3 Strikes Update

Meduna found guilty; but what about the Others?


January 20, 2010

Commentary by: R.T. Fitch, author of “Straight from the Horse’s Heart“

HOUSTON (SFHH) – It’s not very often that out there amongst all the troubled waters of bad news a small blurb of good news and triumph bobs about and is visible to those who are searching for it. There was just such a little victory that rose to the surface, last week. Long awaited justice was served and a very, bad man was found guilty and will be held accountable to pay the price; that man is Jason Maduna.

The horses won a victory last week and they win so very few. Meduna, a cruel and inept keeper of the lives of over 200 formerly wild mustangs was found guilty of 145 class 4 felony animal abandonment and cruel animal neglect charges resulting in injury or death to the very horses he purported to love and train.

The piles of dead horses on his property were sickening, the whitened bones laying in the fields were straight out of a horror novel and finally justice was served with sentencing coming next month.

So Meduna is going to pay the price; it’s been a long time coming and a lot of human blood has been shed along with the horse’s in bringing this murderer to justice, but there still begs a very important question, something murky and foggy just outside the ability to focus upon; What about the others?

Meduna did not act alone he had not only his wife but a support group of people who slowly watched these horse’s once healthy bodies begin to eat themselves from the inside out and eventually die. Where are all of these people now?

We know where all the good people are. We know of the professional rescue groups and volunteers who heeded the call and came to help. We heard the testimony of shocked owners who thought their mustangs were living out their lives as close to wild as they could. We have all seen the rehabbed and healthy survivors go to either new homes or quality sanctuaries where their bodies can recover although their minds and souls may never heal. We know where all of these good folks are.

But where is that coven of “Jason Worshipers” who clawed and cried that the horses would be okay if left on the ranch if only Jason would be given a chance? Where are all of the members of Jason’s group who rallied around him as the bodies were being buried and said that it was not his fault and that the neighbors were poisoning the horses? Where are the half-baked “Wild Horse” experts who said that the horses had some strange, equine disease and that the rescuers would spread the illness across the U.S.? Where is Jason’s wife who watched the horses die a horrible death? Where are all of these co-conspirators and why did they not rush to his aide at his trial? Probably, no good press to be had. (It’s all about egos, you know.)

Meduna’s wife, Anissa, was fined, shortly after Meduna’s arrest, $325 for treating an adopted wild horse inhumanely.

“ Whoopee”. She lived right on the property and she didn’t have a clue that 70 wild horses and burros were dead and all the rest dying? Someone had to help Meduna stack the bodies. Why does she get off the hook and move on to damage more animals?

What about the members of Meduna’s group who backed him in this deadly project. Some jumped up and down and impaired the ability of rescue operations while others quietly tiptoed away, hoping that no one would notice. Several of these individuals ranted and raved for months before disappearing off into the shadows, but why were they not held accountable? Why did they not pay the price?

Where was the supportive testimony of good buddy, self-proclaimed wild horse expert, Ray Fields. Fields immediately came to Meduna’s aid and when the “poison” theory fell flat Fields concocted the “‘mysterious illness” lie which to this very day, he flashes about on his website. While Meduna was in trial, Fields hid under a rock and threw pebbles at the good folks telling them that it was the fault of the BLM, HSUS and professional rescues for causing all of the problems. To this day, ole Fields is tempting a law suit with such ridicules accusations. But where was he, besides hiding, doesn’t he deserve to take a sound thrashing for promoting the death and mistreatment of these wild horses?

And how about the biggest Boggy Man under the bed, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM)? If not for their continued, unjustified decimation of our wild horse herds the horses would have never been in this prison hellhole in the first place. Why are their policies and procedures not under scrutiny? Why are they not being prosecuted for failure to inspect/perform and where were they after all of this broke open? Should they have not taken a lead role as it was their program that had failed? Why was it left up to volunteers to do all of the work, to take all of the financial risk and pay all the bills? They created the problems so why were they allowed to turn their collective backs and shrug off accountability, again?

I don’t know about you, but I am pleased as punch to know that the horses finally won one and that the cries from across the bridge were heard by an astute jury. But somewhere, somehow there is still that nagging concern and feeling of frustration that the entire issue was not confronted and by not being resolved and made right, there will be other horses to suffer at the hands of those who got away and slipped off into the darkness.

Although the horses won a victory; it appears that there are a lot more questions left unanswered than answered surrounding the case of 3-Strikes Ranch, Jason Meduna and the wild mustangs that died while others watched. In hindsight, it makes my blood run cold.