SEATTLE -- Animal control officers seized 39 emaciated and sickly horses from inhumane conditions in dark stalls filled with feces on a breeding farm outside of Tacoma on Wednesday, authorities said.

U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents discovered the malnourished animals, many injured and some standing in more than a foot of waste, while serving drug-related warrants on Tuesday at the 99-acre property in Graham, Washington, Pierce County Animal Control supervisor Brian Boman told Reuters.

Animal control officers and sheriff's deputies from Pierce and Kitsap counties returned to the ranch a day later to seize the animals and found many were highly skittish because they had been "stall-bound" in three dark barns, Boman said.

"It was like a puppy mill, only with horses," Boman told Reuters. "The conditions are terrible. There's no telling how long it's been since they've seen daylight."

Read the story on NBC's KING5.com

Pierce County auditor Julie Anderson told NBC station KING 5 in Seattle that the horses had not been handled in a very long time. "They literally have their 'night eyes' on so they're very sun sensitive and are having trouble with depth perception," she said, describing the scene as "wanton criminal neglect."

The horses were receiving veterinary care and were being held for the time being as evidence, KING 5 reported.

No-one has been arrested so far but the owners could face charges of animal cruelty in the second degree, a gross misdemeanor in the state of Washington.

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KING 5 reported that an attorney for the owner said his client "loves these animals" and did not believe the conditions reached a criminal level.

'No lighting or ventilation'
Authorities spent more than nine hours rounding up the horses, which included mostly purebred Arabians as well as Belgian Draft horses and Clydesdales, to take them to nearby fairgrounds. None were race horses.

Some likely would be euthanized, Boman said.

A Pierce County Sheriff's Office news release, describing the roundup as the largest horse seizure the county had ever undertaken, cited the horses' living conditions as deplorable.

"Most of the horses were in barns that had large amounts of urine and feces in the stalls," the release said. "Some of the barns had no lighting or ventilation and the smell of ammonia was very strong."

Because federal and county criminal investigations are ongoing, federal authorities would not immediately release the name of the farm's owner, said Emily Langlie, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Seattle.

NBC News staff and Reuters contributed to this report.

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BEIJING -- China's health authorities will investigate allegations that genetically modified rice was tested on Chinese children as part of a Sino-U.S. research project, state media said Tuesday.

One Chinese researcher has been suspended by authorities while investigations are carried out.

China is already the world's largest grower of genetically modified (GMO) cotton and the top importer of GMO soybeans but, while Beijing has already approved home-grown strains of GMO rice, it remains cautious about introducing the technology on a commercial basis amid widespread public concern about food safety.

The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention investigation came after a report last month by environmental group Greenpeace claimed that a U.S. Department of Agriculture-backed study used 24 Chinese children aged between six and eight to test genetically modified "golden rice."

Golden rice, a new type of rice that contains beta carotene, is intended to alleviate vitamin A deficiency.

The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention said no domestic institutions had been approved to participate in the research and that it had also asked Tufts University outside Boston to help investigate the issue.

The International Rice Research Institute is working with leading nutrition and agricultural research organizations to develop and evaluate golden rice as a potential method to reduce vitamin A deficiency in the Philippines and Bangladesh.

The research by Tufts University and other Chinese scientists was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in August. It aimed to demonstrate that the rice could provide a good source of vitamin A for children in countries where deficiency in the vitamin is common.

Complete China coverage on NBCNews.com's Behind The Wall

Tufts reviews protocols
Andrea Grossman, assistant director of public relations at Tufts University, told state news agency Xinhua in a recent interview the university was deeply concerned about the allegations and is reviewing protocols used in the 2008 research "to ensure the strictest standards were adhered to."

"We have always placed the highest importance on human health, and we take all necessary steps to ensure the safety of human research subjects," Grossman said.

More coverage about food safety on NBCNews.com

"We have always been and remain committed to the highest ethical standards in research," she said.

The Greenpeace report sparked a wave of criticism on Weibo, China's version of Twitter, with the researchers accused of a breach of ethics for testing poor, rural children whose families may not have been informed properly.

Complete World coverage on NBCNews.com

Scientist suspended
One of the Chinese authors, Shi-an Yin, has been suspended from work pending further investigation after his responses proved to be inconsistent, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention said.

Yin was cited by the official People's Daily newspaper as saying he helped collect data for the study but was unaware that it involved GM rice.

The second of the two Chinese researchers, Hu Yuming, denied his involvement in the research, the People's Daily said.

PhotoBlog: China quake survivors await shelter, expect rain

China, the world's top rice producer and consumer, approved the safety of one locally developed strain of genetically modified rice, known as the Bt rice, in 2009, but commercial production has been delayed.

Apart from genetically modified products, China's vast and unruly food sector is still struggling to come to grips with food safety four years after a major scandal where tainted milk powder was blamed for the deaths of at least six children.

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Just over half of the counties in the U.S. are now labeled "natural disaster areas" after the U.S. Department of Agriculture on Wednesday added 218 counties in 12 states to the list.

With drought drying up food crops and animal feedstock, the USDA also said it was allowing haying and grazing on 3.8 million protected acres, many of them wetlands, and that insurance companies agreed to a 30-day grace period for farmers on insurance premiums.

"The assistance announced today will help U.S. livestock producers dealing with climbing feed prices, critical shortages of hay and deteriorating pasturelands," Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a statement announcing the moves.

The Nature Conservancy said it was OK with the emergency haying and grazing as long as it is "carried out with minimal impacts to wildlife and habitats."

Across 32 states, ranchers and farmers in 1,584 counties -- 50.3 percent of the total -- are now eligible for low-interest loans. Some 90 percent of those counties were listed due to drought conditions.

That's a new record and one that's been broken repeatedly in recent weeks as more counties have been added. The declarations first started on July 12.

On Monday, the USDA rated as "good-to-excellent" just 24 percent of the corn crop and 29 percent of the soybean crop, both down 2 percentage points from the previous week. 

The ratings are the worst since 1988, another year of severe drought in the nation's crop-growing mid-section.

Crop shortages in turn mean higher food prices. The USDA last week raised its estimates of food price inflation, saying prices could rise as much as 3.5 percent this year and up to 4 percent in 2013, led by meat.

And while the latest USDA steps might help ranchers and farmers, those groups on Monday joined forces to ask that the Environmental Protection Agency curb the mandate to produce ethanol from corn, saying it was driving up prices for animal feed.

Related story: Give us an ethanol break, livestock producers say

A state or ethanol refiner must ask for such a waiver, and that hasn't happened, at least not yet.

In a statement to NBC News, the EPA said it was in "close contact with USDA as they and we keep an eye on crop yield estimates, and we will review any data or information submitted by stakeholders, industry and states." 

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In this undated image released by Beef Products Inc., boneless lean beef trimmings are shown before packaging. The debate over "pink slime" in chopped beef is hitting critical mass. The term, adopted by opponents of "lean finely textured beef," describes the processed trimmings cleansed with ammonia and commonly mixed into ground meat. Federal regulators say it meets standards for food safety. Critics liken it to pet food — and their battle has suddenly gone viral amid new media attention and a snowballing online petition. (AP Photo/Beef Products Inc.)

NEW YORK CITY -- Steak it ain't. School officials in New York City say that this fall they’re going to toss out the "pink slime" meat filler used in ground beef products served up in school cafeterias.

In New York City's 1.1 million-student school system, officials said Wednesday that they’re working with food vendors to phase out products containing pink slime that are dished out as burgers, spaghetti sauce and sloppy joes. They said they have heard enough concerns from parents and food advocates.

"We're phasing it out by September -- they will no longer be served in our schools," Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott said Wednesday, according to NBCNewYork.com.

Read NBCNewYork.com’s story on the pink slime phase-out

The change follows an online campaign by advocates for healthier food to rid school cafeterias of what the meat industry calls "lean, finely textured beef," but critics derisively call pink slime. The low-cost filler is made from fatty meat scraps that are heated to remove most of the fat, then treated with ammonium hydroxide gas to kill bacteria such as E. coli and salmonella.

Pink slime has been on the market for years, and federal officials argue it is safe. The National Meat Association has noted that ammonium hydroxide is also used in baked goods, puddings and other processed foods.

The USDA recently announced that, in response to requests from school districts nationwide, it will offer schools a choice: 95 percent lean beef patties made with the filler, or less lean bulk ground beef without it.

“School districts are in the same boat as parents, and they’re still trying to figure out what the pink slime is,” Diane Pratt-Heavner, spokeswoman for the Maryland-based School Nutrition Association, told msnbc.com on Wednesday. “What is important to clarify here is that this is not a school-food issue, this is a ground beef issue.”

Safeway to stop buying pink slime beef filler

Several U.S. school districts said they would change their cafeteria menus by next fall. At Florida's Miami-Dade school system, the nation's fourth-largest district, with 345,000 students, officials also announced plans to eliminate the meat in September.

Others decided to remove the ammonia-treated meat immediately.

Tony Geraci, executive director of child nutrition for the schools in Memphis, said the 110,000-student district hasn't used the product since October. Geraci described pink slime as a "a horrible product" and not fit for human consumption.

Pratt-Heavner said don't blame the lunch lady, changes will come slowly and each district must act appropriately.

"Like all customers at the store, school districts will have to ask about their product and what it is," she said.

Msnbc.com readers also were quick to respond to the district’s move.

“The food companies/school district officials are finally waking up and actually want kids and adults to eat healthy and real beef,” Shantelle Roberts posted on msnbc.com's Facebook page.

This article includes reporting by The Associated Press, Msnbc.com's Sevil Omer and NBCNewYork.com.

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