Finally — something horrifically newsworthy in the already troubled sport of harness racing.
MADAM, YOU CUT ME TO THE QUICK — AND THEN SOME.
Written exclusively for TheDamienZone.com by David Mattia <—click on his name and read about him. He’s very smart.
Have you ever heard of a woman named Monica Thors?
Odds are that you have not because she belongs to the widely UNKNOWN and equally UNKNOWING people outside of the racing community wherein she is now looked upon as the most evil horse abuser on the face of the earth.
It’s pretty hard to be the worst horse abuser in harness racing. It’s like trying to be a Sumo wrestler with the world’s jiggliest man-boobs. Sure, harness racing has plenty of bad apples but for the most part the average harness racehorse seems to be a happy camper who is tended to by kind and caring people.
Let’s start by explaining that HARNESS RACING — for the uninitiated – is the kind of horse racing where they have “wheels” and “buggies” and drivers instead of saddles and jockeys.
Yes, I know that I am vastly (and intentionally) over-simplifying any and all descriptions of this kind of horse racing because no matter how intricate and specific I make my description, pretty much no one will know what the hell I am talking about anyway.
I don’t feel like explaining anything more than to say that Monica Thors is a woman who is connected to horses in several ways.
THIS IS WHAT SEEMS TO HAVE HAPPENED.
Beginning about three years ago, the buzz in and around the world of the trotting and pacing horses, was that Monica Thors – a very well known personality in racing circles – was keeping a stable of horses who could not walk. They could not walk because Monica had allegedly cut off their hooves with a dremel tool.
Should I end the story there?
STOP RIGHT HERE FOR A MOMENT AND TAKE A DEEP BREATH IF YOU DECIDE TO GO ON.
Okay — so you are a thinking and rational human being, right? And, because you are a thinking and rational being, you are immediately aware of the fact that perhaps this woman has a mental problem and she is probably in need of serious mental help, right?
If your first reaction is to run over to New Jersey USA and cut off Monica’s feet, you are not qualified to read this blog. You are, however, highly qualified to enter into the world of the overly militant animal rights activist who often forgets about the animal and prefers instead to crucify the abuser.
Many of the highly volatile and eye-for-an-eye seekers of animal justice are all too often unable to grasp the fact that some animals suffer and die when the human being who collects them or abuses them might have some kind of mental problem.
Sure you’d like to kick somebody’s ass for animal abuse, but that’s not how we do things in a polite society.
Remember my rule: You are there to help the animal and not to crucify the abuser — especially if the allegations of abuse lead you to someone who doesn’t seem to be sane enough to see the 800 pound hoofless horse in the room.
OKAY, SO THIS IS WHAT SEEMS TO HAVE HAPPENED.
Dremel, dremel, toil and trouble.
It was rumored that Ms. Thors was keeping a very tidy stable of horses who had no hooves because Monica Thors had cut them off. So there you go. Let’s try to be calm about this.
It has been alleged that Ms. Thors used a grinder or paring knife or an electric dremel to file those hoofs into nothingness in an effort to cure laminitis — a serious hoof disease that she is alleged to have intentionally caused. Sounds pretty crazy so far, doesn’t it?
And — partially because of Ms. Thors’ alleged penchant for whittling away the time by whittling away the feet — some of the horses either died, or could not stand, or were held aloft by a sling which hung from the ceiling until they perished or were put down by lethal injection.
Whatever the case may be, at least three of the horses died while in the strange care of Monica Thors.
But horses die all the time for all kinds of reasons. Why did these die? What was the difference here?
Information about how some of the horses met their death is currently not very clear and we can only hope that they were humanely destroyed, and that the accusations being hurled at Monica Thors are not true. To envision such pain being endured by any animal is a horror beyond all horrors.
If indeed Chronic Laminitis was the problem that led to the blood-curdling lameness and death of these animals, then the dead horses are far better off than the living.
The horses in question — and nobody really knows how many are or were involved in this mayhem — were said to be suffered from a serious disease process of the foot called Laminitis — or in layman’s terms, they were “foundered.”
I’ll save you all the long, boring medical explanations, but sufficed to say that a horse with laminitis or “founder” is in serious trouble and usually in excruciating pain because their feet are falling off.
I know that is a very unscientific explanation, but basically that’s the gist of it, and one can easily imagine the pain involved with having a foot (hoof) fall off from the inside out.
With laminitis or founder, the horse’s coffin bone – the bone deep within the walls of the hoof – begins to rotate downwards due to the inflammation within the vascular structure of the hoof. Gradually, as the coffin bone rotates and the inflammation worsens, the hoof begins to detach from the vascular structure and it starts to slough off. Usually the horse dies. This might be why they call it a coffin bone. It’s the closest bone to the ground and it is perhaps the most common fatal illness that plagues horses.
There are some effective treatments –medically and mechanically — and sometimes the process of foundering stops on its own, but once the foundering has begun, the damage is mostly irreparable. Many foundered horses have to be put down in spite of dedicated and lengthy medical intervention. Others live long happy lives with a hoof that looks weird.
Remember Barbaro? He broke his leg in the Belmont Stakes a few years ago and the break was surgically repaired to some extent.
During his “recovery” for that fracture, Barbaro foundered in the opposite hoof because basically that’s what can happen. It’s a COMPLICATION, and it’s quite likely that the foundered hoof and not the actual broken bone is what ultimately led to the horse being put down.
A horse “founders” or gets laminitis for several known reasons and a myriad of unknown reasons. The actual mechanism for why this happens to some horses and not to others is not fully understood.
What is understood, however, is that a human being can intentionally cause a horse to founder, and this seems to be what Ms Thors is being accused of doing. The questions are, “Why would she do this?”
One easy way to make a horse founder is to feed it too much and to then deprive it of exercise. This is what Monica Thors has been accused of doing by a group of people who have been keeping an eye on Ms. Thors ever since the rumors of abuse started.
When you have a barn full of horses who can’t walk, people start to notice.
One can also make a horse founder by being a really bad blacksmith. Ms. Thors has been accused of that too. She’s been accused of a lot of things.
Allegedly, and according to people who have Monica Thors in their cross hairs, Ms. Thors either intentionally or stupidly overfed her horses to the point where their obesity eventually led to founder or laminitis.
In other words, Monica Thors has been accused of doing crazy things that caused her horses to founder and then she stepped in as the super hero who tried to save them — but she failed — or so it is alleged.
Monica claims that the horses foundered because she used a shoe-glue that caused a bad reaction. That’s a very real possibility but there’s just a little too much foundering going on at Monica’s barn.
For some unknown and alleged reason, she took the foundered horses and tried to heal them by using a dremel tool to carve away the damaged hooves.
Yes, this is an accepted, life-saving or life-prolonging technique that is sometimes used by skilled blacksmiths and veterinarians, but I know for a fact that Monica Thors is not a veterinarian.
I am not, however, an authority on who or who is not an expert blacksmith.
According to the buzz on Facebook and social networking places , Monica has imagined herself to be a lot of things but being a skilled blacksmith is not one of them.
The sad truth is that no one is a great healer of laminitis — not yet anyway.
To me, this whole thing looks an awful lot like horse racing’s version of Baron Von Munchhausen.
It is rumored that Thors causes the illness in order to put together all the elements of a great disaster and then she casts herself as the hero in that disaster. It’s very possible. But, we’ll leave that for the experts and the laws of the state of New Jersey to determine.
It all boils down to the basic fact that Monica Thors has been accused of some really nasty stuff, and the evidence against her at this point is overwhelming.
That seems to be the general idea of what’s going on in in the bizarre world of Monica Thors.
Please allow me to again state that we are civilized beings and what I am describing does not sound like the behavior of a normal person. There is something abnormal going on.
I repeat — As long as we understand each other and we also understand the very basic fact that Ms. Thors could possibly be unwell, we can continue like mature adults and not say things like, “Somebody should cut off her feet!” or “She should die with her body hanging on a sling like her poor horses!”
Yes, believe it or not, a lot of people in the harness racing business and in animal rescue and on Facebook — the final frontier for every moron on the face of the earth — have said some really nasty things about Monica.
It’s disturbingly strange how some well-meaning horse rescuers and horse’s rights advocates or plain old animal lovers often fail to address the real issue and prefer instead to spout out hateful words. How does that help any horse in trouble? It doesn’t. It hurts the people who are actually trying to stop Monica Thors from doing whatever it is she is doing.
Anyway, all torches and pitchforks aside, we do not know the full story. Perhaps we never will.
EDITOR’S NOTE: One social networking site can boast that over 8,000 people have signed on to help them in their quest to get the horses taken away from Monica. The trouble is that half of these “supporters” are only helping by wishing death and destruction and torture on the woman. Perhaps the 8,000 should each donate $5.00 to the horse rescue of their choice and just shut up.
Summation.
Monica Thors — an immigrant from Sweden — arrived on the harness racing scene over 30 years ago and fashioned herself as a high-end horsewoman and equine photographer. She seemed nice enough and very highly professional. She even got herself married to one of harness racing’s most famous drivers.
The years went by and Monica Thors continued to do whatever it was that she imagined she could do. You have to admire her work ethic. She set out to be the most famous trotting horse photographer in the world and she kind of succeeded.
Monica Thors did indeed photograph dozens and dozens of harness racing champions and she was internationally known for her work at the Meadowlands Racetrack — the leading harness racing track in North America.
Monica Thors even tried her hands at being a harness racing driver, but that’s a hard nut to crack for a woman in harness racing and that career went nowhere — but at least she tried.
Seems like Ms Thors has tried everything.
Heck, she’s even making a feature-length documentary called “I AM A HARNESS RACEHORSE”
So now , on top of everything else, she is a producer-writer-creator – cinematographer – director and publicist.
THE BORING SEMI-SCIENTIFIC DETAILS.
A horse’s hoof is essentially a big hunk of toenail. It’s dead tissue and every now and then it needs to be trimmed and shod. This does not hurt the horse and it’s an essential part of competent and healthy horse care. A horse’s hoof grows like a toenail — and you have to trim your toenails, right?
Deep within that big toenail of a hoof you will find living tissue — nerves — blood vessels — tendons — bone — and all the things you would find anywhere else in any living creature. Rarely, a blacksmith might trim or pare a horse’s hoof just a teeny bit too much and he nicks the living part of the foot.
When a blacksmith accidentally does this, it is said that he has “quicked” the horse. His knife has gone a little too deep and the horse feels a quick flicker of pain and there might be a spot of bright red blood — like a pin prick on your finger.
This is where we get the expression, “You cut me to the quick.”
A horse who has been “quicked” is in no real danger and the problem resolves itself quickly. Horses get quicked all the time, and a horse who has never been quicked has probably never been trimmed or shod.
Again, trimming and shoeing a horse in captivity is part of basic care of the animal.
Monica’s staunch detractors imply that she has cut her horses to the quick — and then some — because many of her horses have foundered. I will not show you pictures of what she has supposedly done to horse’s hooves — you can look that up all by yourselves.
There is nothing pretty about laminitis — it’s horrifying.
Yes, it is true — it’s gross. Sometimes a highly skilled blacksmith can trim out dead hooves as part of the treatment for laminitis, and it does indeed look pretty gruesome, but in Ms. Thors’ case, and in the opinion of a lot of people who want her shut down, she doesn’t know what the hell she is doing.
It’s nearly impossible to believe that Monica Thors is intentionally cruel. This woman loves horses. I think there is another element to this story. It’s very sad for her and sadder still for her horses.
It should be patently clear to anyone with an ounce of common sense that this woman needs some kind of help . Mental help? Medical help? Veterinary help? Financial help? Something needs to be HELPED. Something is very unnatural or very poor here.
There is a movement afoot – so to speak – to have the NJ SPCA haul away any and all of the horses Ms. Thors has left. Supposedly her family or friends will come and get her whatever help she needs.
The trouble is that it’s not an easy thing to do. In fact, it’s virtually impossible to force someone into a shrink’s office, and it’s hard to prove — in this case — that Monica is intentionally abusing her horses.
The horses – plus 21 cats and a goat – belong to Monica and as far as helping these creatures go, the NJ SPCA seems to be dragging their heels — just like some of Monica’s horses.
Listen — Allow me to repeat this. It’s not easy to take away someone’s pets and it’s nearly impossible to get someone put in a mental health facility or to even have a clinician examine them without their consent.
Ms. Thors is a highly intelligent woman and she puts forth a very authoritative and knowledgeable persona. People are easily charmed by her.
My belief is that the lynch mob that wants to see her drawn and quartered, are much too angrily unaware of legislative laws and the laws of logic. They are not helping any animals with their vitriol.
The folks in charge of fixing the Monica situation are doing good work, but they are attracting a lot of crazy people in the process.
That’s what happens when well-meaning people try to save baby seals and panda bears and horses with no feet. They attract attention, and with that attention you draw in the real crazies.
The world is filled with crazy people waiting for their big moment. Halloween just isn’t cutting it anymore in New Jersey.
But seriously, the sick horses can be put out of their misery in an instant, but what happens then to Ms. Thors?
I truly believe that if Ms. Thors were to arrive at her barn, in the state that I believe she is in, and finds her horses taken away or euthanized, she could easily snap.
Thankfully, Monica Thors has never, to my knowledge, shown to be violent or volatile, but how far can a person push themselves and then allow themselves to be pushed by others?
Be careful what you wish for, folks. You think this is ugly now? Wait until you see what might happen next. Every great act has an even greater encore, and this is one I don’t want to see.
Written exclusively for TheDamienZone.com by Dave Mattia <—click on his name and read about him. He’s very smart.
Please do not hate on the Harness Racing industry. Just because there are a few horrible people does not mean that the whole thing is a “bloodcurdling sport.”
Most of Standardbreds are treated quite well. But I agree, what this lady is doing is horrendous and she needs to be stopped.
Thank you.
Thank you for helping educate. There is also something very wrong – why is a volunteer at NJSPCA running this investigation? Please keep this going….we have to try and save the horses while criminal charges pend. Not all will be able too leave only some will be able to get on trailers and go to rescues. Which are lined up and ready! Monica maybe ill but she is like smart like a fox!
Thanks – Carolyn and Halos Haven Rescue
I try so hard to think of this in a reasonable fashion. The only problem is that, in my head, I compare this to my animals. Damien, (assuming you have a cat or dog) would you be ok with just declaring her mentally ill if she ground the feet off your dog or cat in their best interest? Only to find out she never actually knew their best interest. I am in no way an animal rights activist, I am simply a concerned human for all lives that are inexplicably, ridiculously lost. I’m a hunter, fisher, and anything else I can do to provide my family food if I needed to, but I 100% do not agree with this ladies motives. She is just disgusting.
I have to admit that when I thought about commenting, I (almost..) wrote a ridiculous comment just to get one of your famous, hilarious replies. I guess this is the simple-minded human coming out in me, but I’ll take it. And as far as grammar, I never prided myself in it, sorry for any too obvious!
ALSO, this was done on an iPhone, so half of the misspells are autocorrect at its best.
Thank you for your comment, Joey RR — I have to admit that I do put the cart before the horse in the case of Monica Thors and so many other alleged abusers, because it is my firm belief that we can, whilst trying to help abused animals and people, often lose sight of our real goals if we first set out to vent our anger at the abuser. Before I turn a hose on the flames, I like to drag ALL of the victims from the fire — even the arsonist.
I am flattered that you find at least some of my rude replies to be “hilarious.” You needn’t worry about my snarling, mad dog routine. If a person makes a valid comment and therein proves that they are NOT a simpleton, I would have to be a fool to reply in anger.
Also, please note that I do not critique grammar or spelling in a comment unless someone criticizes mine. I am working here without an editor and very little time. That fact makes me look like a Flying Wallenda without a net — and now you know why they are called FLYING Wallendas.
Damien
Please, Damien, or Dave, can you help us? You pretty much nailed all the facts in this story. I’m a local gal and we just don’t know what else to do. One of the most fervent (and vocal) spokespeople for this issue has been blocked by “Capn” at NJ SPCA on Facebook, and Capn is clearly hesitant to take any steps, other than tell people to sign up on their website to volunteer help.
I think we need a lawyer to involve the (state?) police to seize the horses – but just do not know. I KNOW there are people with knowledge and resources out there to help get the horses out legally, and there are veterinarians on this side to help with euthanizing or treating the horses.
Anyone who can work the legal part? PLEASE post a message to New Jersey Horse Welfare Association on Facebook – and our group will get it (https://www.facebook.com/NJHorse?ref=br_tf).
We need to MAKE this happen, and NJ SPCA just wants more money.
Thanks, Andi
I also appreciate the sarcastic update! It’s more than NJSPCA has given! However, this is more than a simple case of a lunatic. She HAS actually committed crimes here so what’s the problem with getting a warrant for her arrest and throwing her in jail?! Let them figure out the next steps with her secured behind bars! In the meantime, let a judge get the necessary papers to cease these animals and get her to safety for herself and everyone else! Does this seem so irrational?
You are correct I diagnosed her as Munchasens after I heard a few of the details
I have seen this several times with Mothers and children
Problem is general public does not know about this
You are correct when animals are removed basically they will need a net to contain her because her purpose will be gone
Good Diagnosis also may have bipolar or schizophrenia on board
Needs lithium lamictal and haldol cocktail
Thank you, Kathy.
Please note that the blog entry did not diagnose Ms. Thors with anything, but it did mention with some degree of detached concern that Thors seems to fit the description of someone with Munchausen by proxy syndrome (MBPS). There a whole lot of things that could be wrong, and for each “thing” there are a whole lot of variants. She might have a relatively benign personality disorder that just looks really bad because there are dead horses in her wake, or she could be a monster. Anything is possible.
Some people are control freaks because that’s the way they are. Other people are control freaks because they have serious underlying mental illness.
This is how you have to look at it. I always say, “Sane until proven insane,” but then again, insanity is something that is very difficult to prove. You can easily say that Charles Manson is insane — it seems rather apparent — but as far as the letter of the law goes, he is not insane. He is a criminal.
On the flip side, however, some of the people who are lashing out at Monica Thors seem precariously off balance to me as well, and I am glad the writer included that in the piece.
It’s human nature to be angered by someone who is cruel to animals, but some of the vitriol goes far beyond the pale. Are the people who want to hack off Monica’s feet just passionate and angry animal lovers or do they have some kind of underlying serious mental disorder where they cannot suppress uncontrolled and excess anger? If society were to crumble and lawlessness was the law, would some of these people derive pleasure from hacking off her feet as payback? I don’t know — but it certainly sounds like a few of Monica’s more strident detractors should get shoved into the nuthouse too.
Whatever the case may be, and regardless of the outcome, we will probably never know what, if anything, is really wrong with Monica. If she is found guilty of a crime in a basic case of animal cruelty that is brought before a judge, it still will not answer the very strange questions to which we want answers.
She could simply lose her horses and agree to, in exchange for actual punishment, some kind of mental evaluation. If there is an actual trial and she is found incompetent to stand trial, then we’ll know for sure that she’s nuts. All the other outcomes will leave us with no answers, but at least the horses will be safe from further harm. Thank you.
Damien,
Thank you for writing this blog. Hopefully people who don’t have horses will realize why everyone is so upset! I’m just speechless ! I just don’t understand why it has taken so long to do something. There is NO EXCUSE for what she has done and NO EXCUSE for New Jersey to drag their feet. My heart is with these animals that have had to go through this abuse. I will give my horses a special kiss and my barn will have a horse angel hung up for the poor deceased animals. Again thank you.
You did a fine job of explaining this in layman’s terms and I’d have to say that you are correct in stating there is a mental issue going on. I hope someone gets her and those animals some help stat. This is a horrible situation and I feel terrible for her because her mental state is right out in the public’s eye when anyone’s health, either physical or mental, should be a private matter. Shame on every one who worked with her, who is related to her, and saw this going on over the years and never did anything. Shame on the entities involved for not finding a way to intervene, if not at least temporary.
Damien, you have probably hit Ms. Thors problem on the head. But to say that Harness racing is a “blood curdling sport” is not fair. This issue with Ms Thors has nothing to do with a sport of any kind, but it does have something to do with a true sickness. And yes she has pulled the wool over all of our eyes. I remember her (yes, from the harness industry )to be a very prominent equine photographer and I would have never imagined something like this from her,EVER.
I like to think of BOODCURDLING as a term of endearment — like Spine Tingling but that was an error in translation — the word was meant to be “troubled”
The sad fact is she seems to be indeed demented. The harness racing industry has gone through major changes. This involves the so called “horseman “. A horseman or woman used to truly learn all aspects of the equine. There was pride and tons of hardwork. The animals always came first. What has brought this dying industry to it’s kness is the new and better horseman. The amount of drugs involved in the day to day life of a racehorse now are super drugs. There is a huge drug problem in this sad game. Any one can now proclaim they are a “horseman”. Where was everyone around her barn when this was going on? No one spoke out or protected these creatures. Until now. Lots of silence and looking the other way in this business. You don’t know the half of it. A lot of screaming now. Who was there and looked the other way when these noble creatures screamed and suffered right in their view?
What disturbs me most is her friends list on Facebook where she publicly posted and dispayed these photos is a virtual who’s who in the harness racing world.
And I was beyond disgusted to read in one of the comments left a year ago from a prominent breed rescue and the wife of a local horse vet words praising her for the dedication of care to her horses.
It saddens me that we as horse people will overlook our own with a clean fancy stable while condemning the Amish for treating horses as disposable in their world.
Shame on many. Help is needed for more then just this case.
What a dumb article… It doesn’t bring any valuable insight. Speculative and usless puke of words that mean nothing. Bring facts that prove that Monica is actually a good person. You just voiced your opinion. Not presented facts stating that this person isn’t as bad as she is perceived. High school student writes essays like you wrote your article. All over the place, too long, boring and with not much facts… You do not do a good job in supporting harness industry or defending the woman who commited unspeakable things against poor animals.
Thanks for writing this. It really brings out a lot of good points people need to think about in ALL rescue situations. It’s hard not to jump on the “hatred” bandwagon and get taken into that. I know our local rescue seems to have to remind people a lot on social media to not be hating on the abuser and to keep in mind what the true goal is in these situations. I don’t even want to comment on Monica herself, as you seem to have covered it very well. I’m not an animal rights activist or anything near that, but I am 110% for their welfare and quality of life, and it is too bad it has taken the agencies in the area this long to act. I know there is a “process” they seem to have to follow, but this has been going on for so long and there were so many people knowing this was going on.
Thank you for a calm voice of reason during a very ugly situation. I have been involved with Standardbred breeding and racing for over 20 years and during those years I’ve met Monica and gotten to know her over the years. She is a very intelligent woman, her photography is beautiful. Now, saying that, she always been a bit unstable and jumped from one project to another. She married Ron Waples and got a few big donors to help her with her documentary. I want to say that those surrounding her during those years kept her in balance. She has been “on her own” for about 3 years now and that is when we start seeing problems in her barn.
The STB community has railed for 3 years about her and outside of denying her stalls, she had no oversight or agency keeping up with the rumors. 2 years ago videos started emerging and last year a huge push was made by USDA and STB racing organizations to get her help.
This is when NJSPCA dropped the ball. 3 horses have died and 2 of those finally rescued was put down. 5 horses died needlessly and that is a serious problem the SPCA needs to address.
There are no winners here except hopefully 5 horses can recover and become sound again. Monica is ruined, and hopefully now, she can finally get some help. I know a few people who are trying to help the cats and get Monica to realize she needs help.
Regarding Joanna’s comment: The writer has his own voice and that’s his style. Also, you have to keep in mind that the story is tailored to fit the purpose of the blog which is to expose human stupidity and dumbness. I could have hacked his story down considerably, but then it would lose the voice that comes with that writer. A lot of people tune in to read what that voice has to say and that is the general purpose for a blog. But, it’s a matter of style and taste, some people read something and like it and some people hate it.
Leaving a comment to Barbara Natelson and others who wondered why “No one spoke out or protected these creatures. Until now.” It does seem that way, I agree.
But around here, and I live in the area, the NJ SPCA has called this an ongoing case for over a year. It took the outcry in blogs & twitter & facebook to bring this festering boil to a head and lance it. Some of us local gals have been pushing for those horses since we found out about them. Because of the demands for action, 8 people are blocked from the NJ SPCA facebook site.
I’m hopeful that somehow, first, this woman is NEVER allowed horse ownership in the USA again, and, second, that she gets the mental help she needs. . . because there are a lot of small, trusting animals whose suffering is easy to conceal.
I am the only witness in the CBS undercover investigation that aired on November 24 that showed their face. I saw the horses and it was horrifying. If you would like to see the chain of events as they happened pls refer to the f/b Stop Monica Thors as we will be posting a chronological summary of who what when and where all the so called officials that knew about this abuse and did nothing until they were strongarmed by some very very very high high up officials in NJ. So instead of labeling us as some crazy animal people (I do admit there are some on the f/b page that had to be deleted) I on other hand get all my facts right. Moreover, CBS would have never aired something so provocative and damning as this piece had they not cleared every second with their litigation team. My group has all the facts in a nice tidy chronological summary . Your piece on Monica was quite amusing nevertheless she is for now an allege d animal abuser and when she gets her day in court and discovery is presented, you may change your tune too. For those who want to continue to drink the koolaide believing the part the NJSPCA had in “coming to the horses rescue” …drink on….. My queston is why does this young obviously intelligent albeit manipulative woman not have a job, She has one grown child that doesn’t live with her, no husband, and now nothing to do but cut whiskers off and bath her cats everyday. What single, intelligent, middle aged woman who is obviously healthy enough to muck stalls and gallop on horses doesn’t have a job? kathy mcguire, president & founder NJ Aid for Animals, Inc.
I think you misunderstand our opinion, Kathy. We are on your side and we side with anyone who tried to help those horses. The writer didn’t label all the people who did good work as crazy animal lovers. I don’t believe that to be true — not one bit. It was clearly stated that people with a cause like your cause often attract crazy people. It’s our belief that the dedicated work of 100 people like you can be easily ruined by the words of one person who says something like, “Hang her from the ceiling and cut off her feet.” Also, we welcome that day in court because it’s pretty much certain that the verdict will not be favorable for her. The flip side to this is that the penalty will be very mild and if Monica does indeed have some issues of mental wellness, they will not be addressed.
Years ago, I knew of a man in northern New Jersey who filled his yard with old lawnmowers. Every Sunday morning he would crank up the mowers to full throttle until they ran out of fuel. It drove his neighbors nuts. He said that he did this because his neighbors were aiming death beams at his house. Finally they got him in court and the judge fined him $500 for some kind of public mischief thing. The judge also found a law whereby he could force the man to get rid of the lawnmowers because having that many caused a fire hazard — it was complicated. Basically, the judge did whatever he could to stop this guy from exhibiting his lunacy. But when all was said and done, the man went home without anyone addressing the death beams thing. I suppose this is what will happen with the Monica Thors case? Thank you for your comment.
You write about Monica not being violent. She is. I was in the barn when she came charging after me snapping a HUGE whip and wouldn’t stop. I saw first hand how those horses suffered. I was not there in the role of an animal investigator but there to evaluate the buildings. She is NOT charming or charismatic… but when you stand in her presence you are looking directly into the eyes of evil. She is scary, intimidating and unstable. There is no talking to her. God bless the people who are fighting to save those horses. What has gone on there is a travesty and at this time too many horses have died. She has to be stopped at all costs.
MLCisme — you’re now getting the real deal. She has to appear before a judge. I do not doubt that she was violent towards you, but I can’t write something like that in this blog and I can’t ask my writers to do so either. If and when she is found guilty, you will see how this blog will react — you’ll be happy — and so will a bunch of horses.
As someone who has met Monica I can say without a doubt she has a mental illness. She advised me spell my (and my dog) name out loud and backwards before leaving the house for the day in order to keep us safe. She also told me that she was working on curing cancer with that. She had to become her own vet because she stopped paying the bill, and sent an entire letter written backwards as an explanation of non payment. I only went into her barn once because she creeped me out and while it was very neat and tidy the horses didn’t look healthy. I briefly knew her 6 years ago and I’m not surprised at everything I’ve heard about her since.
I have to say that you description of quicking is pretty accurate it is not something that happens commonly. Over the course of 15 years caring for horses I have seen 2 get quicked. Both were pleasure horses being trimmed by inexperienced farriers.
None of this matters, all that matters is the horse OR horses were in such horrible pain not being able to stand , how could anyone let that kind of suffering continue period ? How could anyone watch this, the horse/ horses were in agony .
Well, Coeli, Dave Mattia — the guy who wrote the article — tried to help. His article reached out to well over 150,000 people, and now he faces the wrath of people who would prefer that he punched Monica Thors in the face rather than try to understand the inner workings of the whole mess. It is safe to assume that it was his article which lit the fire under the SPCA. It’s highly doubtful that the mobsters who want the woman rubbed out had any impact on the legal authorities whatsoever….but you can’t tell them that. They don’t seem to understand.
The whole situation is very sad , I feel sorry for everyone involved , and I have nothing against anyone , maybe their are not just animals that suffered maybe humans have suffered too. This is just my opinion , I am not say anything bad about anyone, I just am sad , and feel sorry for all involved . I think this situation is more involved then many of us even know. The other side to this story is a human who may also need help and have suffered greatly too. No one deserves to be treated poorly , we need understanding and compassion for all involved , and I hope and pray for it .