Kristin Chambers stands with one of the horses at her rescue in the fall of 2008. File Photo, Kellen Jenkins/The Bulletin.
Kristin Chambers, a former Emporia State student, faces charges of animal cruelty and neglect after the Coffey County Sheriff’s Department seized more than 80 horses, miniature horses and donkeys from her property on July 30.
A police report filed with the Coffey County Courthouse confirmed the seizure.
Karen Everhart, owner of Horse Calls LLC and director of Rainbow Meadows Equine Rescue and Retirement, is in charge of overseeing the placement of the horses from the rescue. She said at the moment, the police have placed the horses are in an undisclosed location near Burlington.
“The shape (of the horses) is across the board, we have some very, very emaciated horses, we have a number of thin horses and then we have some that are marginally acceptable, we don’t have any fat horses there at all,” Everhart said.
Everhart said the majority of the animals appeared to have little to no wellness care, little sign of grooming, and she is unsure if they’ve had their vaccinations.
“We have very sketchy details, we don’t know a lot about them, we have no idea about their training or their wellness status, but they certainly are deserving of a loving home,” Everhart said.
On Sept. 18, 2008, Chambers was featured in an article in The Bulletin called “Local horse rescue: A thrifty solution.” The article chronicled how Michael Soyez, a local businessman, donated one-fourth of the profits of his business, Winding Road Thrift Store, to Chambers’ Winding Road Equine Rescue and Retirement.
“WRERR is a public charity that rehabilitates horses that have been abused or neglected. They save horses from slaughter and often work with law enforcement in animal cruelty cases,” the article stated.
Chambers had worked with volunteers to care for over 50 neglected and abused horses at her farm located outside Waverly.WRERR had received national media attention in 2009 when Chambers rescued Clever Allemont, a champion thoroughbred, from slaughter.
Chambers did not return calls for comment by press time.
Everhart said she’s trying to find homes for the animals before the court orders that they are put up for public sale. She said that it is not certain, but possible that they could have to go up for sale in two weeks. Anyone interested in adopting the seized animals can go to Horse Calls’ website, www.horsecalls.com.
Liz Coffey
SPELL-CHECK BLAMED FOR ‘OSAMA’.(Capital Region)
Albany Times Union (Albany, NY) October 22, 2008 TROY — Rensselaer County elections officials are blaming a computer spell-checking program for the error in hundreds of mailed absentee ballots that spelled Barack Obama’s surname Osama.
A county legislator said Tuesday that a Democratic Board of Elections worker iniintially accepted responsibility for the error.
“We heard that she immediately put in her resignation, but it was turned down,” said District 2 Legislator Keith A. Hammond, a Democrat. “Whether it was done in jest or in error, it is still an embarrassing mistake, but we now need to move on to more important issues.” The story broke Oct. 10 when a Sand Lake voter called the Times Union saying he received an absentee ballot in the mail on which Row 1A had Barack Obama’s name as Barack Osama.
“The immediate problem when this first surfaced was that everyone thought the Republicans or Conservatives were to blame,” said District 1 Legislator and Conservative Bob Mirch. “The people who work for the board are honest, and we are pleased a Democrat admitted the mistake.” Elections officials have said that the county is the only one in the state that prints its ballots in-house, and that Democratic workers are responsible for writing and editing Democratic candidates’ names while Republicans take care of their party’s candidates. Board of Elections officials from both sides of the aisle said it was an honest typo. Those officials did not return calls for comment on this story. onlinespellchecknow.net online spell check
On Oct. 11, the County Legislature called for an investigation and asked the county’s election commissioners, Democrat Ed McDonough and Republican Larry Bugbee, to report their findings.
In that report, released Monday by the legislature, elections officials blamed a computer program.
“This error may have been due to a spell-check function on the operating system of the computers utilized by the Board of Elections,” the report to the legislature states.
Several people who contacted the Times Union noted some older spell-checking software does not recognize “Obama” and one of the suggested corrections it offers is “Osama.” The mistake appeared on 300 absentee ballots sent out in early October to voters in Brunswick, Nassau, Sand Lake, Schaghticoke and Schodack, elections officials said. go to web site online spell check
In the report, officials also said a heavy workload that involved having to produce 13 different ballots this year and a higher than normal number of new registrations also may have led proofreaders to miss the error.
Albany County elections officials also have expressed concerns over potential problems tied to the heavy workload this election season. Thousands of absentee ballots were reprinted after at least three errors were reported in Albany County.
WEBHEADLINE:
Blame the computer for Obama-Osama goof, officials say WEBTEXT:
TROY — County elections officials are blaming a computer spell-checking program for the error in hundreds of mailed absentee ballots that spelled Barack Obama’s surname Osama.
A county legislator said today that a Democratic Board of Elections worker initially accepted responsibility for the error.
“We heard that she immediately put in her resignation but it was turned down,” said District 2 Legislator Keith A. Hammond, a Democrat. “Whether it was done in jest or in error, it is still an embarrassing mistake but we now need to move on to more important issues.” The story broke Oct. 10 when a Sand Lake voter called the Times Union saying he received an absentee ballot in the mail on which row 1A had Barack Obama’s name as Barack Osama.
Board of Elections officials have not returned calls for comment.
CAPTION(S):
A General election absentee ballot from Rensselaer County shows the misspelled name of Democratic candidate Barack Obama.
— MICHAEL P. FARRELL/TIMES UNION
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One rescue of a famous racehorse does not indicate she was
a good friend of the horses.
This has been going on for some time, and the officials have
let it slide far too long.
Horses died at her property last December, and she had far too
many horses since. WHO allows this to continue?
Now, if the remaining horses that are alive, and are not in homes
within another 19 days, face auction where people buy horses to send to slaughter.
Kansas needs to demand she never own horses again, or any animal.
By the condition of her own home, the welfare of the horses was far
from her priority.
Hoarders will just do this again, and more animals will suffer.
Please call the co. Attorney and insist these horses do not go to
slaughter.
It seems the county or sheriff did not ask for help until its time to place the horses..Why didnt he ask the HSUS for help?
Huge seizures like this, the HSUS is usually asked to assist.
This case has been swept under the rug far too long and the
horses have suffered.
Shame on those who allowed her to keep far more than her allowed
11 horses. Reports from the sheriff has stated she had as many as 98 horses.
And, 17 are unaccounted for. So, the horses deserve justice
here. What happened to them?
What kind of official gives less than 21 days to find homes for 45 horses?
Do they not have any reality to horses and the economy?
Pray for the remaining horses, and pray good citizens open their
homes for them.
The authorities sure did not protect them the past 9 months.