I'm sorry, Summer.

I'm sorry that someone decided you needed to be 'rescued' because your home was muddy and messy — like most older multi-purpose farms during a damp March in Michigan — and that you and your friends were seized by Jackson County Animal Control.

Summer (far right, nearest camera) at the time of the farm seizure in March 2007

I'm sorry that someone saw fit to tell the world that you were neglected, without food or water, for months. I'm sorry that the media reported such blatant lies, and your owners were labeled 'abusers' long before any trials took place.

Summer (middle) just two weeks after farm seizure

I'm sorry you and your friends were not given the minimum standards of basic horse care, such as routine deworming and hoof care, even though your caretakers claim it cost them over $134,000 to take care of you during those first months.

the neglected hooves of a luckier horse, immediately after the auction;
this young mare was dewormed and rehabilitated

I'm sorry that Judge Filip decided that Jackson County would be a better owner for you and your friends, when your rightful owners could not fork over $134,000 in a week's time. You understand, I hope, that there was no conviction of neglect — the judge didn't say that your owners could not have you back, just that they had to pay the money if they wanted to see you again. Like a ransom.

treated as a number ... and clearly NOT starved for six months,
as evidenced by the 'crease' of fat padding along the spine

I'm sorry you were taken to a dark auction barn full of strange smells and loud noises.

I'm sorry JCAC decided to sell your unweaned colt separately from you, and that he was suddenly taken from your side. I'm sure he called for you as loudly and frantically as you called for him in the hours after the auction gavel fell. I was there, shocked and in disbelief, as the auctioneer called out the order to sell the two of you separately — horrified when I heard the numbers of the winning bidders were not the same.

where is he now? wish I could tell you he's safe ... but ...

I'm sorry that your rightful owners were not even allowed to bid on you to buy you back. Even their friends were forced to sign a document stating that they would not let your owners have you back, even though they had NOT been found guilty of ANY CRIME. Instead, they had to sit on their hands and watch as strangers and known meat or "kill" buyers bid on you and your friends, and your foals.

I'm sorry that you, Rugged Red Bug, a beautiful sorrel broodmare with an impressive pedigree, ended up in the ownership of a person who takes horses to slaughterhouses in Canada for a living. I don't blame that man — he was just doing his job. Slaughter is legal, and it is going to exist as long as there is a surplus of American horses.

But when a government takes animals from its citizens claiming they were being tortured, subjects them to half a year of verifiable neglect, and then sells them for as little as $100 a head to anyone with cash including the meat man, I believe I have every right to speak out against the actions of that government.

saying goodbye ... who knew it would be for the last time

I'm sorry that everything I tried to do to help show the world what was really going on in Jackson County was ignored — and continues to be ignored — by the majority of the media outlets that could have prevented your untimely death.

I'm sorry, Summer.
May you gallop free in green fields forever.