Tests are being carried out by the Florida Department of Agriculture and the Palm Beach Sheriff''s Department to determine why 21 polo ponies collapsed and died at the U.S. Open Polo Championship in Palm Beach County (FL) on Sunday, April 19 (2009).
As the horses from a Venezuelan-owned team, valued at $100,000 each, were being unloaded from their horseboxes, several stumbled and fell to the ground. Fourteen horses died by Sunday evening, with seven more dying overnight.
Veterinarians suspect some kind of toxin but it may be several days before the source is identified. Officials have ruled out infectious or contagious disease as only animals from the Venezuelan team were affected.
"The players, the owners of the horses were in tears. Bystanders and volunteers were in tears," Tony Coppola, a polo club announcer, told the Associated Press.Source: bbc
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1 comments:
Those horses are overworked and treated horribly. No wonder some of them died. So tragic.
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