Drug smugglers' horses entered in rehab
21 commentsby Carmen Duarte - Aug. 3, 2010 12:00 AM
Arizona Daily Star

TUCSON - The rehabilitation of drug smugglers can be a monumental task, especially when the offenders are biting, kicking, four-legged beasts.

But volunteers are undeterred.

They take on the horses that once carried multimillion-dollar loads of illicit drugs through rugged canyons on down to parched desert.

These horses were at the mercy of drug runners, enslaved and worked nearly to death before being captured and taken to animal-rescue organizations.

Rudy Acevedo, an Arizona Department of Agriculture livestock officer, is among those saving these horses throughout southern Arizona.

"These smugglers are using the horses over and over and over again until their backs, legs and bellies have open sores," Acevedo said. "The drug smugglers are damn cruel to these animals. They run them into the ground and then just abandon them."

About 75 horses each year are found abandoned in southern Arizona and then turned over to the state Department of Agriculture, Acevedo said.

The animals are tested for diseases before they are placed with animal-rescue groups in southern Arizona for rehabilitation and adoption.

Those in better condition are taken to auction.

Lorilei Peters, owner of Desert Springs Equestrian Center at North Ghost Ranch Trail in Marana, welcomed some of the horses after she was approached in 2008 for help by Karen Pomroy, president and founder of Equine Voices Rescue & Sanctuary in Amado.

Each year, each operation takes in 10 to 15 horses that were used to smuggle drugs. The horses are among up to 45 animals that are abandoned each year that are cared for by the operations.

Volunteers, donations and sponsorships help Peters and Pomroy pay for the abandoned horses' care, which totals about $120,000 a year at each rescue center.

Helping the former drug-running horses in need is a calling for Peters.

"I remember Hope and Joy," Peters said. "They were both pregnant horses that were so emaciated we thought they had worms in their stomachs. They were a sack of bones, except for their bellies that kept growing," Peters said. "The foals . . . were born without any problems and were adopted."

Hope and Joy remain at the ranch in training to become riding horses and await adoption, Peters said.

It can take a year for their physical wounds to heal, but the horses also must heal psychologically, said Elisa Hambright, ranch manager at Desert Springs.

"They don't trust humans," said Hambright, who oversees their daily care. "Trainers and I spend time with them. We show them they will not be mistreated and that we are here to help them."

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