No animal cruelty charges will be filed in the death of Thoroughbred stallion Laoban due to the expiration of the statute of limitations, according to the Courier-Journal.
The Courier-Journal's Tim Sullivan reported in April that court documents in an insurance lawsuit had revealed that an injectable vitamin treatment given to Laoban could be to blame for the stallion's death. According to those reports, Laoban died minutes after getting an intravenous shot from veterinarian Dr. Heather Wharton of a vitamin cocktail designed to boost his waning libido. A document authored by attorney Harvey Feintuch in August noted that expired B12 was given at five times the recommended dosage, and that iron dextran, one of the vitamin components, had expired in 2012. One or more of the vitamins were supposed to be given intramuscularly but instead were given intravenously.
According to Sullivan's reading of Feintuch's report, Laoban's death was captured on video and the horse could be seen going into distress 58 seconds after receiving the shot from Wharton. (It is not unusual for larger breeding operations to have cameras in stallion barns.) Wharton returned to the stall and attempted to treat the stallion but was unsuccessful. A necropsy report later revealed a “presumptive diagnosis of anaphylactic shock can be made with a reasonable degree of medico-legal certainty.”
Woodford County Animal Control Supervisor Susan Jones told Sullivan this week that due to a lack of time and no cooperation from the insurance company, she was unable to file misdemeanor animal cruelty charges against Wharton before the statute of limitations ran out.
“This one just slipped through our fingers,” Jones told the Courier-Journal. “We didn't get to do our normal time of investigation there. We did not get to speak to the veterinarian because she had lawyered up, and her lawyer wouldn't allow us to speak to her.”
However, the Kentucky Board of Veterinary Examiners is still expected to conduct an investigation into Wharton's actions.
Read more at the Courier-Journal.
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