Dr. Stacey Huntington, the veterinarian who has been evaluating hundreds of former racehorses and has reported that many of them need urgent care because they are malnourished and neglected, was fired Saturday, April 2, by the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation.
Dr. Huntington's objectivity was questioned according to the president of the foundation, George Grayson, who said that veterinarian inspections would continue.
Beverly Carter, an executor of the Mellon estate that established the endowment for the foundation and has continued to support it financially, questioned the firing because many of the horses cared for under the direction of the foundation have been discovered to be lacking both feed and care, and in some cases, have been discovered to be missing from the farms where they were supposedly receiving care.
The New York Attorney General’s Charities Bureau is reviewing complaints accusing the foundation of fiscal irresponsibility and improper care. The foundation has also lost funding from the A.S.P.C.A.