The company that supplied the feed that fatally poisoned about 70 horses at a legacy breeding ranch in Oklahoma last month 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 in a statement over the weekend that its “preliminary tests” had shown that a load of feed delivered to Beutler and Son Rodeo Co., in Elk City, Okla., 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 in the statement. He said that it was an “isolated incident to this single load of feed from a single facility” and that no other supplies have been affected, and that the other supplies were 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 origin source of the feed, to get to the root of the problem, the statement said. Mr. Castlebury could not immediately be reached on Tuesday for comment.
Oklahoma and Kansas said last week that they were investigating after the horses were reported dead. Results from those state investigations were not expected to be complete for two to three 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 in an interview on Tuesday 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,” he said. “Some in the pasture got fed, and went off and died in the canyons.”
The younger Mr. Beutler said that Mr. Castlebury had personally apologized to his family, who went ahead with hosting a long-planned three-day rodeo over the weekend. 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, Mr. Castlebury said that the company was “dedicated to assist and support the Beutler family and make this right.”
Mr. 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 and stallions.
But the loss of so many animals had gutted their operations, Mr. Beutler said.
“There were world champions” among the dead animals, he said. “We are just getting into all that. We are just trying to save horses.”
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