The Animal Rescue League of Iowa is now caring for the 46 horses that were seized from a property in Dallas County near Madrid (MAD-rid) last week. The Dallas County Sheriff charged the owner of the horses, 78-year-old Linda Kilbourne of Johnston, with livestock neglect — and says more charges are pending. Robyn Dobernecker (DOB-er-necker), the A-R-L’s animal welfare intervention coordinator, says the property owner did not surrender custody of the horses, which means a legal battle looms.

She says it’s taken several days to physically move all of the horses to the A-R-L facility, get them all assessed, and start giving them the medical treatment they desperately needed. Dobernecker says the horses were living in heartbreaking conditions.

It’s incredibly expensive to care for a single horse, and suddenly having nearly four dozen of them — many in poor condition — is putting a strain on the agency’s resources.

The website is A-R-L-dash-iowa-dot-org (ARL-Iowa.org). Dobernecker was at the property in Dallas County last week and has been on many such calls during her career.

If the A-R-L is granted custody of the horses, she says they’ll eventually be put up for adoption, once they’re healthy.