By Kat Kanning

The SPCA's Stephen Sprowl, along with a Deerfield vet and police from 3 towns raided a Candia home on Monday and took 12 horses. They blocked off the road and moved in horse trailers with covered license plates, which is illegal in NH. The Travis family was disarmed and forced out of their home for two hours during a snowstorm, so their horses could be stolen. Several people involved in the theft hid their faces and refused to identify themselves during the raid. (See earlier story, SPCA Joins Police State)

The horse owner, Brian Travis, explained the situation,

“http://www.deerfieldvetclinic.com/veterinary-staff.htm That's him. Dr. Simon George, DVM. People around town told us he was the best vet in town, so we called him a couple weeks ago when we had a mare that had cut her leg on something. [A] totally normal thing that happens quite often to thousand-pound animals when they are maintained by humans.

Heidi has handled this kind of injury a hundred times before, and our vet in Colorado would just give us some bandages and penicillin and let us deal with it ourselves. (Total cost: about ten dollars) A couple weeks ago we called the vet clinic and was told that we could not be trusted with bandages and penicillin and that the doctor would have to make a visit. He came by with an assistant, wrapped the leg (which Heidi easily could have done), and shot the horse with penicillin (which Heidi has done a hundred times before). Total cost, $226.

Today he comes out with the intention to take our most valuable horses. Did we pay him $226 so he could scope out the population and pick out the best ones? Or is it just a coincidence that the SPCA chooses the vet that we just hired? Either way, Dr. George needs to know that he is not doing this for the safety of animals, but for the pleasure of a Napoleonic investigator for the SPCA. Steve Sprowl is an ex-cop who gets pleasure from using the power of the government to punish those who embarrass him and show his true colors.

Dr. George is one of the pawns who has bought Sprowl's sweet-talking line and turns on his customers to please the state.”

Josh Kern of Keene had this to say about the animals, “Lou Eastman and I are out to the Travis home nearly every Sunday, and I can personally attest to the fact those horses are not neglected.”

Lou Eastman of Peterborough said, “Every time I visited (every Sunday for band rehearsal and other times) the horses all looked healthy, well-fed, happy, and responsive. I never once saw any evidence of, or anything to suggest, abuse or neglect. Monica commented to me that her Pomeranian, Spirit, interacted really well with the horses, i.e., the horses did not over-react to the presence of a small furry animal. Rather, they seemed playful, alert, and interested.”

Neither the SPCA nor Dr. George would return my messages to discuss why the horses were taken. So we're only going to have one side of the question about whether or not the horses were well cared for. Is the question of how the animals are cared for even relevant? It's OK to kill your pig and eat it. Why is it not OK to kill your own horse if you so desire? Property is property, and not the government's business to seize.

Youtube of the theft:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGjrE36PGzg