Prominent SW Virginia Family Foils Rescue Attempt

On July 25th volunteers went to a county in South Western Virginia in an attempt to rescue horses that had been reported to them as starving to death. Confirmation was obtained by a large animal vet that 11 horses on the property should be seized and were in imminent danger. The County Sheriff and Commonwealth Attorney were uncertain as to what to do!!?? Virginia Animal Cruelty Law is pretty clear as to their responsibilities but neither could or wanted to do the duty they took an oath to do.
After waiting at the Sheriff's office for over 6 hours the group of volunteers was taken to the property by a Deputy to seize the horses. Upon arrival the Deputy was advised by the perpetrator that he would shoot anybody that trespassed on his property. Deputy calls the Sheriff... Sheriff comes out to the scene and tells everybody that "he is sorry but the owner has ordered us off his property and that we had to leave". Did I mention that #1 we were on a county road and #2 we asked the County to prepare a search and seizure warrant days before we arrived and #3 both the Sheriff and the Commonwealth Attorney a currently running for re-election??? WOW
The perpetrator did allow that we could take one mare that was in horrendous shape and finally allowed that her 2 month old foal could go too. These two were transported in a rehab barn in N.C. as it was decided that they were too weak to make the 5 hour trip back to the Richmond Region. The Bad news is that yesterday, only two days after being seized, the mare layed down and DIED...damn that family... remember there are now 9 more horses still out there on that property that will suffer the same fate if something is not done.
Eleven volunteers drove an average of 400 miles each, pulling 4 horse trailers, spent nearly $800 in gas total and spent 18 hours each only to have to leave these 9 horses behind to continue their suffering and starvation...What a terrible screwed up mess. I'll post the mare's picture latter