A resident of Belchertown, MA, (just east of Northampton), was horrified to see a pressurized water hose being used on a horse in a local car wash bay, according to westermassnews.com.

Belchertown police and animal control are aware and an investigation is ongoing.

Slater caught up with John Perrault from the Berkshire Humane Society to get his reaction to this crazy story.

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Slater: John, what was your first reaction to this story?

John: My first reaction was, "unacceptable". You know, it's not that he was in the bay of the car wash or that they were washing their horse, but that they were using a pressurized hose. If you've ever gotten behind even a low-pressure one, if you've ever put it against your body, it's gonna hurt. Now take one that's more commercialized, the amount of pressure, that has to very upsetting and painful to the horse.

Slater: Why is this SO bad?

John: Well, I think if you go into any local barn, they do have a local wash stall where they hook these horses up, where they calmly rub them and they brush them out and they get all the dirt out then they use a specific shampoo made for horses and then they massage the soap into them then they use water that's not on a spray and they wipe them until they're clean and dry. Here in this case, from the picture I see, the horse looks very very stressed and upset. If you do go into a local barn, what you're gonna see when my horses are being bathed is pretty calm, they sort of enjoy it...

Slater: Is this a crime?

John: You know what...I have been doing this for a long time and so much of what we would classify as animal cruelty isn't done intentionally, it's done out of ignorance. I don't know the gentleman, I don't know what his cause was for doing this, so I can't tell you if this was done out of ignorance or sheer neglect or someone who really didn't care about how his horse felt. So, it's kind of hard to say. Most of it is done out of ignorance.

 

 

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