27/03/2024
Dear friends and followers:
I am sure some of you are wondering about the missing horses and the weird comments on Facebook these last days, so here is the story from start until now:
In 2023 we came to an agreement with a stable in Luxor, the stable was managed by Karem Kasm.
Karem and his team wanted to get more involved in rescuing horses and we decided to send them 4 horses to start with, and we also gave them 40.000 Egyptian pounds towards their care (ca. 800 €).
This was supposed to be the only payment as it was 2 rescue horses and 2 healthy horses (the healthy horses had been working at the pyramids, we wanted a better life for them - but we did allow the stable to use the healthy horses for adequate work).
We received regular updates of the 4 horses, looking happy and healthy and a second transport took place with 6 more horses.
Of these 6 horses most were rescue horses, and a few healthy horses for him to use as riding horses at his stable.
No payment was made to them this time.
One of our followers from the Netherlands visited the stable in Luxor in the meantime, and was going to do fundraising and help him.
She reported back positively on the horses, and we decided to send another 6 horses since we are struggling with space and everything seemed very good at this stable in Luxor.
this time we sent him rescue horses that could not be used for work, and we again paid him 40.000 Egypt pounds to help with the ongoing costs for these horses.
We provided contact details of a sponsor who was then going to continue supporting these horses directly.
In February 2024 we had our planned visit, Luxor is far away and we can only go there twice per year.
Getting close to the date of our visit (2nd half of January ), we received a disturbing call, Karem told us he was in Switzerland and all 56 horses in his stable died from poisoning in the water!
We were of course devastated and frantically called everyone we knew, to go to the scene directly as we're 9 HR away – and we found out it was a lie...
No horses had died, and we soon found out he had been selling our horses without our consent months earlier, while still sending us photos and videos!
On 25th January 2024 a police investigation was started and the investigators finally had enough proof leading to Karem´s arrest last week.
Karem Kasm than confessed to his crimes and lies , he told police he had lost his job and owed money to the feed store, and that he gave the horses away.
He did say he could get the horses back for me, and I agreed to him being released so he could go and find the horses and return them to us.
Once he was out of jail / imprisonment Karem started threatening and bullying me.
Now that he's out of jail he's trying desperately to make me look bad , spreading lies and rumours, like he had done previously to other charities and supporters as he was of course not happy to have been reported to the police or the unfriendly names I called him ( I swear like a sailor and could not control myself and I admit to also have threatened him)
Unfortunately one of the charities in the area here believed his lies and stories, and someone set up a hateful page about us and our Good Karma Sanctuary.
(they fell for his stories and lies, just like we did in the beginning).
And I didn't answer publicly as I was told not to by the police.
This charity / supporters / haters page also warned Karem about the police investigation, which gave him the opportunity to hide the remaining horses, inflicting more damage.
I don't like to talk about everything on FB , and previously I couldn't respond to anything since I was asked by the Luxor police to not say anything as to not risk the operation.
The local charity, and the girl that runs the hater FB page, were informed that there was an investigation and not to publish anything - but instead their personal vendetta against me endangered the investigation and caused the devastating loss of some of my horses.
Karem is spreading lies about me using photos of a “fake chat”, he miss-spelled my name and if you look below you can clearly see he has faked this really odd conversation! It is clearly not written by me (or by any educated person who speaks proper English).
This will be my only public statement about the events as the focus should be on horses instead.
(I will add the photos Karim is spreading, on the images you can see his mistakes and there is also a photo the police recovered from Karem´s phone where he was warned about the police investigation, which caused further damage since he managed to hide the horses even better).
I will not engage in public disputes or drama , but if you have a genuine question I will be happy to answer it, regarding this and all other matters.
I know all the lies and hateful posts are confusing, but remember those people were also just scammed into believing him and not aware of all the facts .
I have not been treated correctly but some of the antagonists did it, thinking I was causing harm to horses , and I do respect people sticking up for the horses, I just wish they had “fact-checked” better.
Either way, I'd like the drama to end and everyone their focus to go back to the horses who clearly need us.
I did manage to get Anouk and Angelo back, but we are still missing 7 of our horses.
Unfortunately our beloved Elvis and Cartboy have been confirmed dead , a rumour that 2 others died and sweet Pete and Ramses still not over the hill.
Jabari, Rufus also recovered as well as Osiris.
Since it's clear karem kasem is not continuing to cooperate we will press charges.
Police will once and for all make sure this guy gets what he deserves.
And to everyone, if you hear a story about someone, ask first , fact check before making everyone look bad.
Remember when you assume things you make an ASS out of U and ME ....
