Rescued foals recover at Days End Farm Horse Rescue. Photo courtesy DEFHR
The aerial photographs paint a grisly picture of the scene rescuers found at a horse farm on Maryland’s Eastern Shore in mid-March.
The fields were littered with at least 50 dead horses, including the skeletal remains of some, and carcasses of others being devoured by vultures. Elsewhere on the property there were clusters of live horses - more than 103 in all - some gathered by the entrance to a house with sections of its siding ripped away.
When rescue volunteer John Whaley arrived at the Quantico, Md. farm a day after authorities made their grim discovery the dead horses had been removed, but piles of bones were left behind. “I was disgusted and upset,” said Whaley, a horse trainer and farrier from Delaware.
Whaley was among the small army of volunteer rescuers who descended on the 180-acre farm owned by Clayton and Barbara Pilchard after the Wicomico County sheriff’s office and Wicomico County Humane Society entered the property March 16.
Thus began the herculean effort to catalogue the horses, living and dead, and orchestrate the removal and relocation of the survivors.
It took weeks and the efforts of at least 13 rescues in four states to round up almost all the horses, mostly quarter horses and appaloosas, who were emaciated, dehydrated and feral from lack of human contact. There were scores of stallions and many pregnant mares.
“They were really scared and shook up,” said Whaley. “But they were surprisingly very friendly.”
Wicomico County Sheriff Mike Lewis said he was notified about the grisly conditions at the farm by a local TV news crew that flew over the property while working on an unrelated story and spotted the field of bones and carcasses.
When he arrived at the property the only clean place on the farm was the steps leading to the back door of the house where he said Barbara Pilchard threw feed to the horses.
He said the horses had ripped siding and insulation off the house as they waited for grain.
Three of the horses found on the property had to be euthanized and two foals were stillborn.
At least one horse was reported still on the property in mid-April.
Lewis said his deputies had responded to 81 calls in the past five years. But he said they were “nuisance calls” involving loose horses. A single call to investigate animal cruelty in 2015 was dismissed by equine experts, he said, because they concluded while the property and horses looked “unacceptable” there was insufficient evidence to charge the couple.
That explanation did not sit well with Whaley, who took in three stallions, a mare and a yearling filly as part of the rescue.
“Everyone knew about those horses,” he said. “There were calls to authorities about them in 2008 and 2014.” After the 2015 cruelty complaint the Maryland Department of Agriculture responded to the property and determined six horses were in a severe state of neglect and local authorities were expected to monitor the farm to ensure animals were receiving food and care.
It was unclear at press time whether any cruelty charges would be filed in the current case. However, Lewis told East Coast Equestrian that the horses had been surrendered to the Wicomico County Humane Society, allowing rescuers to geld the many stallions and adoptions to begin when the horses are healthy.
Interim State’s Attorney Jamie Dykes last month told East Coast Equestrian she could not comment on the case while it was under investigation, but that she expected results soon from forensic autopsies being conducted on the dead horses.
Small Animal Rescue
Cindy Sharpley, founder of Last Chance Animal Rescue in Waldorf, Md, swung into action when the call went out for help. The only problem? She ran a dog and cat rescue. But Sharpley said the group had just bought a 70-acre farm in Mechanicsville with the idea of doing large animal therapy with veterans.
“We thought we might have a mini-horse,” she said, laughing. “We were totally unprepared for the onslaught of horses. We didn’t even have a lead rope.”
Soon her staff and volunteers were making up stalls and getting pastures ready for 29 horses, 21 stallions and eight mares, all ready to foal. The horse community in southern Maryland rallied, Sharpley said, donating buckets, feed, hay, blankets, halters and lead ropes.
“The horses were beat up and petrified like wild mustangs when they arrived,” she said.
Sharpley said she was struck by their extremely poor conditions and absence of evidence of veterinary or farrier care. ”We had a four-year-old the size of a colt,” she said.
Some other rescues reported the horses they took in were covered in lice.
But after several weeks of easing into a feeding schedule, vet care and handling Sharpley’s herd is coming around.
She and others say they are uncertain about how to prevent future large-scale horse rescues.
Sharpley and others say the Quantico horses’ owners had placed ads as long ago as 2010 trying to sell horses to raise money to buy hay. At the same time, authorities say they were not able to gain access to the property after complaint calls came in.
Lewis said 25 years ago the Pilchard farm was “palatial” but that conditions had deteriorated in recent years. He said he had heard from individuals who had wanted to buy horses from Pilchards but when they’d arrive Barbara Pilchard would double or triple the price of the horse.
This was not the first time that Barbara Pilchard was found with more animals than she could handle. In 1996 she was convicted of cruelty in a case involving 200 cats. Lewis said he saw cats feeding on dead horses when they arrived, and volunteers caught 30 cats and took them to the humane society.
Sharpley, who has dealt with many small animal hoarding cases, said the public needs to understand that hoarding is a mental illness and often those who need help the most often refuse to ask for it.
“They think they are the only ones who love the animal, even if they provide no medical care or food,” said Sharpley.
She said she thought authorities should have taken action sooner, but added, “what were they going to do with all those horses? Who’s going to take them?”
Meanwhile, the long road to recovery is underway for these equine survivors in farms and stables, large and small, across the region. Rescuers say they need funds and volunteers to support their care and the rehabilitation process.
“This is not going to bankrupt us, but we did not budget for this,” said Sharpley. “Still, we are very committed to never having these horses be hungry or scared again.”
How You Can Help
A Facebook page has been set up for rescues that have taken horses from Quantico MD. One person from each rescue represents their rescue so that all rescues may be heard and supported. Rescues that are 501 (c) (3) entities are:
- Changing Fates 501(c)(3) – 14 horses – http://www.changingfatesequine.org/
- Rescue E quine A doptions C aring & T raining Inc. 501(c)(3) – 5 horses—http://www.reactrescue.com/
- Tri-State Equine Adoption & Rescue, Inc. 501 (c)(3) – 2 horses – http://www.tristateequine.org/
- First State Animal Center and SPCA 501(c)(3) – 8 horses – https://www.fsac-spca.org/
- Last Chance Animal Rescue 501(c)(3) – 29 horses -- https://www.lastchanceanimalrescue.org/
- Turning Point Donkey Rescue 501(c)(3) Satellite- Arline Acres - 2 mares +1 one mare had a foal – http://www.turningpointedonkeyrescue.com/
- Days End Horse Farm Horse Rescue 501(c)(3) – 12 horses -- http://www.defhr.org/landing-page/index.html
In addition, a number of individuals have taken in horses. Their contact information can be found on the Rescue Page.