Our blog writers were in Large Animal Evacuation training this week with UC Davis, so they were unable to keep the blog updated. The shelter was open and lots happened so it’s time to catch you up.
We put out a plead for more lead ropes for the shelter, and we cannot thank everyone who ordered and donated lead ropes enough. We have enough lead ropes now, thanks to the generosity from people just like you.
Last week we were faced with the horror of Tim Sappington shooting a horse just to make a hateful message to everyone who loves animals. Steve, our trainer and farrier, recorded a music video in memory of the horse, Justice, who was shot and killed. The video is very touching, and is appropriate for all ages. If you haven’t seen the video yet, click here.
Part of the video we used this mare and her foal, who were rescued from the last auction.
The baby had so much fun running around for the camera, he was so cute!
The other horses watched over the fence. They couldn’t believe there were movie star horses right next door!
After the mare and foal were done filming we opened the gate and let the “extra” horses out into the same field for more filming. They ran through the field with delight before settling down to eat the yummy grass. Making the video was a lot of fun and we hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoyed making it, although it is so sad thinking about the horse we are honoring in the video. To watch the video, click here.
Windy was adopted! Just look at that huge smile. We are so happy for Windy and her new family.
She loaded up in the trailer and is such a good girl.
Before long she was settled in at her new home grazing peacefully We rescued her at the auction a couple months ago, and we are so excited that she has such a bright future in front of her.
We had some adopters drive a very long way to meet Blaze. The whole family was tickled pink to meet her.
Blaze is such a good girl and just loves attention, and the little girls in the family were more than happy to give her lots of attention.
The family posed for their adoption photo and were anxiously waiting for transportation arrangements to be made.
Tuesday morning Blaze loaded up into the trailer for the ride to her new home.
After many hours she unloaded safely and walked around the round pen to get used to her new surroundings.
Then she was led to her waiting pen where she had nice yummy hay and fresh water waiting for her. She was also rescued from the same auction as Windy.
After delivering Blaze our team stopped by a veal factory right on the edge of the highway.
It was the first time that Steven was involved in documenting the cruelty that is seen in veal factories and he was very appalled. Say “NO!” to veal! The suffering these babies go through makes people questions the humanity of anyone who would lock a baby calf in a tiny dirty boxes where they stay until they cannot stand anymore, at which point their meat is considered “tender” enough and they are cruelly dragged off to slaughter.
Wednesday morning bright and early 4 of our staff were at the Clovis Police and Fire headquarters for the Large Animal Emergency Evacuation training.
It was a very nice class, there were about 60 people taking the training in total. Lots of police, sheriff, animal control and fire departments had personal there learning more about evacuating large animals, mostly horses and cows.
The class was put on by UC Davis with a grant from Homeland Security. It’s always good to refresh training and get ready for potential disasters. We will never forget doing the 2008 wildfire evacuations. The training also covered a lot of flood rescue training for large animals, which our staff had not received before.
Thank you all for your support! We greatly appreciate it.