The next planned auction rescue is this weekend and we need your help to save lives! As you know, auctions are the gateway to the slaughter pipeline. Horse slaughter is the most brutal, barbaric ending imaginable to horses lives, and no horse is safe from enduring that fate. Young horses, old horses, sick horses, healthy horses, mares, stallions, they are all crammed together for the long trip to Mexico or Canada without food and water. With your help we can save horses from enduring that most cruel of fates. Please make a donation right now, for more information and to help save lives, click here.
In our last blog we talked about how Butte County Animal Control took 2 horses to an illegal auction. We put a disclaimer that lies and new rumors would be popping up against us, and it sure didn’t take long. One thing that is very interesting is Lincoln Horse Auction posted on their Facebook page that “killer buyers…lot of’em are good friends of mine.” This doesn’t surprise us too much, it just goes to show that auctions attract unsavory characters including killer buyers and their friends. Again, in California it is a felony to buy, sell, hold a horse if you knew, or should have known, that it was going to be slaughtered for human consumption. That law WILL be enforced one day…
It’s also being circulated that we euthanize 20 horses a week, and pretty much euthanize any auction horse (or any other horse) that comes into our shelter within 30 days, and this is simply not true. There have been times where we held Last Act of Kindness clinics and large numbers of horses were surrendered by their owners to be put to sleep. We are an open door shelter and a good percentage that are surrendered at the shelter are owner requested euthanasia. We are so thankful that these horses are not taken to auctions, where they head off on the slaughter pipeline to Mexico or Canada. Rest assured that every horse that has a good quality of life is given the very best opportunity to find an excellent home. Not every adopter wants to be in the blog, some wish to remain anonymous, but each adopter is approved through our rigorous adoption application and they sign the adoption contract.
Since the last regular blog we have had some great adoptions. Many of them were from auctions, just like the auction we are going to this weekend.
Benji was rescued from auction on July 6 as a poor scruffy jack donkey. You can see his rescue blog by clicking here.
Over 3 months later Benji is a sleek healthy gelded, microchipped, dewormed and vaccinated donkey who was being adopted to his very excited mom.
Sunday Kirsty was busy working with Chief, a 3 year old halter trained gelding, who was rescued from auction September 21. You can read his rescue story by clicking here.
Kirsty is busy getting him desensitized and getting him trained under saddle so he will be a highly adoptable horse.
Squire is also being trained and doing quite well.
He is such a pretty boy and we are thankful that thanks to support from people just like you he is being trained for a bright and beautiful future.
One of the horses who was rescued from an auction on April 20 had a potential adopter come out to see her on Sunday. This was Bella, back in April when we first rescued her as a 7 year old only halter trained broodmare. To see her rescue blog, click here.
Kirsty has been working with her since then and has trained her to be a very solid trail horse. Horse Plus Humane Society took her from a potentially slaughter bound broodmare dumped at auction to a nice trail horse, thanks to support from donors like you!
Her potential adopter and his family really fell in love with her. Some people say that all we try to do is make profit off the horses we rescue. You can’t make “profit” by sheltering a horse for 6 months, paying a trainer to train it, microchipping, deworming, vaccination, etc, and then adopting it for $400. No profit in that! The only “profit” we make is the satisfaction of taking horses that had a very grim future, transforming them, and adopting them into a great home.
Monday morning Sparky and Bella were delivered to their new home. Sparky was also rescued from auction back in August.
Bella followed her new mom into her pen. Bella is such a beautiful horse and we are so happy that she has such a wonderful home to call her own.
Bella is such a lucky girl to have escaped the horrors of slaughter. Please help us save more just like her.
Meep was rescued from an auction on August 3rd as a 10 year old skinny stallion. You can read his rescue blog by clicking here.
Meep was adopted on Thursday, and on Monday he headed home. He is now a healthy, beautiful horse who is up to weight, gelded, microchipped, vaccinated, and dewormed.
He is so beautiful in his new home, and his family is so happy with him.
Also on Monday Jason was busy picking up horses who’s owners could no longer keep them. These two horses are Liberty, 18 (front) and Cee Cee, 8 (rear) and are both trained to ride.
Then Jason headed down the road to the next pickup.
As fall comes on more and more older horses are being surrendered for the Last Act of Kindness. Their loving owners know that another winter would be very hard for them. We are so thankful that they are making the right decision and not allowing their beloved pet to suffer through the long, cold winter. When this horse got into his 30’s his owners stopped counting how old he was.
Before long Jason arrived back at the shelter with the 3 horses.
All the horses unloaded safely and were very curious about their surroundings.
After getting the horses tucked away Jason kept working on the electrical to the barn. Finally it was done and the lights are working great!
Tuesday Kirsty was busy evaluating Liberty. She is a really nice horse!
She does great under saddle and you can tell she has had a lot of miles under her. She is going to make someone an absolutely awesome horse, maybe you?
Meanwhile Jason was out picking up more horses that were being surrendered. This was an older horse who is not doing well medically.
Margarita Mix was being surrendered into the Last Act of Kindness program. She has something wrong internally and is losing weight despite their best efforts.
The last horse Jason was picking up is Cody, a 11 year old Quarterhorse gelding who is absolutely great on trails we are told. His family just couldn’t spend the time with him they wanted to, so they surrendered him into our adoption program so we could find him a great family.
As Jason headed back the sun was setting.
Thankfully the lights were done and it was much easier to unload the horses.
They all settled in for the rest of the night. Cody is such a beautiful horse!
We would like to thank everyone for their support. Please remember our auction fund and donate what you can to save horses just like the ones in this blog, and help them find their forever home.