23/02/2019

Dear Friends and Supporters of IHP,

I regret to say that this message brings very bad news, news which we have had to keep confidential for several weeks.  We are sorry about our silence, we would very much have preferred to be sharing pictures of our new premises, horses happily grazing the pastures, the ongoing construction and fencing works….but sadly things have gone in a very different direction.  What has happened has not yet reached its conclusion, but the time has come for us to tell you what has been going on, insofar as we can to date, and how we are coping with this situation.

At the beginning of January, straight after our relocation to the new, beautiful Tignano premises, eight of the horses in the care of IHP suddenly died, without having presented any sign of illness, without any ongoing pathologies that could explain it. 

As you can imagine, we immediately sent off samples and bodies for analysis and post mortems to labs and research institutes. At the same time, we contacted the various local and national health authorities, given that the nature of the deaths suggested poisoning.  And we reported the facts to the police, given that we could not rule out foul play or criminal actions. We also restricted the spaces the remaining horses were in, and closed them in at night in two large hangars, pending some indication of the cause of death of the eight horses, and therefore getting some idea of what we needed to do to protect the others.

Unfortunately we are still not clear on what exactly happened.  It seems incredible, but the analyses and autopsies have not revealed sufficient data to point the investigations in any specific direction, nor have intensive searches and examinations of the terrain and property.

We are following up all possible hypotheses.  Various experts have already analysed the soil, plants, algae and water courses on the property, searching for toxic substances.  So far, nothing unusual, or indeed potentially lethal, has been found.

Blood and tissue samples have been subjected to examination in Italy and abroad, but again, no data indicating a clear path of investigation, has resulted.  Obviously we have been pressing for more and more extensive veterinary and police enquiries.  So far, the latter have turned up nothing in the course of their investigations.  

Once viruses and infections have been ruled out, there is the possibility of some acute toxic attack, but it is all still too vague as yet to come close to a satisfactory explanation. Meanwhile the stress of the restriction of movement is causing serious problems: managing over 50 horses is difficult work at the best of times, but limiting their freedom to move about and graze increases our work, plus we have to be extra vigilant to prevent further incidents, in a context where we don’t know where to look for the problem.  We allow the horses to get out, in groups, into fenced areas every day, but we are a long way from the optimal situation we want to return to as soon as possible.  None of the other horses has so far presented symptoms of any kind, even though they shared the same pastures and water with the 8 deceased horses in the days following the move to the new premises.  

Such a situation is pushing us at IHP to the limits of our endurance, given that the wellbeing of our horses is at the very centre of our work. We have to carry on, until we know what has happened and – if relevant – justice is done.  Fighting for the rights of horses is our mission, and no matter how much the inexplicable deaths of these horses has gutted us - as well as you now reading this - we will not give up.  We owe it to the horses, who certainly did not deserve to die like this.  And we owe it to you, who trust us with your support.

We made the difficult decision to keep these events confidential over the past weeks in order to preserve the integrity of the investigations, but we also feel we must speak openly about it now, when all our efforts to discover the causes of these deaths have not led to any clear answers, and our situation continues to be one of emergency measures.

So we are asking you to follow with us any future developments, and also if you can to give financial support, because now we have not only the costs of the transfer to the new premises to cover, but also significant costs involved in this horrible new situation.

We will of course share any new information as soon as we have any leads.  Meanwhile we ask for any information which might prove useful in the solving of this mystery. 

We take the opportunity of this message to thank all our volunteers who have worked so very hard over the past weeks, and to thank all of you who stay with us with your support in these difficult times.

(photo: Grazia Bianchi)