Sheriff's Office Steps Up To Help Rescue Horses In Wagoner County

Five horses, some starving and some with medical conditions are improving tonight after being rescued from a property in Wagoner County.

The Sheriff tells News On 6, deputies went above and beyond to make sure the animals were taken care of until a rescue could pick them up. Pictures from the Wagoner County property show one of the horses so thin, you could count her ribs. Deputies say the horses didn’t have enough feed.

"This lady had some health problems, didn't have anybody to help her care for the horses and she was in a position where she couldn't actually get out and care for them," said Wagoner County Sheriff Chris Elliot.

Sheriff Elliot says the woman surrendered her horses. Right away, deputies and the community worked together to get the animals food.

"Big shout out to Orschelns here in Wagoner...they donated some sacks of feed and some buckets,” said Sheriff Elliot, "My Undersheriff went to his house, loaded up a couple round bales of hay and got those out there to them."

Sheriff Elliot says the next three days, Wagoner County Deputies took barrels of hay from their own properties and cared for the horses themselves.

"We are here to make things better for people. We are not just here to put people in jail....in this case this lady needed some assistance and certainly these horses needed some help," said Sheriff Elliot.

Sheriff Elliot says he does not expect any charges to be filed against the owner.

"It wasn't a case where somebody was purposely neglecting the animals," said Sheriff Elliot.

Deputies say they helped the rescue load the horses up so they can be nursed back to health and eventually find new homes.

"My deputies are awesome here in Wagoner County and the citizens are very blessed and fortunate to have the caliber of law enforcement that they have here," said Sheriff Elliot.