Veterinarian accused of horse abuse identified as man missing at Lake Mead

The search for a missing individual at Lake Mead National Recreation Area is ongoing. The National Park Service is leading this multiagency effort, with support from the Nevada Department of Wildlife and volunteers from Red Rock Search and Rescue.

We are grateful for the information provided by the public so far, which has been helpful to our search efforts. If you were in the Hemenway Harbor Launch Ramp area on Sunday, April 6, and have any additional information, please call 888-653-0009.

PLEASE READ!!! I am incredibly sorry for what happened. I am not making any excuses. I very much do feel bad and I do apologize. And I am making no excuses at all. I would very much like to explain the situation. This horse is about 350-400 pounds and it is a wild Mustang. And it was actually a psychotic killer type. I have been around many of these that are younger and older, and they are very violent, and their life normally has a very bad ending. My intention was to get him gelded now, and not wait until he was too big to handle. The owner had informed me that this is a "horse flip," along with three others she purchased, and four more coming in. She told me her intentions were to buy cheap, hurry up and get them halter broke, some training, and then hurry up and flip them before she loses money. She bought it for $50 and needs to get it quickly gelded trained and off the property, so it does not cost her to lose money. She had no idea how bad this horse was. And it was stalled right next to a filly. We had already gelded another one on her property that was stalled in the same stall with a filly. I initially wanted to not do the horse and to just walk away. But I just knew that this horse was crazy and incredibly dangerous, and would hurt someone and eventually bad things would come to it. I really felt that he was small enough that we would be able to handle him with great effort, but we could get him gelded. The owner did agree to the plan, and I spent a lot of time discussing with her how we would get it accomplished. We really could come up with no other options. The owners are brand new to horses, incredibly naive to the dangers these types of Horses present, have three more feral mustangs on the property, and have four more ordered to come in and "horse flip." They have no ideas of the sex of each horse at all. The other horse we gelded, was actually in the same stall with a filly. My thought on the need to get this horse done, was I was very concerned how bad he would be once he puts on 200 more pounds and realizes that he is a stud that is going to be coming into his manhood in the next few weeks or month, with the time of year and the proximity to the mares. We could not get near the horse, as he had the crazy killer look and actions about him. And he had a very loose fitting halter and no lead rope. A trainer was able to get that halter on a few days ago, by doing a makeshift squeeze chute, and some major effort. The Trainer told me this horse was absolutely crazy, and very dangerous. Another Trainer told me the same thing, as did two random Cowboys, who had seen the horse a few days ago, and contacted me today. I did the same thing with the squeeze chute, and over the space of about an hour, and lots of squeeze chute and paneling destruction, I was able to get several sedatives into this horse. They had little to no effect, and he just continued to fight. I was able to get drug dosages in the Horse, that should have been more than enough to sedate and knock this horse, completely unconscious, but he was almost completely unfazed. 4-5 minutes before the video that you have witnessed, I was able to get enough anesthesia in him, for a 500 pound horse. He should have sent to sleep. He continued to run around the stall for several more minutes. He finally went down in this exact same position and was stuck against the fence. I could not pull him out and he started gagging for air. I reached over his front legs to grab the halter or try to smack him on the chin to startle him to see if I could get him to breathe again. He then jumped up and lunged at me and stuck his head through the paneling and got stuck, and the weight of his body had him stuck and looked as if he was going to choke himself or break his neck. I could not get him free until I grabbed the paneling and pushed him out with my foot. That brings us to one minute later, to the video that you have seen. He went down in that same position, and I did try to get another shot in him, but I could not do it without reaching over his legs again and I did not want to get pawed at or bit. He started making the weird hard to breathe noise again and started flailing his head as you see. As that went on, I thought it wise for my safety, to reach over with my foot and hit him on the cheek hard enough to startle him so that he would get up again, or at least start breathing again. When I did that, he turned into my foot and I did kick him directly in the chin. Again, I am not making excuses, I'm just telling what happened. Fortunately, it worked out like I wanted, and it startled him and he got up. At this point, I already had anesthesia in him enough that should've made him go to sleep in less than 30 seconds, but that was administered several minutes before this video. Shortly, after this video, I was able to pull him down and he got stuck in a position where I could safely administer another dose of anesthesia and he finally went to sleep. I was able to do the surgical procedure and get him gelded. He had a very large amount of fat and subcutaneous tissue in the surgical site, that I was able to remove, and I could not find any more. We also did remove two Wolf teeth. It took about 2 1/2 hours from start to finish. He recovered without incident. The owner texted me later that day and said everything was fine. Unfortunately, the next morning, there was a piece of soft tissue that was dangling from the incision site. I did immediately drive back to Pahrump to take care of the situation, per the owners request. There was a piece of soft tissue that needed to be removed, as it would have been a pathway for infection. There was no bleeding, and everything else looked normal. We had a plan in place on how we were going to try to sedate and anesthetize the horse again, to get the tissue removed. The horse again had that killer crazy look and attitude. Very flighty. Before we were able to execute my plan, the owner decided not to have me do it, so I left. I still no not do justice to this story, for how much work I put in to get this horse done, or how dangerously crazy this horse was. I am not making any excuses for this video at all. I do feel very good about the fact that this horse is now gelded, and relieved that it is done, for this horse's sake. I still don't think it will ever be anything but incredibly dangerous, but now he at least has a chance at life. Now, when the owner hurry ups and, "flips the horse," maybe the horse will be less dangerous. Over my 27 year career, these horses are usually dumped on very unsuspecting people that have no business owning wild animals, and the horse ends up stuck in a small stall and never gets out for the duration of its life, or ends up in much worse situations than that. I believe that sums up this entire event. I did not blatantly haul off and kick this horse, as it appears in the video. That was not my intention at all. It was done simply to get the Horse in a better position so that he could breathe and get up and move, so I could again try to anesthetize. I am not making any excuses at all. But yes, I did kick him right in the chin. And I very much do apologize. I wish this never happened and I am very sorry. I am not mean to horses. I love my job and I love helping people and their horses. I AM VERY SORRY!!!