CUBA, N.Y. (WIVB) – The owners of a boarding barn in Cuba, New York are blaming tainted horse feed for the deaths of six horses there.

The barn and training facility houses 31 horses. All of them will likely eventually die from being exposed to the poisonous feed.

We’re told for these horses, eating the feed is like giving a horse a death sentence.

Now, the owners say instead of running a horse farm, they’re running a hospice facility and watching these animals die a slow painful death.

Pictures sent to News 4 from the farm shows both children and community members taking care of these sick horses.

Andrew Yaffa is the attorney for TMC performance horses, in Cuba.

He says 31 horses were boarded at the facility in 2016, and they were all exposed to a toxic antibiotic.

It’s a drug that is sometimes used in other kinds of feeds for other animals but is deadly to horses.

Three of the six horses died and three were euthanized due to their condition. The horse farm bought the feed from a local feed manufacturer, Reisdorf Brothers in North Java.

Now Yaffa says tainted feed is a trend he’s seeing across the country.

Yaffa said, “Horse owners need to be aware as to where their feed is coming from. If the feed is being manufactured at a multi-species plant, you need to be sure that the plant is medication free, and very few people appreciate from where the feed is coming from. I need to represent these people. They’re suffering their farm and stable has turned into a hospice care facility. They’re taking care of sick horses, and these children are devastated watching these horses die before their eyes.”

Yaffa says he plans to file a formal claim with the manufacturing company. We have reached out to the Allegheny County Sheriff’s Office about the possible food contamination and they haven’t heard about the situation.

We also reached out to Reisdorf Brothers for comment but have not yet heard back.