Please keep surviving horse in your prayers..

October 30, 2007


WADSWORTH -- Three more horses have died after a double-decker semi truck carrying 59 Belgium draft horses flipped on its side Saturday night in Wadsworth when the driver ran a red light and collided with another vehicle.

The death toll reached a reported 18 after three horses had to be euthanized Monday due to extensive injuries sustained in the crash, according to state veterinarian Mark Ernst Tuesday.
» Click to enlarge image
Kris Guthrie, of Wadsworth, (left) looks on as her son Cole, 5, photographs a small memorial dedicated to the 15 horses that died. Round Lake Firefighter Joe Couture, reassures a horse.
(Andre J. Jackson/News-Sun/Joe Shuman/Special to the News-Sun)


Meanwhile, on the northeast corner of Route 41 and Wadsworth Road on Monday afternoon there was still evidence of Saturday night's semi-trailer wreck, including dozens of discarded road-flare caps and clumps of white detergent that was used to soak up vehicle fluids.

But more tangible evidence was found in a roadside display set up by area horse enthusiasts, who expressed a mix of sadness and outrage about the deaths of 15 horses being shipped in equipment designed for small livestock.

"It was horrible," said Kristine Guthrie, a horse owner who lives just east of the site and headed out to the scene after hearing about the accident. "There were just horses everywhere ... The one filly they had to put down was right there on the median."

Guthrie and about a dozen other visitors to the site spread out tributes to the dead equines, including flowers, show ribbons and a cluster of carrots. They also processed their anger by sharing theories and information about what might have transpired on Saturday.

The leading theory, which apparently has been working its way through the Lake County horse-country community, was that the 59 horses were being shipped for slaughter, allegedly after being bred to produce pregnant mare urine (PMU) for use in human estrogen treatments.

"It's cruel," said Pam Luebke of Wisconsin. "(PMU producers) don't care who they breed to, as long as there's urine. Then the babies are shipped for slaughter."

Barbara Sellers of Libertyville, noting that the wrecked truck was bound for Minnesota from Indiana, said she's heard that "they were going to swap 'em out in Minnesota and take 'em to Canada" for slaughter.

Guthrie, holding a video camera with images of the wreck, said she was told none of the horses had health certificates or documentation of the Coggins test for equine infectious anemia.

"If they were going to auction, they'd have to have their Coggins and health certificates," Guthrie said. "Why didn't they have those? (Because) you don't need those for the sale of meat."

Lending another perspective to the growing controversy was Bion Kapoulas of Waukegan, a commercial truck driver who said he wanted to protest what he figures was an unsafe transport on busy Route 41.

"My guess he was over gross (weight) and running fast to avoid the police ... And he was running at night to avoid the scales," Kapoulas said.

Kapoulas pointed out that the Route 41 weigh station sits a half-mile north of the crash site and would have been closed Saturday night. The maximum allowable gross weight on Route 41, a Class II highway, is 80,000 pounds.

"He must have been over 90,000 pounds. I'm guessing those horses weighed 1,300 pounds each, so he was well over gross," he said, referring to the weight of both a load and the unloaded weight of the trailer and tractor.

Kapoulas added that if there was illegal activity involving horses Saturday night, it was not going to escape attention in Wadsworth.

"That truck rolled over in the wrong part of the state," he said. "People are real upset about this."


This happened 6 miles from my home..I drive through that intersection everyday..
Lisa