After our Veterinarian examined the remains and looked over the area where she was found, his conclusion was that Dreamers Faith died of a broken neck from the limb that had fallen and after studying the ground and seeing no signs of a struggle of the pony trying to get out, this is the only scenario that would make any sense. No, we did not make this up, and are not trying to cover anything. I just wish some of you that have been making the disrespectful comments about us, would take the time to look at just a few of the positive things the C.V.F.C. has done to make this such a great event, and remember one thing, We do not get paid one cent to do what we do. Why would we do something wrong and not get paid for it, when we could do it right and still not get paid anything. When I said we "quit looking", that was taken out of context. We did make the mistake of not looking after we thought it was a crime scene because it was not supposed to be on the grounds.
When someone looked in the area where it was found, they expected a pony to jump out of the bushes or at least make a sound. It did not. Now we know why. The search continued on for a live pony. Again, we could not even imagine it being dead. This kind of search will never happen again for anything or anyone that goes missing. We do apologize to the family who put the money up for this pony and again, promise to make it right for them.
As far as the age of the pony and it being separated from its mare. This was a mistake on our part (but an honest one) of letting the mare go back to the beach when we thought the pony was older than it was. We have conferred with the feather fund and the legacy group and from now on, if there is any possibility of us having the age wrong, we will seek outside assistance and make sure of the age. It may still be separated, but we will know the age for sure. As all of you know, there are extenuating circumstances that may come into play, such as age of the mare, injuries to a mare of foal or need for bottle-feeding because of problems with one or the other but these will be addressed on a case by case basis. The fire company just concluded our fall roundup and everything went well. To all, We spend approximately $25,000.00 every year on the maintenance of our herd. We give them every vaccination that you give your own horse or pony, we trim their hooves, we worm them, they are vaccinated for west Nile virus, infectious anemia, given tetanus shoots, and cared for year round by a very dedicated group of volunteers. In one of last weeks comments, the person said, my tone sounded "horrid". I really do apologize because I thought I did pretty good and sounded sincere. Seriously. I hope this letter helps in some way to ease your mind. I don't know anything else I can say but we are sorry for this happening. Now, I have to go to the fire station, along with the other members and sit through 2 to 3 hours of planning for our new fire station and how we are going to pay for it and planning for the 2016 special events we run and next years carnival and pony round-up, swim and auction. YES, it will be bigger and better than ever. Don't forget to hug a volunteer.
https://www.facebook.com/CHINCOTEAGUE-VOLUNTEER-FIRE-CO-129598427055278/
its always about who can build the shiniest, awesomest FH
ReplyDeleteI am from Maryland and am not a resident of Chincoteague, nor am I involved with any fire company. Here is my opinion/
DeleteNo it IS ALWAYS about who can make the nastiest comment on a given subject by folks who have no clue. I am not referring just to the postings of this foal. IMO the ones who trash the most know the least, otherwise they would suggest solutions, not just vilify.
Chincoteague Volunteers get off their butts and work to raise money. They do not stand on 13 with boot in hand, stopping traffic. I honestly believe if the criticizers were the experts, they want folks to believe, they would volunteer to show the (unskilled uneducated) firemen how a real man could run the fire company more efficiently, how to better care for the ponies, how to better raise money to finance the organization. From reading the daily trashing of others here on “da bury news”, it appears to me that some folks only pleasure is in writing nasty comments on any given subject. Sadly these individuals cannot see good in anything,
Not sure why we folks always need to place blame. IMO this was human error involving many. Humans do make mistakes. Humans also learn from their mistakes. IMO the fire company’s explanation is creditable and there is no usefulness in trying to place blame or slander. This sad situation is an excellent example of “lesson learned”. The explanation from the Fire Company speaks of changes so this will not happen again. It always takes a wrong to make a right.
So much illogic in this rambling list of excuses I don't even know where to begin. A limb fell and just happened to break it's neck? REALLY? And they thought a young and weak pny would just come bounding up to them? REALLY? Like it may not be lying helpless or dead obscured by the brush? And they didn't LOOK in the brush but thought it more likely that the foal was stolen? This needs to be shut down and let nature take its course like at Assateague. This whole thing is appalling.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteI'm not buying it.
BS!
ReplyDeletethe damage is done no matter what "damage control" statement you can come up with.
my family and i have spent countless vacations in Chincoteague. and though i've never really supported the pony penning, i visit Chincoteague several times annually none the less. NO MORE!
i will miss it dearly. but i refuse to support the economy of a town with a fire department that raises funds by capturing wild ponies and selling them.
raise funds some other way and leave the ponies alone!
i hope the local government in Chincoteague is monitoring these posts and realizes the significant impact that this event has caused.
in closing, i'd like to make one more point. to whomever prepared this "official statement", you may want to brush up on your spelling and grammar if you want anyone to take you seriously... even if you are BS-ing!
Goodbye pony roundup, just like punkin chuckin.
ReplyDeleteThey are also on Hillary Clinton's staff, so this is why there is no telling the truth.
ReplyDeleteexcuses excuses that's all anyone ever has to offer any more. Instead of we f'ed up. We dropped the ball. We slacked off like nobodys business.
ReplyDeletewhatever cowboy...whatever makes you sleep at night.
9:40 an 9:54 Chincoteague and the CFVD could care less people are lined up to replace you,the end result you will not even be missed
ReplyDeleteIt just doesn't make any sense with them saying that a tree limb fell and broke the pony's neck. Also, every inch of that area should have been searched, whether they thought the pony had been stolen or not.
ReplyDeleteI don't believe any of it.
9:40. Sorry you are taking Chincoteage off your list of vacation destinations. I imagine for many people, the reason that Chincoteage is even on their list of vacation destinations has a lot to do with the ponies and pony penning itself. Yes, there is the beauty of assateague and the opportunity to see the ponies in the wild and all the other beautiful creatures, fishing, bicycling, ice cream etc. but what really puts Chincoteage on the map for most visitors are the ponies. In my mind, Chincoteage and Pony penning are inextricably linked to drive a significant amount of tourism to the area. For decades, the CFD has responsibly managed the herd and provided for their well being. It's a shame that a pony died in this manner but I sure wouldn't want this to be the end of this wonderful tradition. Personally, I look forward to many, many more visits to Chincoteague and Pony Penning festivities. As to your spelling and grammar comment, what I read was someone speaking honestly from the heart and not worrying about parsing every word or phrase.
ReplyDeleteLet's see a photo of that limb!
ReplyDelete9:40 an 9:54 Chincoteague and the CFVD could care less people are lined up to replace you,the end result you will not even be missed
ReplyDeleteOctober 20, 2015 at 10:26 AM
that's fine. time will tell. but at least i know that i'm not giving you yahoos any more of my money.
Nothing but damage control. Before it was she got tangled up in vines and died. Now this comes out, so those saying she starved to death are appeased. And who is this "our veterinarian." Whoever it is should dress up like Kojak for Halloween since they like playing detective so much.
ReplyDeleteYeah yeah yeah yeah let's just keep on ignoring the pony who died was reported to the FD as being sick and nothing was done. She was reported as being missing and that was denied for days too.
ReplyDeleteShe died and they hid her body there. Before they were 100 percent sure that their findings of her being tangled in vines and died was true. Now a limb fell on her and broke her neck. Get your lies together. The FD and their supporters might be a bunch of simpletons but the rest of us aren't.
This sounds like the ramblings of someone who had a few too many and was feeling down because they didn't get their daily dose of admiration and praise. It's about a pony and not about how great the volunteers are.
ReplyDeleteThis just takes the cake "Why would we do something wrong and not get paid for it, when we could do it right and still not get paid anything."
The answer lies right at the end of this. Because you want a new firehouse. They are so jazzed up over this prospect so much so that they have to bring it up at such an inappropriate time shows that they would cover up the death of a pony in an attempt to avoid any bad publicity.
Wow, what the hell happened down there ?
ReplyDeleteOh stop it 10:26. Just because you approve of the CVFC operating a pony mill doesn't mean the rest of us do. Some of us have compassion and morals. Some of those mares are pregnant nearly year round. They quicker they separate the foals from the dams the quicker she gets pregnant again, which equates to money. As someone stated above, not everyone is so blind and/or so stupid as to not see what is going on there.
ReplyDeleteThey are not going to spend any more money on vet care then they have to so of course any reports of sick ponies will fall on deaf ears. It's cuts into the profit margins. They act like they should be held to some greatness because of the preventive vet care the ponies receive. They probably wouldn't even be doing that except federal grazing permits requires it.
2:25 said-"This just takes the cake "Why would we do something wrong and not get paid for it, when we could do it right and still not get paid anything."
ReplyDeleteThey have 10's of 1000's of dollars oops I mean reasons, why they would do something wrong. If people were to think the care given to these ponies esp the buybacks (record broken this yr when a buyback group paid $25,000 for 1) was inadequate people wouldn't participate in the program. Their buyback contract or whatever it is can say what it wants but people do expect a certain degree of care given to the pony when they make this donation. For them to think otherwise is completely unwise.
One of the reasons for the auction itself is BS. They say it's to keep the herd numbers down. It's about the money and nothing else. Before buyback program they used to 'borrow' broodmares from successful auction bidders until they ran into trouble over this practice.
It is time to outlaw this barbaric practice of subjecting horses and pony's to a forced swim in the ocean. Talk about cruel people and sadistic men.
ReplyDelete10:26 Yes, time will tell. Prior this, people were all caught up in the cuteness and the quaintness of Misty of Chincoteague. All an illusion, a fairy tale. People are finding out the REAL story, how foals are ripped away from their mothers, barely old enough to eat on their own, forced weaning so the mother can be sent back to mate and reproduce to keep the money rolling in for the FD. It's utter stupidity combined with laziness and a Know It All attitude to not be treating these ponies like priceless commodities. Add to that list a backwardness in not realizing everything is documented somehow, somewhere these days and news travels at a rapid pace esp bad and unwelcomed news. While I realize the FC does not like to take anyone's advice, they would benefit from reading up on how to turn negative publicity into a positive. It's starts with telling the truth, tell it early, tell it all and the FC needs to tell it themselves.
ReplyDelete10:51-Countless people have offered to volunteer their services to help care for the ponies so for you to say these criticizers should step up to the plate is unfounded. Thankfully they are now willing to accept that groups such as FF and CLG know exactly when the foals were born so they can't try and get away with saying a foal is older than it is anymore.
ReplyDeleteHumans always are making mistakes but when they were told she was ill they ignored it. When they were told she was missing on Sept 5th (one of more reports) they ignored it so to say this was all a mistake is also unfounded. She was reported as being barely able to walk, laying around a lot, as having diarrhea, she was losing body mass and her ribs were showing. I agree to a point human error was involved. The error being that anyone who tries to tell them anything about the ponies are labeled as one of the radical pony people instead of a well meaning experienced pony person. Their standard answer is "we know what we are doing."
No one expects when the ponies are at the carnival grounds that it's going to be like a thoroughbred operation but at the very least people expect the ponies who are in obvious decline to receive medical attention.
That they denied she was missing for so long can only lead people to believe that a cover up was being attempted so of course they are going to be angry.
It's a lovely story, and they tell it so well; with such enthusiasm!Really? A branch fell and broke a horse's neck,ans a search of the pen found neither a fallen limb nor a dead pony!
ReplyDeleteOh, I believe EVERYTHING y'all say!
ROTFLMAO!
I was critical of the CVFC. I feel much better now and am happy to hear that they are reaching out and willing to take the assistance of the groups and hopefully others.
ReplyDeleteI don't think these people are "radical pony people" as described (by some within the FC and others). They are people who love the ponies. If they were radicals they would want the whole operation shut down. Maybe there are a few who would like this, but most do not.
I'm not convinced. This vet should have issued his own report, complete with how he came to this conclusion, such as how did he determine when the limb broke off and the time frame when smells were reported.
ReplyDeletethis explanation is as dumb as the persons mouth it came out of
ReplyDeletemore cover up