THe so-called unwanted horse population, which some equine advocates say includes an overabundance of wild mustangs, continues to be a major welfare issue. | Photo: iStock

A rundown of equine welfare issues currently plaguing the U.S. industry and what’s being done to address them.

In March 2014, law enforcement authorities in New York discovered 33 horses residing on a Hamptonburgh farm without access to food or water. Further investigation revealed that one additional horse had died in its stall and two others had died elsewhere on the property.  

“Evidently, the farm operator was boarding (the horses for customers) and not feeding them,” says Gene Hecht, chief investigator for the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Orange County, New York.   

Prosecutors eventually charged the farm’s operator with multiple counts of animal cruelty. This case is just one example of the hundreds focused on horses’ well-being every year. Many more go unprosecuted