FORT COLLINS — Some horse owners are threatening to sue over a July fire at Colorado State University’s Equine Reproduction Laboratory that destroyed valuable horse semen, embryos and eggs that they trusted the school to safely store.
“My loss is greater than I can imagine,” said horse breeder Shirley Hoffman, who had reproductive “straws” from five stallions secured at the lab.
The reproductive material would have been used by the owners to breed their own mares or sold to other breeders.
Hoffman estimated her breeding materials stored at the lab were worth about $200,000.
“That’s nothing compared to what others have in there,” she said.
Hoffman said she will file a legal notice with the Colorado attorney general’s office by Jan. 21 to secure her right to sue CSU for the fire, which caused $12 million in damages.
Other horse breeders are eyeing the same deadline, brushing off an offer by CSU to give a $1,000 credit toward future stallion services provided by the lab.
In exchange for the $1,000 credit, horse owners would drop any claims made against CSU for their lost straws.
CSU spokeswoman Dell Rae Moellenberg said the university is not responsible for insuring client property that was stored at the equine lab, and most clients signed a contract that clearly stated that they had to provide their own insurance.
Still, “we have been actively working to help clients begin to recover from their loss,” Moellenberg said, which is why the university is offering the $1,000 credit.
In all, the fire destroyed the lab building and equine sperm, embryo and egg straws that were stored on behalf of 175 clients, she said.
So far, the cause of the fire has not been determined, Moellenberg said.
Horse breeder Charlie Cox said he was never asked to sign a contract, he just paid the invoices when they came in the mail.
Cox claims the lab appears to be liable for the fire because it claims on its website that it would maintain the frozen semen . . . “according to the reasonable standards and practices of the equine industry.”
Cox added a $1,000 credit is meaningless in his case — and most likely other cases — because the stallion whose sperm he stored at the lab has since been gelded.
“For a lot of breeders, including us, something like this fire is going to be devastating,” Cox said.
Monte Whaley: 720-929-0907 or mwhaley@denverpost.com
