Ever since investigating the shipments of the Dann Sisters horses, Animals Angels has been extremely concerned about the welfare of these animals, so we decided to check into it ourselves. Our video footage, taken at Dennis Chavez’ feedlot on January 31, 2015, shows a quite sizeable group of horses roaming together in one of the largest pens on the site. Being all of a similar appearance and body weight, they are very possibly a part of the Dann Sisters herd, but there is no way to confirm this. The video shows that all pens have access to hay and water, which is some relief. No obvious injuries or dead or downed horses were observed. However, some were quite thin, one was emaciated, and one was limping. Many of the horses had already been tagged for slaughter.
Unfortunately, our footage also indicates that these are nowhere near all of the horses sent to Chavez from the Dann Family and it appears that, sadly, many have already been shipped to Mexico. New documents obtained by Animals’ Angels from the New Mexico Livestock Board indicate that on 1/17/15 Chavez shipped 450 horses to Mexico via the Santa Teresa Pens and 90 horses via the Presidio Export Pens. He shipped another 300 horses to Mexico on 1/24/15, 50 on 1/27/15, and 400 on 1/31/15. According to the paperwork we received previously, a total of 1150 horses from the Dann Sisters herd were inspected at his feedlot between January 10th and February 2nd. As expected, Chavez is turning these horses around very, very quickly. Animals’ Angels will provide this additional evidence to the USDA to supplement IES’ investigation.