We Will Sue People to Enforce Our Policy

In the past, it has been our policy to try to resolve problems in a constructive manner. Our budget does not allow for paying a moderator to help resolve issues people have with USESR. We feel that because we have pursued a path of peace, we have been taken advantage of. In May of 2005, on an Internet equine rescue e-mail list, Antoinette Smith observed one of our adopters advertising two of our equine. No price was given, however, the message post stated that one mare had already been promised to someone in Nova Scotia and that the daughter of this mare needed a home and was already listed on Ag Direct and breed-specific rescue web site. It was also stated in this message post that all of this person's horses could be seen on her personal web site and the URL (web site address) was given. This person stated that she had adopted these horses six years ago from a rescue in Texas (we were not named) and that she had sent an e-mail to our "current president" and had not received an answer. In fact, this person adopted one mare in foal and one gelding from us at the same time, in 1999. All subsequent Site Inspections were passed with flying colors and certificates of adoption were issued to finalize the contract, which stated that at no time shall any adopted USESR (then H.O.R.S.E.S. in Texas) equine be sold, and that said equine could only be given away to an approved individual whom USESR (then H.O.R.S.E.S. in Texas) performed a Site Inspection on and after that individual (who had to be a close personal friend or family member only) was approved by us. Our contracts still state these stipulations to this day (2005). Antoinette Smith went to the personal web site of this person and found no mention of the gelding anywhere. A private e-mail was sent to this person by Antoinette Smith immediately and no response was returned. A brief message asking the adopters/message poster to contact Antoinette Smith, was sent to the e-mail equine rescue list. A phone call after 5 p.m. and a message on an answering machine also produced no response. Antoinette expressed her concern for the whereabouts of the gelding in both the e-mail and the phone call and remained the adopter that she was under contract not to transfer ownership of the equine without the permission of this rescue. In fact, both the mare and the gelding were donated to USESR (then H.O.R.S.E.S. in Texas) and we consider it a great honor and privilege for someone to entrust the future permanent care of their precious family member (equine) to our organization. It is a responsibility we take very seriously.

After receiving no reply from the adopter, Antoinette Smith immediately began gathering evidence and building a court case against the adopter. Printouts were made of the adopter's posts to the rescue list. A printout was made of Antoinette Smith's attempts via e-mail to contact the adopter. Antoinette did a web search on several different search engines on the Internet to see if "H.O.R.S.E.S. in Texas" produced any link to the USESR web site. Several of them did and each page of each search engine that did was printed to be used as evidence in a court of law against the adopter. The USESR page entitled, "Contact Us" was also printed out, as evidence that the adopter did not try very hard to contact anyone from the rescue prior to selling or re-homing the adopted horses.

As this page is being created, this story is still unfolding. If no officer of USESR hears from the adopter within three days, a certified letter warning of court action will be mailed to the adopter. Another copy of the same letter will be mailed via regular mail one day later. Each day until then, an additional e-mail will be sent to the adopter and another attempt to contact the adopter by phone will be made. While we have no objection to this mare who has allergies going to some place that has a cooler climate and where she can live more comfortably, we strongly object to the manner by which the adopter is placing the mare. If we were handling this ourselves, the mare would be sent to another rescue that performs follow-up site inspections/home checks and uses an adoption contract stipulating that the horse will never be sold- some established equine rescue whose level of diligence matches our own. Subsequent correspondence resulting from the adopter refusing to acknowledge our attempts to contact her will contain a specific date by which the adopter must respond favorably to our demands or a court date will be set. We use Small Claims Court because it is cheap, easy, and has a maximum dollar amount of $5,000.00, which we consider plenty of compensation for damages in matters in which we choose to use the Small Claims Court route. In the event we win the lawsuit and are awarded monetary damages, if the defendant does not pay, we will not hesitate to seek an interest-bearing lein against their name and have their debt reported to the appropriate credit bureaus. The purpose of this web page is to alert potential and existing adopters of USESR equine that we take our policies, duty of care, and contracts seriously. If you are an USESR adopter or potential adopter and you are not prepared to fully comply with the terms and conditions of our adoption contracts, please do not adopt from us. We understand that you can purchase a horse on the open market and have no stipulations on its level of care, however, our main focus is on perpetual care and the quality of such, rather than on simply moving horses on down the line so that we can acquire more as quickly as possible and thereby increase our overall number of equine rescued in a short period of time. Big numbers look impressive, and they are impressive, but we are not in this for "the numbers", we are in this for the welfare of the horses and other equine. We expect you to be "in this" for the same reason. If not, and if you are someone looking to acquire a cheap horse (certainly no crime in that!), we expect you to at least respect the fact that we are a charitable organization performing a specific mission in regard to all future care of equine who pass through our program and that you abide by our contracts or please do not adopt from us.

We don't want to sue anyone. We want to do good deeds and happily go about it in a peaceful and emotionally rewarding way. Unfortunately, with heated issues such as slaughter for human consumption, Premarin, inhumane transport to slaughter, soring, neglect and other issues which call for our services, sometimes rescue is not all sunshine and roses. When people break contracts, the clouds come out and the roses wilt. Please don't cause this to happen. Abide by the contract you sign with us or choose another rescue to adopt from whose policies and contracts you agree with, or purchase your own horse.

This page will be updated as new events unfold. We may win or we may lose in court. As far as we know, no adoption contract has ever been contested in a Texas court of law. If we loose, this will be a valuable learning experience for us and for other animal rescues in Texas, so at least some good will come of it.

Related Links:

• Rumor Control
• USESR Ethics
• Adoption Policy
• Donating Equine