Dumping Horses

By Jennifer Loren, The News On 6

TULSA, OK -- Oklahoma has a long, storied history with horses, but those horses are now in trouble.

The horse market has hit rock bottom and more and more horses are being dumped on dirt roads and found starving in fields.

News On 6 anchor Jennifer Loren is tackling this issue in a special report.

This really is a sad story, but it's a story that needs to be told. A horse dumping is going on all over the country and, until now, it's been out of sight out of mind.

Tonight, Jennifer Loren will introduce you to a horse named Blondie who was found starved half to death and ended up in a horse rescue facility.

Over the past couple of years, horse rescue facilities have been inundated with requests to save hundreds of other starving horses like Blondie. So, the question is what's causing people to do this to these horses?

Jennifer Loren traveled all over Oklahoma, from ranches to livestock auctions to get answers. And perhaps the most disturbing part of this story is the problem looks like it's only going to get worse.

"And you're going to see more and more of this where people are just leaving them out in fields and they'll hide them in the back because they can't afford to feed them," said Stevie Thompson with Thompson's General Store.

The cost of owning a horse is skyrocketing, but that is just one of the many reasons these horses are being turned out. Some of the other possible reasons are pretty controversial and they may surprise you.

You can see Jennifer Loren's story on "Horse Dumping" Monday at 10 p.m. on the News On 6.