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View Full Version : 21 horses poisoned before polo game?!



Cruelbreed
04-20-2009, 06:30 PM
WTF, can you imagine 21 horses just freaking dropping .. massacre XD. Don't ask why I posted this, I guess I just like animals and the thought of 21 horses dropping like flies just seemed kind of eery.



Poison Suspected in Deaths of Polo Horses

By KAREN CROUSE (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/c/karen_crouse/index.html?inline=nyt-per) and ANAHAD O’CONNOR (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/o/anahad_oconnor/index.html?inline=nyt-per)
Published: April 20, 2009
WELLINGTON, Fla. — At least 21 horses collapsed and died on Sunday as they were about to take part in a polo match in Florida, and investigators said on Monday that poison was the most likely cause of their deaths.
The horses, from the Venezuelan-based Lechuza Caracas team, were being unloaded in preparation for the United States Open polo championships in Wellington, Fla., when several of the animals inexplicably began to stumble and collapse. Many of the horses died at the scene as veterinarians tried to save them and spectators looked on. Others died at vet clinics or while en route to a local clinic.
Veterinarians who examined the animals said that it appeared that they had died from heart failure caused by a toxin of some sort. But the precise reasons for their deaths were not expected to be determined until Friday, following necropsies, said Peter Rizzo, the executive director of the U.S. Polo Association.
“I cannot even process the horror from yesterday,” said Mr. Rizzo, adding “I don’t think anyone is prepared for anything like this. There’s this scene of unrealness. If a couple of horses get sick or injured, you can kind of process it. As horses were starting to drop, you knew we had a much bigger problem.”
On Monday, an investigative committee that included many of the veterinarians who were on the scene on Sunday met to discuss the possibility that the animals might have been exposed to contaminated hay or deliberately poisoned. The horses all came from the same stable but had various owners. Some belonged to the team’s owner, Victor Vargas, an immensely wealthy Venezuelan banker. The remaining horses were owned by individual riders on the team, Mr. Rizzo said.
Mr. Vargas, who recently went through an acrimonious divorce in Palm Beach, became well known in the area last year when he purchased a $70 million home, one of the most expensive residential real estate deals in the country. He could not be reached for comment, but Mr. Rizzo described him as “in shock and mourning.”
The next matches at the U.S. Open are scheduled to be played on Wednesday, after polo association officials said they had decided to continue with the competition.