The Houston Humane Society, the Houston Police Department and several other agencies came together Friday to announce a new task force dedicated to ending the cruel treatment of horses living in the Arces Homes area.
The agencies said the initiative — named Monty’s Task Force — came about after a malnourished horse collapsed while someone was riding him along West Montgomery Road about a year ago. The humane society said the horse, named Monty, was 250 pounds underweight and died from his injuries a few days later.
HPD Captain Larry Baimbridge said he witnessed the incident and was outraged anyone would try to ride such an abused horse.
"Something snapped and I thought enough is enough," said Baimbridge.
The task force plans to complete its mission through providing education and pushing for more law enforcement, the society said.
"A lot of this is education. One of our primary goals is to educate people on what is proper animal care: what they need to eat, what vaccinations they need [and] many things specific to horses that people may not realize,” said Sherry Ferguson, the society's executive director.
The other five organization participating in the task force include Crime Stoppers, the Houston Police Department, the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, Harris County Precinct 5 and Houston Petset.