Message claims 52 thoroughbred horses need adopting – Fact Check

A message claims 52 thoroughbred horses are in need of adoption after their owner died, otherwise they would face imminent slaughter.

OUTDATED

The messages have been spreading since 2011. Some examples of how they appeared on social media are below –

FREE HORSES!!!! 52 thoroughbred horses need homes. Will go to Sugarcreek this Sat. for slaughter. Gentleman died and his son wants nothing to do with them. Most broodmares are broke and some are in foal weanling, yearlings, 2 yrs. and 3 yrs. old most are gelded. FREE and papered. Friend of the deceased is trying to find homes. REMOVED.
Please copy and paste this on your status
I would hate to see all these horses put down. PLEASE someone help they are FREE and papered!!!!!!!!

FOR ANYONE INTERESTED IN HORSES!!!
Don’t know if anyone can collect from scotland but here it is
52 thoroughbred horses need homes. Will go to slaughter this sat. Gentleman died & his son wants nothing to do with the horses. Most broodmares, broken in and some are in foaling/ weaning, 2 – 3 yrs old, most geldings- free- Contact REMOVED
Please re-post if you know horsey peeps. Re-posted froma friedn cos i know a few of you are horsey types x

In 2020, a prankster decided to give this long running message a COVID-19 twist, falsely claiming the horse’s owner died from the disease.

FREE HORSES!!!! 52 thoroughbred horses need homes. Will go to Sugarcreek this Sat. for slaughter. Gentleman died due to COVID-19 and his son wants nothing to do with them. Most broodmares are broke and some are in foal weanling, yearlings, 2 yrs. and 3 yrs. old most are gelded. FREE and papered. Friend of the deceased is trying to find homes. (757) 337-4878 Barnesville, OH.
Please copy and paste this on your status
I would hate to see all these horses put down. PLEASE someone help they are FREE and papered!!!!!!!!

The claims were accurate, but only in early 2011 when then owner Daniel Stearns passed away at the age of 89. According to various forms and reputable outlets, all of the horses were indeed rehomed. According to the website TheHorse.com –

The impromptu Facebook campaign was more successful than Boggs could have imagined–she received more than 4,000 phone calls and hundreds of text messages about the horses. “They were adopted out one here, and one there. A few people took three because they had room. The biggest lot was 11, and that was a personal friend.”
She said that she was cautious of adopting out large lots of horses for fear they would end up at auction, which is exactly what she’d set out to avoid.
Four days later, on Feb. 1, the last horse left the farm around 10:30 p.m.

However many have circulated this chain message without a date, as is often the case with chain letters. Because of this, they have circulated across the Internet endlessly with many users simply not knowing the messages are now completely out of date.

As such we don’t recommend spreading this message any further if you do happen to come across it.