THE HORSE wasn’t just skinny, she was skeletal. Not just thirsty, desperate. Alive, but just barely.
When the scrawny filly wandered into Joey Ferris’ yard, he knew exactly where she had come from. Ferris was a lieutenant at the Mingo County Sheriff’s Office, where operators frequently fielded calls about horses like this. In addition to putting out food and water, he decided to use the opportunity to call attention to their ongoing plight.
He began the video he uploaded to YouTube in 2017 with a matter-of-fact assessment: “Bad things are happening in Southern West Virginia.”
“People get a horse,” Ferris says into the camera, eyebrows furrowed, “and they leave the horse on the strip mine.”
I had no idea. I've worked in that region a few times on engineering projects and seen some of desolation and poverty, but the horses were something I'd never heard of.
I suppose the elk do better because they've never been domesticated.
Big Al
-------------------------------- Money seems to buy the most happiness when you give it away.
Why does everything have to be so complicated, all in the name of convenience. -ShiroKuro
A lifetime of experience will change a person. If it doesn't, then you're already dead inside. -MarkJ
Posts: 7466 | Location: Western PA | Registered: 20 April 2005
Jodi
