Vitamin Eyed In Mass Death Of Polo Ponies

(CBS)  CBS4's Gwen Belton has the latest on the mysterious death of 21 Venezuelan polo ponies who died on the eve of a polo championship in Florida.

A Venezuelan team official reported on Wednesday that all 21 of its polo ponies set to compete at the U.S. Open Polo Championship were injected before the game with a vitamin supplement called Biodyl.

The team contends a tainted dose may have caused their deaths. Florida state officials have since opened an investigation to determine the cause of death.

This information comes on a day when the Venezuelans were scheduled to play at the Stanford Financial US Open International Polo Club in Palm Beach before tragedy struck the animals.

The team captain of the Lechuza Caracas polo team told a newspaper in Buenos Aires, according to CBS4 news partners The Miami Herald, that all the horses received Biodyl injections before the game.

"There were five horses that weren't given the vitamin and they are the only ones that are fine," the captain went on to say. He added, "They're common vitamins that aren't given to improve performance but rather to help them recover from exhaustion."

It was on Sunday, when 14 horses died just hours before they were scheduled to play at the U.S. Open Polo Championship in Wellington in West Palm Beach. Another seven died Sunday night.

All of the horses belonged to the Venezuela-based Lechuza Caracas team owned by Venezuelan multimillionaire Victor Vargas.

The polo ponies, all between 10 and 11 years old, are valued at up to $200,000.

Here's the story and video:

Local Video from CBS4 in Miami

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[jleb956]

It is not illegal to compound a vitamin/mineral mix. I doubt the Biodyl is efficacious. Besides, couldnt the vitamin be given by mouth? The cause of death needs to be determined in order to prevent another tragedy like this. Why hasnt the vitamin mixture been analyzed by now? Will the laboratory be responsible for its actions? What kind of lawyer will sue the veterinarian for malpractice?

[ReginaFilangee]

Wrong thread, Stuart. Focus.

[ReginaFilangee]

"Dumb animals? HA! Hang around with me and you'll discover just how intelligent they are. If you think they're dumb it doesn't say much for your relationships with animals then."---Posted by puzzler125 at 9:39 AM : Apr 23, 2009

Okay, I must concede. From your frame of reference, they must appear fairly smart....to you.

[txnewsreader]

Sounds like somebody put too much cyanide in the cyanocobalamin.

[puzzler125]

Dumb animals? HA! Hang around with me and you'll discover just how intelligent they are. If you think they're dumb it doesn't say much for your relationships with animals then.

[puzzler125]

Dumb animals? HA! Hang around with me and you'll discover just how intelligent they are. If you think they're dumb it doesn't say much for your relationships with animals then.

[babalina]

I have an important point to make: If it was from the vitamins, and these are made in batches, many horses around the world would drop dead from the same batch. However, It is very easy to put a poison in a syringe, and inject the poison into the vitamin bottle(s), without anyone knowing that it was tampered with. I believe firmly that the vitamin bottle was tampered with. Time will prove this. Horses are big animals and for this type of behaviour to occur a strong poison must have been injected.. My heart goes out to the grooms, players and owners and everyone who loved these animals.

[ReginaFilangee]

".... swear they know the difference between practice and judging."---Posted by nancy_naive at 10:41 PM : Apr 22, 2009

Oh, I gotta definitely agree with THAT! :)

[itgranny]

~$200,000..... for a horse who's only purpose is to play a rich person's game.

I'm a border collie enthusiest and it amazes me that you can buy a trained border collie for around $2-6 thousand (tops), tell him/her to go out and bring in the sheep from the north-40, then go in the house, pour yourself a cup of coffee, have a bit of breakfast and read the morning paper and then get your coat and boots on and go out just in time to shut the gate behind the sheep.

It's funny what we value.

[Dgunner]

To understand the horse is to know the horse and will better able you to know the individual horse. No two are the same and no two train the same although repeated methods work. cutters are drilled and work horses worked. If you take a competition cutter and work them in a herd enviroment they are lost. If you take a working cattle horse and put them in competiton they stand there confused. Thier ability to comprehend is only limited by the ability of the trainer to understand the individual horse.Hitler said give me a child for seven years and they are mine for life. Give me a horse for seven weeks and they will mind for life.