Up to 70 horses killed after ingesting possibly tainted feed one week before ‘Rodeo of Champions’

As many as 70 horses were killed in Oklahoma last week after they ate what their grieving owner believed was tainted feed.

The disastrous and deadly effects came almost immediately after dinner time at Beutler and Son Rodeo Co. near Elk City

“We didn’t know what was going on, we just got the feed and started feeding it like always,” Rhett Beutler, the company’s co-owner, told KFOR-TV .

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“Then all of a sudden looked up and there was horses just falling over, dying.”

The Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry said Friday it was investigating the “tragic loss” after receiving a report Aug. 23 of the mass death having a potential relation to a bulk feed order.

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Inspectors tracked the feed down to an unnamed Kansas manufacturer but has not yet ruled whether the order was tainted — a sample of the food the doomed horses munched on is being analyzed in two state-certified laboratories.

Beutler and Son Rodeo Co. is a nearly century-old company that supplies stock for rodeos, including the National Finals Rodeo.

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“We’ve got world champions that are dead, we’ve got horses that would potentially be the next world champions that are dead,” Beutler said.

The death of dozens of horses is more than a financial loss for the owner, who said the animals were more than money-makers.

“All them horses are kind of like my kids; I’ve raised them from time they were born,” Beutler said. “Once you lose one, that’s one too many.”

Many of the lost horses were set to participate in the Elk City Rodeo of Champions starting Friday night. The show includes bareback horse riding, saddle bronc riding, bull riding and steer wrestling.

The show will go on as planned.

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