Looks like someone else cared more about the horses than the owners did...

And he says he did all that he could...people who werent even involved with these horses did a WHOLE lot more.

You shoule be ashamed Frank MacKay. We should have animal cruelty laws like in the UK

I don't think it is of monetary issues anymore. It should involve whether or not he us allowed to own any animals.

Sure it is a sob story that he gave them 8 litres of Gatorade and oats, but shouldn't he have stepped up to bat when the rescue plan was underway.

Responsibilities, taking care of ones that can not take care of themselves.

He should have reported the situation to local animal care authorities immediately.

The lack of doing so, ensures that he gets to make the decisions about what will be done to retrieve the animals, and at what cost and extent of effort. He made those decisions on his own, like he chose to.

His poor choices, poor decisions, were made at the expense of the animals. If they couldn't be retrieved, they should have been dispatched humanely. All of which should have involved animal control from the onset.

He wanted to maintain control of the situation, thus taking on responsibility for decisions and actions, now he has the responsibility of defending those decisions and actions.

If he had shot the horses it would have been acceptable practice. In his circumstances, that is likely the thing he should have done. I assume, being in the back country like that he would have had a firearm with him.

Yep an experienced man like that does not go in the bush without a gun. It's bear country.

Thus it appears to be a lame excuse why he did not shoot the horses, if he truly cared for them.

I say..string him up!!! Better yet let's put him in the middle of a spot like where the horses were and let's see how he does.
What a moron. And he's part of the legal system.....wow.

I say..string him up!!! Better yet let's put him in the middle of a spot like where the horses were and let's see how he does.
What a moron. And he's part of the legal system.....wow.

One thing the story above conveniently fails to mention, and was reported in the Citizen today, was that the guy is offering to pay for everyone's equipment and lost wages.

Seems like anything that might put this guy in a positive light is conveniently 'missed' by this site. Objective journalism? Or the second coming of Saddam Hussein?

Do you really think he's going to pay 20-30,000 in equipment and wages??

What about the vet bill, I'm sure thats steep too.

As always, we know diddley about this person. He may know a little about horses and about the outdoors, or he may know a lot. For all we know, he has left horses in the wilderniss for a few weeks or even a month or two in the past several years as I understand is not that abnormal a practice in some circles.

He could be covering up his lack of knowledge or poor judgement by promising things now, or he could be very genuine.

Are we saying he is inexperienced?

Are we saying he is stupid?

Are we saying he is cruel?

What exactly are we saying about this person and on what knowledge about him are we able to say it?

Yes he left the horses out. Yes it resulted in cruelty to them. But, did he do it with full knowledge of the possible consequences of his actions? Or, as people are saying about the snowmobiling deaths, was this "accidental"?

Interesting that in this case people tend to be saying that it could have been avoided and are ready to string the guy up because he did not take the appropriate steps to do so, while in the case of the snowmobilers people tend not to lay blame even though 8 HUMAN lives were lost likely due to inexperience and high risk taking mind sets. Did those people suffer? Likely they suffocated, so, yes they likely did.

He said lost wages. If people were unemployed, there were no lost wages.

We at Opinion250 can’t help if other media are now getting to the story that was carried by us Dec.29th at 10.30 AM in which the people of McBride who rescued the horses say that if the owner wants his horses back he will have to pay for their efforts.
Most of those involved in the rescue have not heard from the man who owns the horses, nor has he come to thank them, beyond saying he will pay for the rescue. They also have not heard from him on the condition of the horses. He has yet to answer why he left the area without advising people in the area about the horse’s plight. We at Opinion250 have asked to interview Mr. Frank MacKay, he has not responded to our calls.
Having said all that, perhaps Mr. PG who seems to find this site on a regular basis might want to read previous stories before trying to portray us not reporting the, “whole Story”, or better yet, sign with his own name allowing his fellow citizens to draw their own judgment. His reluctance to do that in the past speaks volumes.

Ever heard of "put your money where your mouth is"? Talk is cheap. Typical lawyer game playing, trying to cover all the bases with his mouth. I don't care what this scumbag says he is going to do.
It's what he has done. Which is an act of heinous animal cruelty. The only reason he's come to the surface is because he got dynamited out of the water. Offering to pay, is not the same as actually coming forth with the cash. If he is ever presented with a bill(and I understand it may be in excess of thirty thousand dollars or more) I doubt that he will pay it. It will be too excessive, too prohibitive, too----fill in the blanks with lawyer speak.If he does come up with thirty grand rest assurured it will be because he wants to clear his name, the horses be damned.

I just read the story. It says: "Locals knew they had been separated from their owner last fall during a backcountry excursion and believed them to be dead, based on the owner's previous attempts to get them out."

I am assuming that from the wording in this, Mr. Peebles got the information from "locals". This is an important piece of information as I see it since they knew, but made no attempts at that time to help, nor did they contact anyone at the BCSPCA, based on the information in the story.

They knew they got separated and were up there by themselves in the first instance. They then observed "attempts" (meaning more than one) to get them out which would mean, of course, that they knew they were still alive.

I know the locals were not the owners. It was not their responsibility. However, why did it take deep snow on the ground for them to take action? Why did they not call anyone before? Why did they not contact the owner and offer help? Did they, and they have yet to tell us that?

When they finally saw the horses, why did they choose to dig them out rather than shooting them? The cost to the owner then would have been the cost of replacement ammunition.

There are a lot of things many people could have done. In the end, it is individual decision making that creates action. Unless one is in the position that each one of the ever expanding players in this story is in, it is difficult to understand why some of the decisions were made.

Ms Goodine has a tough determination to be made if she takes inot consideration equity, standard practice, the law, etc.

Now I am starting to see a picture of locals sitting by observing for more than a month and doing nothing. Then they jump up when they find the horses still alive after the last attempt by the owner to get them out and they jumpo into heroic action. To me, something does not quite fit. Let's wait for the next revelation.

"He couldn't find the horses during the first attempt in October, and when he saw the two horses on December 6th the animals were “so wasted they couldn’t have walked out.” The Journal quotes Frank MacKay as saying he gave the animals 8 litres of Gatorade and 30 pounds of oats and alfalfa pellets before saying his goodbyes “We fed them as best we could. That’s all we could do”"

I think this saga all boils down to the above statements in my opinion. The horses had to be left behind earlier in the year and as much as that sucks, I understand why it could occur. He says he looked for them once and couldn't find them. Fair enough. He then said he looked again and did find them and gave them some Gatorade, oats and alfalfa and said his goodbye because "THAT'S ALL THEY COULD DO". THAT is a load of bunk and that's where his story falls apart. It sounds more to me like that's all they WANTED TO DO.

The actions of the volunteers show exactly what COULD have been done had the owner wanted to undertake the effort. He also could've made his dilemma known and sought assistance to get the horses out of there somehow. Lastly, if all other options failed, he could've gone back and humanely euthanized the animals if that was their eventual fate to be.

Some people talk the talk and others walk the walk. The volunteers stepped up and found a solution while the owner of the horses found a way to not deal with the problem. There is a BIG difference IMHO and I would hope that this is considered when it comes time to make a decision regarding the fate of these horses.

No matter how much he pays to whom, he still has to deal with the BCSPCA if they find they have enough information to lay charges they feel can be defended in a court of law.

In addition, the BCSPCA has taken possession of the horses. They are not for anyone in McBride to give away. If it gets to the court, it will decide the "ownership" issue.

I aggree with you NMG. The courts do have another test, however. That is a test of reasonableness or standard actions. "What would a reasonable person have done".

This story has two reason for being popular - animals are involved and the digging of a snow trench in the high mountain plateaus in the middle of cold winter are HEROIC efforts, not standard efforts.

I suspect the court will have to look at the euthanizing option and ask why the owner did not take that option. Also, of course, what was done to get assistance from others who may have had more experience with this, especially the locals who know the terrain.

Thought I would see what is being reported elsewhere on the net. As always, the more people delve into this, the more becomes known. One has to determine for themselves which might be true, which might be embelishment and which is totally wrong.

This Canwest story in the Times Columnist sheds some additional info onto the situation.

http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/story.html?id=100532fc-61d2-451a-bec3-614da43da312

Local snowmobilers found the horses on Dec. 3. Three days later, Mackay and five other men reached the horses by snowmobile and found them trapped in three-metre snow and too weak to leave.

"We made an assessment that we couldn't possibly get them out," said Mackay, who had expected the horses to still be healthy. "They were so wasted they couldn't have walked out anyway."

Mackay said he gave the horses eight litres of Gatorade and 13.5 kilograms of oats and alfalfa pellets and took some time to say goodbye to the animals. Since he had no gun, he was unable to kill the distressed animals. "We fed them as best we could," he said. "That's all we could do."

The stories are getting construed every time they are printed the original story from the Edmonton Journal stated the owner and three men went to retrieve them, the citizen said five.

I do appreciate Mr. Meisner, keeping us updated on this.

Both might be right. He could have taken 3 with him from Edmonton and gathered two locals. Remember, a local was the one who discovered the horses on the 3 of December. 3 days later he was there from Edmonton. Another story I just read on a Horse owner blog states he notified the RCMP when he left to go back to Edmonton. The rescue did not start until more than a week later.

There are still a number of missing pieces, not to mention the accuracy of the pieces we appear to have.

He is attempting to buy his way out of a criminal charge and avert any chance at penalization by the bar association, or public disrepute.

He is reluctantly taking full responsibility now for what he quietly abandoned in the past.

"Or the second coming of Saddam Hussein?"
Posted by: MrPG on December 31 2008 12:12 PM

12 minutes past noon, and you're already drunk ?

I thought I got an early start, WOW !

you guys with your lynch ropes really make me laugh! How quick you all are to get righteous. God forbid you ever have a problem that makes you look less than perfect.
Funny though, how people are willing to 'donate' their services to save animals and then want to hit the guy up for 30 k lost wages . what a bunch of bull. For the record, there are no charges to be laid here, unless you expect everone to hire a crew or beg dozens of people to save any animla you own who might be in trouble shame on you folks in cattle country, you know perfectly well that cows and horses wander off all the time. The owners may not even know that they are gone for quite a while. once they do, they may not be able to find them, or catch them, and something bad might happen to the animals while they are out (ie they re hit by a car). It isnt standard policy for the farmer/rancher to be hit with criminal charges and banned from owning animals. Those of you who think that it shoud be ought keep quiet as you know NOTHING about animals and fences.
STOP TRYING TO LAY BLAME FOR EVERYTHING! Judge not people lest the next time you cause a traffic accident and are assigned blame the good perfect folk of PG will be looking for a ban on your dumbass owning a car.
I for one, am glad the owner is a lawyer. Otherwise, like so many others, he would be getting the shaft from the SPCA without any recourse other than spending his kids college money in court.
FOr the record, genius': not everyone who goes into the high country carries a gun. I dont and i have logged as much bush time as most over my 25 years in forestry. "It's bear country" sheesh! who's the moron, really? Aside from the git saying 'string him up' of course. I wonder, are all you judge and jury animal lovers the same brilliant minds that parrot the 'good riddance' nonsense every time there is a drug related killing in PG? All I can say is God help you all when you make a mistake. Pray you receive a more measured response from the public than this guy is.

Getting the shaft from the SPCA with no recourse...now that's rich. Get real.
What you call a mistake, I call a decision.

“The Renshaw horses are a top priority” says Goodine, who hopes to wrap up her investigation soon. Once the investigation has been completed, she will decide if she will put forth a recommendation of charges under the Animal Protection Act and the Criminal Code."

I hope there are other people involved in determining if there will be recommendations to Crown from the SPCA to have charges laid against the owner.

It shouldn't be at the discretion of one person alone.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"The Journal quotes Frank MacKay as saying he gave the animals 8 litres of Gatorade and 30 pounds of oats and alfalfa pellets before saying his goodbyes “We fed them as best we could. That’s all we could do.”

Thats all we could do???
Strange thing Frank, but there was never any information regarding these horses being left up there, passed on to anyone until the sledders found them.

Looks like you didn't do much of a job REALLY TRYING to get your horses back, HUH?

"There was never any information regarding these horses being left up there"

And you know this from what?

Why would the PG Citizen write: "Locals knew they had been separated from their owner last fall during a backcountry excursion and believed them to be dead, based on the owner's previous attempts to get them out."

Did the Citizen write some wrong information? It sounds like reasonable information to me. Be the area ever so big, this is the "locals" backyard and they would generally be aware of "strangers" who may be coming and going.

When he could not locate the horses, snowmobilers saw them Dec 3. The owner was there 3 days later. Presumably he was notified by the snowmobilers. He brought help with him, possibly even some "locals". He left the horeses on the 6th. Before he left he supposedly informed the local RCMP what had happened.

The horses were rescued on Dec 23 according to the news. It took a week to dig the trench. That means the digging started about the 15th or 16th.

The period of about 10 days between the 6th and the 15 to 16th is unaccounted for from the stories. What did the locals do for those 10 days, when they appeared to have known that the horses were there on December 3, and would presumably have known from the RCMP (it's a small community and interesting news like this travels fast)? Does someone not have a duty to report? The owner seemed to report to the RCMP. Someone reported to the BCSPCA eventually. Why? Is it because even in a community where many have animals, people are generally unaware that the BCSPCA also deals with working/farm animals?

I am of the mind that many people associated with the incident can learn how to do things better in such a situation.

http://www.outfitterssupply.com/russon/finding-lost-stock.asp

http://www.garthandkathy.com/LostorStolenhorse.html

I, for one, think the horse owner is glad he is a lawyer. A pathetic effort at best.