A massive animal neglect case in Western Oklahoma has a horse rescue group looking for help.  More than 50 horses were found starving, and diseased.  Now, rescuers are trying to give these animals the lives they've never had.  Natalee Cross has been saving animals at Blaze's Tribute Equine Rescue for 9 years.  But never has she seen the horrible conditions that 51 rescued horses were in at a farm in Sayre, Oklahoma.  500 pounds underweight, infected, and abused full of cuts and puncture wounds.

"All of them are emaciated, all of them are infested with parasites, internal and external," Natalee Cross, the Owner of Blaze's Tribute Equine Rescue, explained.  "They have nothing, they look like a skeletal system with a cloth draped over them.  They don't have anything."

Forty-eight  other horses were just left for dead.  The Beckham County Sheriff says a criminal investigation is being done, and charges should be filed next week.  Cross says if she didn't take every living animal, many would've died in just days.

"It's sad and it's sickening to me because it's a lack of responsibility.  If you're going to have these animals care for them, and give them the treatment they deserve.  They're voiceless, they didn't ask for this, but some body's got to speak up for them," Cross described.

But help is needed because this is the biggest undertaking of rescued horses that Cross has ever had.

"We're definitely going to need some financial assistance to help with the vet care that these horses need.  Pay donations, grain donations," Cross added.

Natalee says about 40 of the horses will be placed at foster homes later this week.  But it could take 6-12 months for each of them to live their life without having to suffer.

"All of them will be able to be fully rehabilitated, they've got a long road ahead of them," Cross concluded.

The Beckham County Sheriff says the extent, and number of charges filed against the owners of these neglected animals will be known next week.

The Beckham County Sheriff's Office was contacted on April 30, 2009 to assist with the seizure of 51 horses and donkeys.  They found 51 neglected and severely malnourished horses starving in Sayre, Oklahoma and 48 dead carcasses on the property.  Blaze's Tribute Equine Rescue seized the horses on May 1, 2009.  This is an on-going Animal Cruelty case and none of the horses will be available for adoption until the disposition of the animals are made.

If you would like to help these horses at Blaze's Tribute Equine Rescue:

• Go to their website at:  http://www.blazesequinerescue.com
• Or you can send donations through the mail to: Blaze's Tribute Equine Rescue, 17667 Markita Drive; Jones, OK 73049.
• You can also call them at (405)-399-3084.