This is nothing new. Since the economy started going south, there have been stories of horses starving all over the midwest. Owners turning them loose to fend for themselves or taking them to the glue factory and selling them for dog food meat. I know nothing about this animal rescue group in particular, but I have heard stories from people who have fallen on hard times and try to get resuce groups to take their animals and the groups refuse because they cannot afford to feed them either or they have so many already they have no room. There are also groups that will take your animal if you take it to the vet, get everything up to date, and then pay them board for 6-8 months until they find it a proper home. If you can afford all of that, you can afford to feed it yourself. As far as the owners finding new homes for them, this is not an area where there are numerous farms that could have readily accepted a horse. There are zoning restrictions and even one horse needs room to graze. My sister has a horse and it takes money to keep it in shape. When you try to maintain weight on an animal of that size, it isn't like buying food for a chihuahua. Multiply that by ten and these people would have had an enormous feed bill. If the economy continues to worsen, there will probaly be more cases of this. It is a sad situation but it is also a sign of the times.