MIAMI – The South Florida Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SFSPCA) found two horses trapped inside a stable without food or water on Sunday.
Officials found the horses -- 4-year-old Susie, a mare, and Justice, a 10-year-old gelding -- inside a boarding facility near Red Road and Northwest 156th Street in Miami Gardens. The stable was nailed shut.
"It's been a month or several months since anybody has come out to do anything for these horses," said Laurie Waggoner, director of ranch operations for SFSPCA.
The two paint horses were found emaciated with their ribs showing and bones protruding. Both were covered in injections.
Waggoner said the horses ate wood and their own manure to survive.
"I've been doing this 20 years, and this mare ranks up there with the worst of them when they're in that kind of condition," she said. "Even though both of these horses are in really bad shape, just getting a bath has already brought them back to life. Now that they've been rescued, they will be rehabbed, possibly for months, just to nurse them back to health."
The horses were moved to a ranch in southwest Miami-Dade County.
"I don't understand why horses aren't just given away before you would let them stand there and starve and dehydrate," said Karen Buckhalt. "I mean they're gentle animals. It doesn't take that much."
Anyone who wants to donate to a fund created to care for the animals can do so at this link.