.PDF
The org filed Form 990-N (ePostcard) for 2013. Received federal tax exempt status in July 2014.
https://apps.irs.gov/app/eos/ePostSearch.do?ein1=463960722&names=&city=&state=All…&zipCode=&country=US&dispatchMethod=searchEpostcard&submitName=Search
Does Cruella DeVille, I mean Michele or Robin either one have a VACSP in the State of California and if so does he/she realize they have to either display the license in a public area of the rescue and or wear a tag on their fancy scrubs in order to be compliant in the state? I’m guessing they aren’t and I’m sure I’ve never seen a tag on Robin at the auction while giving meds. (someone who scares me to watch her lead a horse and she is administering IV meds to scare, injured and sometimes unruly animals) I am just sitting hear shaking my head! I have been following this group and even recklessly donated to their cause recently before realizing just what a scam this whole thing is turning out to be. I don’t understand this “medical team” diagnosing and injecting controlled substances, and basically playing “Father God” to these animals. I had a huge box of supplies that was going to be sent out today by me to help with the cause till I really started reading some of this an also seeing some things on video last night. i.e. Showing tons of hay and yet not a single pen that Becky videoed had even scraps of any forage of any kind in them and it was only 1:00 in the afternoon, (I guess the rescue doesn’t realize horses are grazing animals and obviously they don’t follow any feeding program let alone a re-feeding program to the emaciated). After all, it is Cal and lots of sand….I image sand colic runs wild for some. Why on God’s Green Earth are these animals standing with NO FOOD in front of them with the exception of a few that are too weak and sick to eat? And then taking the kill pen horses (I won’t even mention the idiot label of OTTB20) off the trailer to measure their height when they can barely stand up and just need to lay down and rejuvenate? And of course poor Floyd being loaded on that trailer with NO FORM OF SUPPORT for his fourth leg – all the while, all of the professionals including the vet on hand never mentioned giving him any kind of support wrap or better yet pulling him off the trailer at all and seeing exactly what was going on – He should have been put down right then and there – really – an aged gelding needing a check ligament cut – with obvious indications of long term injury) Has idiot Cruella not realized that Banamine, Rompun, Dormosedan, nd others while outstanding drugs when used properly are not needed at the blink of every eye; and more importantly, they slow GUT movement down? What veterinarian is dispensing drugs like taffy candy to these morons? Also, who is monitoring the amount of fluids these horses are getting….the amount she is dumping in them can cause just as much harm to the animal as not having enough fluids….I just can’t believe this and will be doing some serious investigating and letters will be flying out to the good ole California Medical Board not just on HC but San Louis Rey has some serious questions to answer to as well.
I won’t bore you with my qualifications, but you can trust I have more knowledge in my little pinky than the entire “medical team” has in their entire bodies. Right is Right….but Wrong here is way Wrong!
Did you see Becky’s live feed yesterday? They were going from horse to horse and giving half ass updates. Anyways, they showed Sully and said he has been having explosive watery poop and they are not sure why….umm I don’t knew maybe it was the 4 bags of fluid they pumped into him earlier and the day before as well? This “playing doctor” thing is going way too far and is damaging these poor horses. They are pumping way too many drugs into fragile horses and only hurting them in the end. You don’t need to sedate a horse to wear a catheter and you certainly don’t tie up an already lethargic horse, then sedate them, and them tie them up unless you at asking for a horse to tumble and hang itself.
I want to know how many horses actually end up crashing more after this so called medical treatment and how many meet a bullet because of this.
Their refeeding program is also a joke. They just throw it in a group bin and the strongest eat. More of these Louisiana horses are going to die probably.
I believe their farm vet is out of Temecula Creek and not SLREH. SLREH is just the place they haul in their surgical horses to and I don’t believe they have much to do with what goes on at the ranch.
Good to know…I’ll make note of that and include them in on my questioning
They just had one of the vets from SLREH there onsite .
The other day? That was just for the cancer horses mainly.
I would have put any horse that has potential to be surgically repaired and healthy on a ranch that helps people with depression and other mental and physical issues. Even boot camps for kids have riding and care therapy. Just a suggestion and it’s done for veterans. There’s a device and saddle for people with back injuries to ride. Riding takes mental issues to a better level and horses are sensitive to a person’s state of mind which in turn if rejected by the horse gives the patient an opportunity to work on their anger or stress. Whatever the person has that’s negative a horse much like some dogs will pick up on it and help from a trained psychologist can help with this type therapy. There’s centers in GA. I think this is a valuable solution.
I think this is a beautiful solution, but since it wouldn’t be bringing in any revenue and it would force HiCaliber to keep severely damaged horses and pasture puffs permanently on their payroll… not sure I see it happening 😦
Wow. Your tone takes away from so much of your information. I know some of the info and understand your anger. But I also know lots of horses run through auction are because they are lame and need to be put down, but greedy people think why not screw some poor unsuspecting person and torment the horse some more and make a few bucks to boot. Sick I know. But when when caring for so many ive seen many trainers provide care that’s routine by vets. Ie oiling, banamine, ect. Same stuff the vet will do and will in fact tell you to do if possible depending on your experience and relationship with your vet. What I get is the same thing I had experienced. I took a horse in, he had been neglected ottb. Got about 150lbs on him. Corrective farrier work. He still needed 100lb imo. No ribs showing. Was very lanky to begin with. Pulled a shoe one morning. I was at basically a coop with 300 horses. We owned our corrals. Well, an atty that was looking at a horse for sale down the aisle saw my guy. He took a quarter size piece of hoof off with the shoe. Anyway. It was reported as starved, neglected, abused and near death. To appease said asshole. I had to pay another (had just spent 500+a at the vet with health check and recommendations from the vet 5 days prior) 500+. To show a new vet report for said asshole. Investigator that came out said he wasn’t underweight. But said yes he was missing a shoe. Wasn’t lame or hurt. But said accuser wanted my horse and if I didn’t give him to her she literally stated she would make my life a living hell for what I did. She was a ada at our district atty office and said all this via her ada email address. Needless to say she wasn’t there much longer. But the gist Is this. He lost a shoe that day was turned to major hoof neglect. Ect.
It seems that you knock every single action they take. That seriously detracts from your post. I’m not trying to be ugly I promise. I just don’t know if you see how it comes across to strangers. I surely understand your drive. Maybe this isn’t meant for strangers and if so I do apologize.
I can’t speak for the author of this blog, but a lot of us locals who have worked closely with HiCaliber are very scared for the horses involved with them, and very very frustrated at a situation that seems to be escalating despite our best efforts. It’s extraordinarily difficult not to get angry in the face of such overwhelming opposition and seemingly willful ignorance.
Since the HiCaliber army absolutely demolishes anyone who voices anything that might be interpreted as criticism (even if it’s only meant as a totally innocuous question), this blog (and others like it) have become safe spaces for the “haters” to vent, connect with others who share our concerns, and brainstorm for ways to address the situation.
Obviously, it is totally up to you how interpret the “tone” that’s used here, and how you feel about it. Hate it or love it – your call (and I’m honestly not trying to be snarky). However, I personally think even if the tone isn’t quite to someone’s tastes, it’s a completely negligible and irrelevant evil when compared to what’s going on at HiCaliber 😦
Well said
It’s meant for people that can think for themselves. My `tone’ is my voice and it’s not for everybody. It has served this blog well for a number of years though. I will continue to expose the mistreatment of horses and no, Michelle is in no way qualified to be performing the procedures she does or diagnosing anything. She is not an experienced horse person and her ego makes it difficult for her to learn anything. Once again, this blog is not for everybody but it is the truth, no matter how inconvenient that may be
…also, giving a horse oil / banamine / electrolytes in the early stages of colic is NOT the same thing as an amateur trying to do unsupervised rectal exams / regional limb perfusions / deworming fragile horses / thinking they are qualified to deal with *severe* colic / making up their own quarantine protocol.
The horse, I referenced in this post was allowed to stand in the breezeway of that barn and colic for days before he was hauled in to the clinic along with another colicing horse. They both suffered because Michelle didn’t get them the care they needed in time.
This is the only license that Michelle has had with the CA.gov listed and it is no longer valid. This was for her weapons training back when she worked for animal control and she no longer has it. I’m wondering how in the world she is shooting off any firearm in the state of California when there are people including children around on the property…even the California Highway Patrol does not have the clearance to euthanize an animal with a firearm UNLESS it is an EMERGENCY….How has she been able to get away with doing this for so long? And of course…she is not licensed in the state of California to administer controlled substances whether or not a veterinarian told her to or not..she still has to have a VACSP which she does not…I’m sure Robin doesn’t either….
License Number: 126937
Current Date: 05/26/2017 11:16 AM
Name:
KNUTTILA, MICHELLE
License Type:
Baton Permit
License Status:
Suspended No Qualifier
Expiration Date:
Original Issuance Date:
07/02/2002
Addresses
Address of Record
Address
ESCONDIDO , CA
SAN DIEGO
92025
I was actually kind of curious too about if she can legally own a gun or not. I’m pretty sure the law in CA about shooting any animal is that it has to be an emergency situation where it would take a vet too longntomgetnthere to do it humanely.
She doesn’t hide it. Her vets seem to know about it and they don’t question it. I don’t think being their farm vet is all the good for getting new clients though. I sure wouldn’t ever trust them.
The thing is, if these vets are dispensing these drugs knowing full well she is abusing them and is not really qualified or licensed in the state of Cal to administer “CONTROLED SUBSTANCES” then they are just as guilty as she is. As far as shooting the horses, she can’t fall back on the….well I own them, because she doesn’t …the 501C Corp owns them, so unless there is a meeting held with written consent on all of her actions each time an action is taken, as far as treating and euthanizing the horses, I’m not sure it is legal for her to do. I’m just thinking she is in a shit nest and needs to stop what she is doing. All of them needs to stop what they are doing.
On another note, I’m kind of worried about her children, I have no problem with what her and Becky choose to do (not my cup of tea of course) but to say the lewd and vulgar language that she insists on doing and the peeing but ass naked beside the trailer on camera is far too much for kids to be subjected to on a daily basis. I feel like it is boarder line child abuse and very sickening to watch….almost pornographic at some points the way they are all groping each other. So unprofessional! Howard Stern she is not!
The only people on the board are her friends so they’ll sign off on anything she does. Most of them rarely go near the place. I do have a problem with the amount of drugs she keeps on hand because I know that my vet puts a scrip label on any drugs I get from him other than antibiotics which I can get over the counter at other places. There’s a problem there and nobody seems to want to address it. Robyn waltzes around the Tuesday auction with a backpack full of drugs. Michelle was waving needles around last time she was at auction It’s gross.
I try to not involve children in this blog. They can’t help who their mother is. Of course I’m concerned with what hers are subjected to and feel very badly. I just can’t really see my way clear to dragging them into it and I hope somebody closer to the situation is on top of it or monitoring those children’s mental health.
Dana is obviously hauling the additional horses that won’t fit in the “big KC Rig” because her truck and trailer are parked in front of it…Legal or not, she is hauling for money! Wow, no wonder this horse slaughter and hauling thing is such a huge mess!
I’m just glad they were shamed into hiring KC Transport again, although none of those horses really look like they were in need of saving and I see Michelle’s personal purchase gets the good ride on the donor dollar.
Two more horses are eventaully destined for the Rainbow bridge. Valentina and Anastasia. They both have “probable” melanoma and are being pawned off to “One Last Good Home”. Hi Calorie won’t try to seek surgery because it will require general anasthesia and that could cost several thousand and HiCal just doesn’t have it at this time. So there is NO loyalty to the horses thatare already in residence at HiCal? They can spend tens of thousands haulng sick horses from LA but not several thousands on two horses they already have? Horses first? Yeah no. SMH.
I’m surprised the 30% vet didn’t get the anesthetic drugs from Spini and do the surgery herself.
Wait…..hold the fuq up! They are taking mini’s now? Last I thought mini’s weren’t necessarily in danger of slaughter. Yet, the mini’s can’t go on this last haul so you know the Hicaliber Hillbillies will be back. Wondering if anyone knows what they do with all that manure I saw piled high in a video? if they do not have a waste recycling container that is in violation of storm water and drainage code. Might be worth a call to County, and one to zoning code enforcement for being over their legal limit of horses. I would assume since the citations go to the owner of the property, they might get pretty sick of receiving them and eventually perhaps fed up?. Just a thought..
They say they let people come and get it for free. So, the shit from the quarantine pens can be spread around the county. Nice. I’m sure they are going back because those TBs they left for Tara to sell aren’t selling and they promised to get them if they didn’t move. Look for another massive fund raiser soon along with their regular Tuesday auction extravaganza.
I’m really disturbed because I saw another rescue asking for funds to get those minis to them – via H.C.
Which means a second rescue possibly contaminated. A second rescue that sees nothing wrong with shipping fragile horses this far.
I admit to not having experience hauling regular & mini horses together, but isn’t there a real risk to the smaller horses if a large, fragile horse stumbles and goes down?
These are pretty much exactly the things even people who don’t necessarily object to slaughter *still object to* because it’s the cruelty before they get to slaughter. I’ve seen people who would rather see local plants for exactly the reasons we are seeing with this whole cross country … Thing.
When something is considered cruel EVEN BY SLAUGHTER ADVOCATES, there’s a reason. Long distance shipping of ill & terrified horses. Smh.
That rescue regularly works with HiCaliber so make of that what you will.
As for the slaughter thing, all of this is more an argument against slaughter than for They are using the threat of it to manipulate funds out of uneducated people. Even when there was slaughter, there was only something like two plants open and horses were still going to Mexico and Canada depending on what was closer. The availability of slaughter did not make a single difference and the unavailability of it has not changed the numbers that are slaughtered each year. That is just something people like Tara whine about because they are assholes. I honestly don’t know of anybody that loves horses, or animals even, that could think that slaughter was a good way to die. For that reason I can’t ever be on board with a rescue that works hand in hand with kill buyers and wannabe kill buyers. It is the antithesis of what rescue should be about.
Shedrow, I’m NOT pro-slaugter, just pointing out that even some who are pro-slaughter agree that long distance shipping of sick/crowded horses is cruel. To me that says the behavior is so egregious it gets recognized on both sides of the street, so to speak. Apologies if that didn’t come across clearly, it’s hard to frame everything I’m thinking right now. I think a lot of people are just stunned by the way this keeps getting more horrific for the horses that should have been tended locally but instead….I can’t even finish that thought.
Anyway my post was more of a “how could a rescue do this when even people who are enemies on the topic of slaughter in general can agree that long haul of fragile animals is horrific”? Just shocked over here.
Well, they just unloaded 14 horses tonight. Dana is on her way home with 5 horses stuffed in a 4 horse stock trailer and they have bought or spoken for some minis that somebdoy has to go back for. Meanwhile Romney is strutting around in a Thompson Feed Lot Hat on Live feed. That pretty much says it all…
Good to have you back, Shedrow, you’ve been missed. Thanks for bringing this hi-caliber horror show to light.
I’m just gonna put this right here: http://www.vmb.ca.gov/consumers/comp_inf.shtml
If anyone has advice on how best to fill it out I am all ears. There is so much disturbing evidence I’m not sure where to start. In any case, I’m more than willing to file a complaint.
We’ve been discussing this issue at the equine rescue that I work with here on the East Coast, and NO ONE is pleased with what’s going on with HCHR. A lot of people (including the local vets) have been questioning this group for a while, but this recent debacle with transporting horses from LA to CA has really taken the cake for all of us. I also know some people that worked with the rescue who left for the very reasons we’re discussing now.
I find it highly troubling that people will venomously defend HCHR without taking into account WHY so many people are saying the same things and/or asking the same questions. Questioning a rescue isn’t being a “hater”, it’s being responsible. And now I hear rumors of them getting a reality show based around the rescue. I don’t know if this is actually going to happen or not, but they are REALLY not going to like the amount of “haters” if it airs.
NO RESCUE IS ABOVE REPROACH! Period. End of story. If Michelle and her crew can’t handle people calling them to task, then they need to get out of the business.
Ignoring all of the other questionable things that they have done, this particular insanity concerning the LA horses has taken the cake in terms of irresponsible behavior of a rescue. The rescue that I work for is WAY larger (I believe around 200 acres), and we STILL do not have the numbers that these people have constantly pouring in…and we take on fresh-off-the-track Thoroughbreds and Standardbreds regularly. It isn’t responsible and it isn’t safe to pack that many animals into one area, especially with the threat of communicable illness and infection. And with them begging for funds constantly, they can’t afford to have that many animals.
Oh, and all of our financial information is updated constantly on our website. There is not one penny that is donated or spent that is not recorded for public viewing. Every adoption, birth, and death is also advertised for transparency’s sake because we aren’t utilizing practices that would get us shut down, arrested, and/or disbarred.
I think this Louisiana stunt and partnership with Tara Sanders pushed a lot of people over the edge. Many advocates have been keeping an eye on things, but this forced a lot of people to speak out. They’ve been pitching a reality show for quite awhile and these big stunts are part of that I’m sure and mabye that’s not a bad thing. If it hits mainstream public then perhaps the appropriate agencies will be compelled to do something and maybe the vets that look the other way and allow her to purchase caseloads of drugs without scrips and enable her to practice without a license, just maybe they’ll disassociate or be called to answer for their part in all of this.
Yup. I have come over from the ‘dark side’. I was there VERY briefly and even sent them $20 but very quickly things were not adding up. That is how all of us find blogs like this. We aren’t quite convinced, go looking… and voila. As you know Shedrow I questioned the tone of your blog. At this point go the F&*$ ahead with your badself! HiKill needs to be dealt with. The sooner the better. They are so out of control it would be funny if it wasn’t so damn sad.
This has always been my `tone’. Maybe I should be a bit more vulgar and the villagers would relate to me better?
Love the name of this post because it’s true!
I just wanted to ask how is it legal for hi crap rescue to have all of these drugs for sedation? Every horse is a different weight how the hell does she know how much to give? I this at the very least dangerous for the horses. How is it these vets stick with this rescue? What do they really think about her form of euthanasia? All the money they raise and they can’t put them down humanely? This all just bullshit!
Those are questions I can’t answer. You need to ask the appropriate parties, I guess. The more people that ask, maybe something will finally be done.
Holy cow! By my count, from the Hi Cal website there are 207 horses inclucing the LA purchases. Are you kidding me 207 ? How can all of those horses get the attention they deserve and need. That is why Mr Winchester pays frequent visits and horses have their brains blown out for so little reason. There are 38 available for adoption; 11 for $1.00 menu; 102 in rehab; 18 companion only and 3 in sactuary plus the 35 give or take from LA. I don’t know how many of those are in foster homes. Have you noticed the mountains of poop? There is no way that a small handfull of people can care for that many horses. Michelle accused another rescue of hoarding. Pot Kettle Black!!! I have a feeling it may slow down adoptions having all the sick horses brought in fro LA. If anyone is wise they will wait for a while. 2 0 7. Let that sink in.
How can they even follow up on that many horses or check up on their adoptions? Being warehoused in those small pens, many without shelter, is no kind of life nor is is rescue.
Go to: http://www.10news.com/team10
Scroll to bottom and fill out the form. You can submit anonymously if you chose to do so.
If they get enough people sending in a “tip”, they will simply have to investigate and they will know they need to dig deep and not just do a puff piece!
I don’t get it, why in the heck are these idiots from HI Stupidity, giving wormer to horses straight off of a trailer from LA, and they are all sick and coughing their heads off. This is making me crazy! I want to rip these horses out of these idiots hands and get them to a quarantine area! My Goodness, that place has to be crawling with disease! 14 horses x 4 feet and 25 idiots with 2 feet count for a lot of disease walking around the main barn area with lots of airborne sneezes and coughs going everywhere.. Wow, why would anyone go there to get a “healthy” rescue. The way they are doing their intakes, Mr Winchester can probably go on vacation, between the worming, and the dope they are injecting, they are going to kill them, sick or not! This has got to STOP!
They have all of the sick horses tied to the trailers and the hitching rails where they tie every horse they do anything with everyday in that area…this is such a joke…biohazard! Michelle is an idiot if she thinks she has anything under control there….sick sick sick place!
LOL! Michelle couldn’t even be bothered to waltz her ass across the drive way to do intakes tonight
I think she didn’t want to do live because she can’t handle the pressure and questions from people and she can’t handle the constant judgement from people, who know better. On Friday evening I caught her live update of Adidas and Nike and she lost her shot like I’ve never seen before. Some guy who clearly had some kind of communication problem (thinking Englishness not his first language) was asking a question about why she didn’t look at one of the horses eyes cause he kept scathing it. Anyway, she flipped her shit and just went off like how she is so much better at this job an anyone else and if you think you can do better than her, she was saying to come out and do it. She was belligerent and out of control, then the village idiots all jumped on the bandwagon and called this guy all sorts of names and how he should learn how to type and speak English. It was actually really sad. Then M was so fed up that she finally cut off the live feed. Interestingly enough thatbvideomwas removed completely and a different one with updates on those horses were added shortly after.
It was so unprofessional and sickening at the way she addressed this poor guy and how the village idiots just tore him apart and we’re just down right mean.
That’s how they roll and that’s how they stop the village idiots from getting any other information than what they feed them.
It’s a better video without Dr Nuttila tromping around in her Uggs acting all self-important and big. Don’t miss her at all. Wonder if she realized that she has been hurting HiCal more than she has been helping it, so she said she had other plans. Either that or she is pouting. Her updates have been much more low key and informative the past day or two, rather than stupid silly and profane. Thanks Michelle, maybe you are reading these and listening and learning. But I won’t hold my breath that this will last. Besides being the biggest biohazard joke in the world,it still isn’t putting the horses first. Why can’t the measuring and worming and etc wait til tomorrow until the horses have decompressed a bit. Horses first, shitshow second. Romney actually showed up with Ingrid. I guess to show support and get her share of the attention and praise for being such a hero. Gag. She was hyper-excited or over stimulatled or something. STFU! Her hyper-positive dialogue is not fooling me at all. To someone not under the influence of the koolaid, her spin is a total failure.These horses seem to be more congested than previous loads. Lots of sneezing, coughing and nose blowing. The appy has a mild temp. Still not seeing the OTTBs. 5 are for private buyers and I guess Becky has decided to take Tara as her own. Is Dawson’s tail just matted or is it full of melanoma? Bet Dawson stands a better chance of treatment than the two from yesterday with probable melanoma that will not be given a chance, but of course Dawson is Dr NUTillas personal horse. The unloading and intakes have already started to lose impact because I noticed that the viewing number fell from 483 to 140 pretty quick. I will be intereted to see them in the daylight and behold the 20 OTTBs. Yeah right.
Yes, Becky decided to take Tara on after they raised over 2k to buy her yesterday. I’m sure Becky will get her off the $1 menu. Romney is a tool, She hardly knows what colors horses are and she’s beaking off like some sort of rescue. The shippers looked like they wanted to punch her in the throat.
The village idiots generally don’t have long attention spans so these Louisiana horses are old news for them. They are getting themselves all jazzed up for Tuesday auction and the next amazing save. Maybe they’ll head on up to Canada and buy out the Bouvry feed lot or something.
I think Michelle has her feelers hurt. She rode in the parade earlier today so she was around then. Last time there was a lot of blowback on her, she ran off to Hawaii on donated air miles and hotels (according to her) and sulked there. Then she got the village to buy her that 2k feed lot horse from Nevada which collects dust in one of the dirt pens there still.
Of course Becky will have to take Tara because her and Michelle’s cremello Dawson are a “bonded pair” and they have said it before that they won’t separate “bonded pairs”. It was a win/win for them.
Tara appears to be a recip mare with no manners. I don’t suppose she’ll last long. These are horses, not lovebirds. They don’t have to be sold as bonded pairs.
I wanted to end that with an eye roll, but didn’t think it would come through.
LOL
Shedrowconfessions, this may be the best blog post thus far. There is so much to think over and chew on here.
I have wondered many times while watching them fundraise and asking for X amount of dollars per horse…
I understand the need for funds in order to responsibly care for horses coming into a rescue. What I don’t understand is this: do they not have alternative ways of off-setting the cost other than monetary donations? Most rescues that I am aware of receive donations of hay, feed, first aid/medical/triage supplies, supplements, tack and grooming supplies, and all other sorts of miscellaneous items. Not to mention that there are numerous grants available or avenues for receiving a discount on the direct purchase of said items for a rescue. Do they not have access to any of these other sources? Do they not receive donations other than monetary form? I will admit, I am not a hard core follower of the page and maybe this has been discussed by them. It just seems to me that the monetary cost is very high and very vague, with no discussion of specifics, or mention of other resources/funds available to the rescue. Seems that a bit of transparency here would go a long way, but it’s doubtful that it will take place.
They do get a lot sent to them but that’s difficult to put in your own pocket when you’re living off the rescue. They were kicked out of the Homes for Horses Coalition last year which has greatly hampered their ability to get grants. The ASPCA pulled their support of them as well. The main source of their support is those people that are donating on Tuesdays and that is just not sustainable.
And I’m sure they save a lot on vet care, as a lot of them don’t really see a real vet, that they fund raise for at the time of purchase, instead they are humanly shot
Here’s an interesting tidbit for you…
Right now on their page they are emergency fundraising for a foundered mare and her foal. The post says they need $700 more.
There are 199 comments right now (give or take half of them being ‘thank you’ replies from HC). Most are people saying something along the lines of ‘donated’.
28 commenters have said they donated as well as listed the amount donated. Of those 28 who have donated, they have raised $1,100.
So let’s venture to guess there are about 100 individuals who have donated so far, and a third of them alone have raised $1,100. There has been no updates on the thread stating how much has been raised, or even if they had enough and people could stop because the pair was safe.
Sick!!
And people are STILL donating for this pair as we speak.
That’s how they do it and since most of them never specify what the donation is for, they can skim all the like and get away with it. If people did specify what the donation was going towards, they would have to direct it there.
And it seems to me that if they are receiving donations other than monetary form, the cost for ‘responsible rescue’ would not be so high. That aspect never seems to be discussed by them and the village is just blind to it.
You can put my email address anywhere you want it to go!!! Hopefully up your ass!!! I have been a follower for 3 years. I have donated nominal amounts throughout the years. I know you must have a problem with HiCaliber because of the money they are making. . I am very aware of a “non profit” organization. It sucks to see the beautiful home and ranch that HiCaliber has. Along with Michelle’s BMW, and she can’t afford a new truck. I get your right to be angry. On the other hand HiCaliber is about saving as many horses as they can not to have to go through the pain of SLAUGHTER!!! They are not there to save every horses life, they save them from SLAUGHTER… Since they make a profit from doing that you are pissed off??? You want to cut them down for the super lame horses that they put a bullet in their brain?? Would you rather that horse be put down with drugs that may not work quickly and makes the horse suffer more??? Michelle has never claimed to be a vet, but by law you are allowed to treat your animal with prescribed medications from your Vet. I have had horses my whole life until about 10 years ago and I’m 46. There are so many things I still don’t know about a horse. I can name every bone in the human body but I can’t name 1/2 of the bones in a horses body. Does that make me illiterate??? I think not!!! Just FYI the next time you go to the Dentist make sure your assistants are not “self trained” On the job training is better than going to school and reading books on how to do it. So if Michelle learns some things from Google, so be it. She has never claimed she was anything close to a VETERINARIAN!! Again I don’t donate money or time to HiCaliber but I do stand up for what is right!!!
There is a point where you have to say “can I do this responsibily and would I actually be helping them?” That is the problem, quarantine is a huge issue as well as not being completely “transparent” like they say they are. When people ask questions they go for the jugular, this is turning into another ss
Could you break this down into points so it is understandable? They saved nothing from slaughter. They just bought 37 horses from a horse trader. Thompsons don’t have a contract to ship to slaughter. Not sure how much more clear I can make that for you.
I don’t know how much more clear I can make my point, the issues are quarantine and how many they or any rescue can responsibly “rescue” not just collect and shoot
And ss did the same thing attacked and blocked anyone who dared to ask questions or suggest anything, ended up being a lot of neglect and hoarding and doing their own vet care, hope that is more clear
For some reason, HiCaliber is trying to make this all about Starlight which is very old news. Back when things went south, I did a piece on starlight and I even gave HiCaliber some praise for offering to help. That was then and this is now. A lot has changed in a few years. This blog has nothing to do with Laura Bell and it never has. No amount of them deflecting and trying to distract people from the issue is going to change what HiCaliber is guilty of NOW. They can send all the village idiots out of the bat cave that they want and I will continue to speak the truth. I don’t have my hand out for money and this blog is not monetized. I don’t need to pander to their brand of fuckery to do what I do and I won’t.
I don’t have Facebook and don’t follow anyone, I did follow hi caliber in the beginning however it turned me off not to see where the funding was going and the attacking of anyone asking questions, ss may be old news however it is the same pattern
that’s who Michelle and Romney used to work with in rescue so we shouldn’t be surprised.
Here’s the thing Jennifer, HiCaliber, i.e. Michelle and Romney is running the business as if it is their money that is being spent. I think it is wrong that while they all claim to be jobless and too broke to bury one of their children because HiCaliber can’t cash the payroll checks and yet they continue to bring more horses to the ranch and spend bigger money getting them there. Michelle needs to pay rent to live like the rest of America! Then they, i.e. Michelle and Becky take two of the horses that several people asked about adopting; and keep them for themselves on donated money. Are they going to reimburse the “business” for the purchase, feed, hay, vet care, farrier work and just general board for those two horses? Of course not. But they sure can beg for more money and a New Truck. It is really becoming a joke or as they are hoping for, a Reality TV show.
As far as Michelle playing doctor, she sure is and playing God too! It’s not about shooting the horses, it’s about all the bs going on there. Last night was a joke and those poor animals was suffering at the hands of a bunch of wannabe saviors. That place would have to be so contaminated after last night, that no horse would be safe there. Was there really a need to put them through worming and IV Banamine so soon after stepping off of a trailer from LA? Not all horses need Banamine! It is supposed to be a controlled substance!
If anyone is a bully, that would be Michelle with a capital B. Her vulgarity and nasty attitude towards anyone that asks for transparity is ridiculous. She really puts on like she is saving lives – Yippie, she saved Floyd all the way from LA just long enough to put a bullet in his head. I truly feel for these animals in her care!
Newsflash: Shipping horses 1700 miles and then shoot in them is the same fate as if the horse had shipped to slaughter
You also sound like a child calling Michelle Charles Manson… You are a nut job and thank God for our country I can say that!!! You are a 3rd grade bully. Open up your own rescue and try to save every horse and never put a bullet to its head!!! I have a story to tell you. When I was 3 I got a 22 yr old OTTB named Joker. Joker was so old all he could do was walk. We had 40 acres in Oklahoma. My Dad would put me up on Joker (16h) with a nap sack and set me off. Yes I was 3 this was in 1973, my parents would have been arrested at this day and age. Joker and I would go to the creek and get a drink and just explore all day. He took care of me… II only weighed about 25 pounds ( I was very small) I think the only reason he knew I was on his back was because of the reigns. He was my baby sitter for 3 months. One night we had a big storm we even had to go to the cellar. I was so scared for Joker because he didn’t have much shelter. The next day Joker was gone. We looked for him everywhere all day. Well after 3 days my dad told me Joker died because he got struck by lightning.😭😢😭 Well I didn’t find out until I was 39 years old what really happened to Joker. He didn’t get struck by lightning, my Dad shot him after my last ride to put him out of his misery. My heart broke again because I told my Dad I could have fixed him. Now I know My Dad did the right thing. I was too young to understand his pain, but I still miss my big grey boy that took care of me for a summer!!!😊 RIP Joker…. I still see you in my dreams…
Nobody really cares about your life story and I’m not reading through all that with no paragraph breaks. The ONLY rule on this blog is be civil or go away. You are on your last warning.
PS. If this blog has offended you so far, just wait until you see what’s coming in the next week or so. 🙂
D&D Rendering in Carson CA pays by the pound for animal carcasses. If they buy 4-6 horses at auction but not that many per week are being adopted, the math is pretty simple. It’s not like property in SoCal with acreage to keep horses is affordable. And that doesn’t even include “stopping trucks on the way to slaughter” every few weeks and acquiring yet more horses at double digit rates.
Also what are the odds that almost all of the males are cryptorchid?
I noticed they seemed to have runs on crypts for awhile, eyeballs before that, and always cancer. I guess it depends on what chapter of her vet book Michelle is on at the time.
Wow seems to be the same rules she’s complaining about. Agree with me or be gone….don’t question me….grrr.
You can ask all the questions you like as long as you are polite and semi-literate.
These women need to be stopped. They suck.
I was wondering how many horses have you saved? Since you seem to know everything why didn’t you call hicalibur and give suggestions on transporting these horses from a kill buyer? Furthermore, there are 1000’s of horses abused, starving, abandoned all over the United States yet I heard no mention of these horrific places, and why didn’t you mention all the slaughter trucks going to Canada and Mexico and the horrible way these drivers and companies are treating these horses? Your focus seems on destroying Michelle and not saving the horses. Michelle might have a foul mouth but I know she and HiCalibur are out there every week saving horses! Please stop with this one sided story if you are concerned and really love and care for horses then write your report to include all who are abusing these horses! Write about ways to save these horses not tell us about Michelle and her personal problems, because it isn’t saving one horses beautiful life!
I’m saving lots of lives by exposing places like HiCaliber. If you don’t like how I do this blog, you are more than welcome to go start your own blog and build a readership. People come here for the truth. The truth always offends those that are clinging to their preconceived notions. Everything I have presented here is fact and backed up.
Horses in need of rescue are EVERYWHERE and there are a million different ways to help out. This blog isn’t trying to describe every single way to help or provide a how-to manual for rescue. Rather, it is trying to shed some light on a specific situation that is A) dangerous to every horse involved and B) drawing in donations that are NOT being used as described and could be put to much, much better use elsewhere.
Rita, I understand that you want to help horses in need and you believe HiCaliber is doing so. But please, please understand there is more going on here than meets the eye and horses are, by and large, not any safer once they get to HiCaliber than when they leave auction.
An extremely crippled horse gets loaded onto a truck and is shipped 30 hours without a break. At the end of the journey, he is sick with shipping fever and his 3 `good’ legs are giving out due to trying to support and balance himself without a break for that length of time. He is sore, sick and confused and a few days later, he is shot in the head and his body is `harvested’. Does that not sound exactly what we anti-slaughter advocates are fighting every single day? Well that is exactly what HiCaliber Floyd went through in the name of `rescue’ at the hands of Michelle and Romney and THAT is why this blog will continue to shine the light on what they are doing. THAT is not rescue.
One more thing I follow HiCalibur every week and I am NO idiot like you mentioned in your story. I like these women and what they are doing, saving horses! HiCalibur Rocks!
You can’t even spell `HiCaliber’. Your posts would suggest that you are, indeed, an idiot. However, all are welcome here so pull up a seat and learn something maybe. Be civil and leave your kool-aid at the door. We speak the truth here, no matter how uncomfortable that may be.
Out of curiosity, Rita: what is your horse background / experience in rescue?
Did you even read Shedrowconfessions response to your post above???? I don’t think you did. They are not “rescuing” any more. They might have been at one point, but they are turning a fast buck now. Open your eyes. What is happening to the horses in their “care” is horrifying.
Tell us how HiCaliber Flloyd was a rescue? That poor fucking horse. He was tortured by them.
OPEN YOUR EYES.