At least 40 horses dead at Oklahoma ranch in possible faulty feed incident
By Kilee Thomas
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ELK CITY, Oklahoma (KOCO) — The Oklahoma Department of Agriculture is investigating what killed dozens of horses at a rodeo stock contracting business.
Beutler & Son Rodeo Company supplies horses to rodeos all across the country and it has for nearly a century. Now, the Oklahoma family business is devastated, with lines of generational horses dying in what veterinarians believe could be faulty feed.
An estimated 40 to 70 horses have died.
The Oklahoma Department of Agriculture is investigating the feed from Kansas after it received a call from a concerned veterinarian.
“From what I understand, they got some feed from a new supplier,” Kaitlyn Hall, the owner and founder of Lazy H Equine.
Hall has an equine ranch in Elk City, just miles away from Beutler & Son Rodeo Company.
“It was pretty hard, and just knowing that the numbers are still increasing, it’s devastating,” Hall said.
The rodeo community is very close, and Hall said the loss will have a lasting impact across the country.
“It’s going to be big,” Hall said. “It’s absolutely devastating. They’re on the big stage, and everybody knows them and the quality of horses that they have and the quality of people that they are.”
The inspector with the Department of Agriculture went to the ranch on Monday to collect feed samples. They won’t know what happened until those results come in in a couple of weeks.
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