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Easton's Horse Farm Complainant Details Neglect

EASTON, Conn. – When Karen Rasmussen and her family enrolled their child in riding lessons at Easton’s Pee Wee Horse Farm in 2010, they hoped it would be the adventure of a lifetime. Two years later, it’s something they wish they could all forget.

“We were hoping for a nice family experience, and it turned into a nightmare,” Rasmussen said during an interview earlier this week. Rasmussen, a Wilton resident, is behind a viral video that led to the investigation, horse seizure and animal cruelty charges against Paul Vittorio, 75, owner of Pee Wee Horse Farm.

“My family was looking for a nice riding experience, some trails and a place that was more geared to Western riding,” she said. They thought they had found it all at Pee Wee’s. “We thought, this is it. It’s close and it has everything we are looking for."

After taking the winter off from riding, the family locked into a six-month lease with Vittorio for the use of two horses, Damien and Willow, at his farm in 2011. The Rasmussens were excited about the upcoming summer. But things changed just a few weeks into her lease when she noticed that both horses were rapidly losing weight.

Rasmussen said she and other boarders started complaining about the poor quality of food for the horses. “This stuff was inedible,” she said, adding that it consisted mostly of grapevines and prickers.

In a sworn statement issued to the state Animal Control Division, Rasmussen said the horses lived day in and day out without adequate food, water and shelter. “Some horse owners have constructed their own run-ins, but all others are at the mercy of the beating sun or cold rain/snow,” the statement reads.

“We were looking for a pleasant riding experience for our family, and although we did not expect pristine conditions, we did assume basic care such as decent food, clean water and some type of shelter would be provided to them. Instead, we were surrounded by hungry and thirsty horses all summer long,” according to her statement.

The last straw for the Rasmussens came when they noticed a horse named Blackie hanging around the family’s leased pen. “He could barely walk,” she said. “He looked awful; it was unbelievable.”

On Oct. 16, 2011, Rasmussen, sickened by the horse’s condition, took a video of Blackie and sent it to the state Animal Control. Then on Oct. 22, Rasmussen witnessed Blackie being “whipped on the rump with a lunging whip by Paul,” according to her statement.

The violent action was all she could take, and she immediately called state Animal Control Officer Nancy Jarvis to file a formal complaint. “Right there, at that moment is when I said, ‘This is inexcusable and it cannot go on,” she said.

Within days of her complaint, officers arrived to investigate her claims and by Dec. 15, five horses were in state custody. Three of the five horses were euthanized by the state within the past five weeks.

“If I had known that this was going to happen, I would have been making videos throughout the entire summer. I was completely distraught when I heard that three of the horses were euthanized, I know they didn’t make that decision lightly,” she said.

Rasmussen said she knows she might have some enemies for complaining about the treatment of the horses at the farm. “This gives me no pleasure, I am not enjoying watching any of this play out. But I do have to say that I couldn’t let this go on any longer.”

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