Posted on 04/21/2009 10:56:16 AM PDT by traumer
Tests are being carried out to try to discover why 21 polo ponies collapsed and died ahead of a major tournament in Florida at the weekend.
The horses, from a Venezuelan-owned team and valued at $100,000 (£69,000) each, became dizzy and disoriented.
Several died on the spot at the ground in Palm Beach County, while others died hours later as they were being treated.
Veterinarians say they suspect some kind of toxin but say it may be several days before the source is identified.
Polo enthusiasts had gathered on Sunday for the US Open Polo Championship at the polo club in Wellington in Palm Beach County.
As ponies from the Lechuza Caracas team were being unloaded from their horseboxes, several stumbled and fell to the ground.
Fourteen horses had died by Sunday evening, with seven more dying overnight.
"The players, the owners of the horses were in tears. Bystanders and volunteers were in tears," Tony Coppola, a polo club announcer, told the Associated Press.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
Obama’s fault!
Horse boxes? Carbon Monoxide?
What did they buy their horse feed from China?
That's what I'm thinking. Poor creatures.
Whaddaya wann bet some genius was hauling the horse trailer and venting exhaust directly into it for a couple of hours.
When will this end???!!??!
Insurance fraud? Pretty brazen though.
I’ll give odds it was an aflatoxin in the feed.
I’m waiting for Chavez to jump in and scream its all a giant conspiracy against the Venezuelan people by the evil Americans.
“Hey dude, just shoot this stuff in the horses and they will run a lot faster, really.....”
[i]I’ll give odds it was an aflatoxin in the feed.[/i]
You’re almost certainly right. If not aflatoxin, then some similar organism in their feed. Highly toxic molds grow like topsy in damp feed, and their effects are quick and nearly impossible to counteract even if discovered in time.
You could be right if they were fed in the boxes throughout the trip.
Were these polo ponies poisoned by Chavez’s operatives in Florida to harm a wealthy Venezuelan and embarass the USA while Chavez schmoozed with Obama in Trinidad? Geez, I kind of remember a movies from the 70’s where a dead horse
is in the arms of its owner and enemies whacked while the boss is in church at his kid’s baptism....oh yea, was it The Godfather I and II?
Could be a low level terrorist attack. Small stuff, since doing the big stuff will get them nuked.
It would have required at least 3 vans to haul all these horses, so carbon monoxide would be an unlikely cause of death unless it was sabotage.
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