Viegaard Stutteri, the Danish breeding farm where horrific scenes of animal neglect were discovered after a social media uproar forced the police to take action, has been sold.
Owner John Byrialsen had his business declared bankrupt in October 2023 and the property including the entire horse stock (which was seized) had to be sold. The yard sold in an executorial auction on Friday 19 April 2024. An acquaintance of Byrialsen, Georg Rosenkilde, purchased the property.
Ben Hur Aps
Ridehesten posted that the 74-year-old Georg Rosenkilde from Frederiks, southwest of Viborg, "who for years has known and advised Viegård Stutteri and its owner John Byrialsen," had started a new stud company called Ben Hur ApS with the aim of running a stud farm, training and trading horses.
"At the time, Rosenkilde flatly denied that the company was set up with the intention of buying horses from the controversial Viegård stud, which has been in so much turmoil in the past year," Ridehesten wrote. "Today (19 April 2024), however, Rosenkilde has bought the stud's buildings and land. It happened at a forced auction in the court in Viborg, where the deed to Vievej 24 in Skals changed hands. It was all auctioned off for DKK 8,510,000 (1.14 million euro) to the buyer Ben Hur ApS."
Viegaard Stutteri is on 14.4 hectares of land. Bidding against Ben Hur Aps was Euro Steel 1988.
Horse Stock
Earlier in March the controversial businessman Hans Helmgaard Kristiansen, an adviser and director of the company ALB 2024 ApS, bought a large group of horses from Byrialsen's seized stock with an unidentified group of owners. TV2 wrote that, "John Byrialsen has now also made his experience and knowledge of horses available to Hans Helmgaard Kristiansen as a volunteer sparring partner." Kristiansen has been reported saying, "he (Byrialsen) is not a consultant, but I use his knowledge of the specific horses I have bought if needed."
Helmgaard Kristiansen is a former national Danish show jumping team member, who according to TV2 "came into the media's spotlight when he received a two-year ban for fraud with sports horses." He falsified the identity of six horses.
Kristiansen moved the horses to yard Bratbjerggaard. Just a week after the Viegård horses were transferred to Bratbjerggaard, Jammerbugt Municipality paid a visit and also the police and the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration showed up for an unannounced visit. It was reported that the "59 horses at the stud farm were not registered in the Central Livestock Register (CHR) and that the horse passports were not present, as required by law." The horses did look healthy and the boxes were in order.
Horror Farm
Th executorial sale followed the bankruptcy after a major police raid in august, when cadavers of 50 horses were dug up. The raid was the long awaited official intervention, demanded by the public to expose and end John Byrialsen's decade-long animal neglect, first in Poland and then continued in Denmark.
Since August protests near the farm have continued persistently with one protestor even getting run over by a car and landing in the hospitalized. also a woman got hit by a car over and broke her arm.
Related Links
Danish Police and Food Authority Raid John Byrialsen's Viegaard Stud, Cadavers Dug Up
Social Media Uproar over Alleged Horse Abuse and Neglect at John Byrialsen's Viegaard Stud farm
Viegaard Stutteri Declared Bankrupt