The company that supplied the feed which recently fatally poisoned at least 70 horses at a legacy breeding ranch in Oklahoma has confirmed that the shipment had been contaminated with an additive known to be toxic to horses.
Livestock Nutrition Center, which provides custom-blended and premixed feeds to ranches across the United States, said that its “preliminary tests” had shown that a load of feed delivered to Beutler and Son Rodeo Company, Elk City, Oklahoma, contained Monensin, which can be toxic to horses.
“This likely occurred due to a combination of a failed clean out procedure and a sensor malfunction,” Ronnie Castlebury, the company’s president, said.
That was an “isolated incident to this single load of feed from a single facility” and that no other supplies have been affected. Other supplies are safe for animal consumption.
Monensin is an additive that is common in cattle feed but is toxic for horses. The drug is an ionophore, or an antibiotic-like compound.
The company, which has locations in Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Texas, and Oklahoma, is working with the agriculture departments in Oklahoma and Kansas, the original source of the feed, to get to the root of the problem.
Oklahoma and Kansas said that they were investigating after the horses were reported dead. Results from those state investigations were not expected to be complete for several weeks.
Since 1929, the Beutler family has bred and raised generations of champion horses and supplied them to rodeos across the United States.
Rhett Beutler, 47, who runs and owns the operation with his father, Bennie Beutler, said that at least 70 horses had died, out of the 350 horses on the ranch.
That number, he said, is expected to rise as they search for more stricken horses on the sprawling 14,000-acre ranch in the west of the state.
“There are a few more missing we haven’t laid eyes on yet,” Beutler said. “Some in the pasture got fed and went off and died in the canyons.”
The younger Beutler said that Castlebury had personally apologized to his family, who went ahead with hosting a long-planned three-day rodeo.
Other horse breeders in the tight-knit community helped by trucking in their own bucking horses as substitutes.
In the statement from Livestock Nutrition Center, Castlebury said that the company was “dedicated to assist and support the Beutler family and make this right.”
Beutler said that it was too early to tell what steps the ranch would take as it tries to recover. He said that he did not have a breakdown of how many of the horses were foals, mares, geldings, and stallions.
But the loss of so many animals had gutted their operations Beutler said.
“There were world champions” among the dead animals, Beutler said. “We are just getting into all that. We are just trying to save horses.”
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