As Tawnee has said so many times before, you never know what will happen at the rescue. Briana learned that first hand when she was up volunteering. A phone call came in this morning that had some disturbing information. When the chores were done at the rescue, the rig was ready to go.
Since the new facility was on the way, Tawnee and April decided to stop by and take a quick peek to make sure it wasn’t flooded or anything like that. We know you are all dying to know where it is at. It is off of Palermo Honcut hwy on Four Junes Way. 1/3 of a mile off of the highway.
The property is off the highway far enough it is safe even in the worse case scenario that a horse did get out. Just last week 3 horses made national news by being hit by a logging truck in Oregon and being killed. We are glad that it is close to the highway, but not too close.
Everything looked great and it is such an exciting thought, thinking of the rescue horses grazing on the beautiful grass soon.
Then it was off to the location reported by the phone call. The phone call told us of an emaciated horse such as Phoenix was. Tawnee was hoping to be able to pursued the owner to surrender the horse so we could get the help he needs. When they arrived they found an extremely skinny palomino gelding.
He is in really serious condition, constant diarrhea, goopy eyes and a drab coat stretched over nothing but bones.
It is really sad seeing any horse in this kind of a situation, and anytime you see a horse like this, you just want to help! Unfortunately this proved to be a difficult situation.
Nobody was home for quite some time, so Tawnee and April waited for the owner to arrive. Finally he pulled into the driveway.
Tawnee and April walked up and knocked on the door. The owner came out. At first Tawnee wanted to offer to help, which he refused. Tawnee asked if a vet had been called to examine for a quality of life, and he said he couldn’t afford it. He explained to Tawnee the “facts of life.” “Horses get old, they go down, you shoot them” and that is what he is waiting for with this guy. He is fine until he goes down and can’t get up. Tawnee told him she was concerned about the proper food being given. He said he was getting grain and hay in the morning, hay at night. The whole time that Tawnee and April had been waiting the horse did nothing but walk around trying to eat grass. He was really hungry and needed food. Tawnee’s next approach was to offer to buy the horse, which he refused again. He seemed to have the attitude of “He’s mine, I can do whatever I want to him.” Tawnee suggested that maybe the poor guy should have a blanket, since he was so skinny, to help keep him warm. To that he replied “He’s a tough hombre, he can cowboy up.” Wow. Tawnee was getting nowhere and decided some other actions were needed.
Tawnee and April got in the truck and started to drive away, as she slowly drove away the horse followed her down the fence line, looking at the trailer and nickering softly. It was just too much to bear.
So Tawnee turned around and her and April tried to figure out what to do to solve the situation.
Tawnee spent a lot of time on the phone calling Animal Control, Sheriff office, Jason at the office, our vet, anyone she could think of.
They were parked along the main road, and after 4 hours or so, the owner came out to let them know he didn’t appreciate all the phone calls. You can hear his comments in the video. To watch the video, click here.
The sun was beginning to fall and nothing promising had happened yet. It was pretty discouraging.
The trailer was empty, and there was nothing Tawnee could do about it.
After the sun had fallen and everything was dark, the owners son stopped by and Tawnee spoke with him for awhile. He was surprised that we were willing to purchase the horse, and he said he would talk to his dad and try to convince him. On the drive back to the rescue Tawnee and April had that terrible feeling in their stomach of failure. There’s nothing worse than going out to rescue an animal in terrible need, and legally being able to do nothing to help the animal.
Back at the rescue everyone was ready to call it a day. It’s really sad that nothing could be done today for this poor horse, hopefully tomorrow.
Many thanks to Becky W., Ruthann C., Suzanne F., Janice W., Karen H., Chrisanne G. for their very generous donations today. We really appreciate it!