16 horses found severely neglected, 2 with contagious diseases at Lebanon County farm

A horse welfare advocate and veterinarian is claiming several horses at a Lebanon County farm were malnourished and not given proper medical care by their owner.

The Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), which employs humane law enforcement officers, confirmed there is an active investigation.

Condition of the horses

Veterinarian Kathryn Papp says that Noria Mowrer kept 16 horses at Taylorfield Farms on Bullfrog Road in East Hanover Township while most of them suffered from contagious diseases, leg injuries, respiratory problems and other conditions that were not receiving proper medical treatment.

Papp made clear her complaint is not against Taylorfield Farms, which simply provides housing. Taylorfield Farms Owner Rob Taylor said he later asked Mowrer to remove the horses from the farm, and she complied.

According to Mowrer, some of the horses were already malnourished and sick when she and a business partner purchased them at auction in an attempt to save them from “kill buyers.” The humane officer told Mowrer after an examination her only concern is that two horses should gain weight, Mowrer said.

But by not properly caring for the horses, including at least two with the serious “strangles” bacterial infection, Mowrer risked spreading contagious disease to other horse at the farm and elsewhere, Papp said.

The condition of the horses also raises questions about horse auctions, how horses are treated in society, and laws designed to protect their well-being.

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‘So emaciated’

A picture Papp obtained from the New Holland Sales Stables auction shows two young horses, one white and one gray, in apparently healthy condition before they were sold to Mowrer. But by the time Fawn Hughes met Mowrer and these horses in early November at Taylorfield Farms, they were in such poor condition that she was concerned -- and agreed to buy them from Mowrer.

Hughes thought the horses could recover if properly fed under her ownership, she said, but later realized they were suffering from strangles. She contacted Papp on Nov. 24 for help taking care of them.

Papp reached out to several other horse boarders at Taylorfield, who also expressed concerns. Meanwhile, Hughes had realized that most of Mowrer’s other horses were also severely underweight.

“For every horse but three to be so emaciated – it’s so ridiculous,” she said.

Papp contacted state police and, with police present, examined each of Mowrer’s horses on Nov. 25. She found:

• One horse had three times the normal respiratory rate, was in obvious distress, did not move, eat or drink, and appeared significantly underweight. “His nostrils were consistently flared completely open without enough time between breaths to even eat or drink without the risk of aspiration,” she wrote in a report to state police.
• One horse, named Skip, had a leg with severe swelling that appeared unable to hold much weight, was not eating or drinking, had double the normal respiratory rate, swelling on his left forelimb, swelling on the right side of his cheek and mouth, and appeared dehydrated.
• Another chestnut horse stood “with his head hanging limply over the stall front gate, with his lower lip drooping almost as if tranquillized,” she wrote. He did not move from that position during 30 minutes of observation.
• Several horses had signs at their stalls saying they were on antibiotics. However, Mowrer had apparently not taken any biosecurity measures to keep disease from spreading to other horses in nearby stalls.
• The young white horse that Mowrer had given to Hughes was lying down, unable to rise without assistance. The gray horse Hughes had obtained from Mowrer had an abnormally rounded belly, “highly suggestive of a large parasite load.” They were both draining large amounts of nasal discharge and had respiratory difficulty.

The white horse recently had to be euthanized, Hughes said. “We are still trying to get (the gray horse) on the road to health, but it’s not looking very promising,” she said.

Acquired at auction

Mowrer admits that some of the horses she purchased weren’t in good shape but said “we get them skinny and in very poor condition through the auction.”

The auction to which she’s referring, New Holland Sales Stables, has long been a target of horse welfare advocates, who say abused and neglected horses pass through its doors.  According to Mowrer, she and a business partner buy low-priced horses to out-bid “kill buyers” who sell to the shadowy but resilient horse meat industry.

Mowrer then tries to help the horses regain their health and resells them to loving homes – sometimes at a profit and sometimes at a financial loss, she said.

“(Papp) is trying to come after us when we’re trying to do better for these horses,” she said.

Mowrer admitted she doesn’t know the health of the horses when she purchases them, and said “95 percent” of the horses she purchases from the auction are sick in some way.

She did not know that the young white horse had strangles when she brought him to Taylorfield Farms, since he had shown no signs of being sick, she said. After he started to exhibit symptoms and she knew he had strangles, she took steps to quarantine him and offered to pay half of Hughes’s medical bills, she said.

According to Papp, Mowrer may have good intentions, but is not getting the horses proper nutrition or veterinary care. Tammy Mansfield, who worked for Mowrer for a period of time to help her care for the horses at Taylorfield Farms, said she thinks Mowrer was in over her head and did not know what the horses needed.  

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Advocate for horses

Mowrer also said that Papp – a Harrisburg veterinarian specializing in equine services – wants revenge on her for testifying against Papp in December 2015 when Penn National Race Track in Grantville was trying to evict Papp from their property.

In 2014, Penn National attempted to ban Papp from the racetrack for 5 years for arguments with horsemen and racetrack officials, and Facebook posts criticizing the mistreatment of horses at the racetrack. The Pennsylvania State Horse Racing Commission reduced her suspension to 90 days, all but 15 of which she had already served when they commission’s decision was announced.

“They found me abrasive, rude and obnoxious – which I am,” Papp said, but they also found her conduct not sufficient to warrant a five-year suspension.

However, Mowrer’s testimony had nothing to do with that situation, Papp said. Mowrer testified against her during a later fight with Penn National, at a December 2015 hearing, but Papp won that case and was not suspended.

Papp said her relationship with Penn National has since improved, to the extent that Penn National has hired her to help evaluate horse injuries.

Police response

Papp relayed her concerns about Mowrer to state police, and state police passed the case on to an SPCA humane officer. Humane officers typically work for non-profit organizations or other non-police entities but are invested by Pennsylvania courts with the authority to enforce animal cruelty laws.

According to Mowrer, the humane officer assigned to her case only instructed her to make sure that two of the horses gain weight and was otherwise satisfied with her treatment of the horses. State police referred questions to the PSPCA, where a representative confirmed that there is an active investigation but would not provide additional details.

Taylorfield Farms Owner Rob Taylor said Mowrer was asked to remove her horses because of the potential for spreading contagious illness, and Mowrer complied with that request. Taylorfield Farms has placed a voluntary quarantine on horses housed there, he said.

Aside from the two horses she sold to Hughes and one she sold to Mansfield, Mowrer said she still owns the other horses and they are in decent health.

State Police Animal Cruelty Officer Cpl. Mike Spada explained to Papp the difficulties involved in sorting out animal cruelty in the horse auction realm, especially when the horse is already in poor health when it is purchased.

“There are a lot of people who have made enemies because of their business practices, but the cruelty side has to be looked at separately,” Spada wrote in a text message to Papp that Papp shared with the Lebanon Daily News. “We do the best we can under the letter of the law. There are a lot of people who don’t care for their animals the way you or I would, but if there is no criminal activity, then we are stuck in a hard place.”