Animal abuse in my home town...

This is my first post, and I wish it was something cheerier. This past summer, I worked for Frankenmuth Carriage Company, a horse-drawn carriage ride company in Frankenmuth, Michigan. Yes, the German town with the huge Christmas store and lots of little shops. Well, it seemed like a dream job; drive the horses, groom them, give tours, hang out next to beautiful animals all day.. but it quickly turned into a nightmare. Under direction of the owner, the horses were subjected to HORRIBLE conditions... There were four horses, all good boys but definitely suffering. The owner keeps them on concrete floors or pavement all day and all night, sometimes missing their shoes. For the tours, they are often worked five or six days a week for up to fourteen hours or more, mostly with injuries as a result of their living and work conditions.

Thrush in the hoof and a broken shoe. Still forced to work without care.

Crooked feet and deeply cracked hoof.

Scratches that got infected. All the horses had these.

More badly cracked hooves.

Driven all day missing a shoe. See how crooked it makes his foot?

Sores worn into their skin from their harnesses from wearing them days on end.

A horse named Gus in his stall. Concrete floors, no mats, and urine-soaked shavings. Very bad after a long day on the roads.

A very old horse named Adam. Ribs and hips are prominent, but he works as much as the others.

Unfortunately these images barely even scratch the surface. The owner is out of her mind, completely denying this is happening, or attempting to blame it on her staff. The treatment of the drivers that worked for her was appalling as well. Withheld pay, verbal abuse, even assault.

Not all carriage companies are bad. Horses can be treated well and even enjoy pulling the carriages, but this place is different. Animal control and the humane society are looking into things now. Please help make this place famous so this "business" is finished and the horses can go to better homes.

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Update: The police, and now the humane society, the city, the Labor Department, Animal Control, and even Representative Ken Horn have been made aware of this, and they've each pledged to look into this. The local news has even asked to speak with us to help cover the story!

I will update when more happens!
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Front page edit:

Thank you all for giving this so much attention! Many of you have given helpful advice and I appreciate it so much! Now, I should have clarified some things in the original post...

1: The ASPCA, Animal Control, the city, the Police, the news, and other agencies/services were contacted BEFORE I ever posted anything. I'm not looking for karma, I just want the message to be spread so people are aware of the problem and might choose to speak up against the company and not give them their business.

2: The reason I've waited so long to contact these agencies or make it public is because I had no evidence from my time working there (I was too scared to take pictures or video). Just recently, several other former drivers have come forward with these photos and some videos, so we finally felt we had enough to convince some people of the problem.

More updates to come!