We apologize that the blogs have not been sent out for awhile, our blog writers were on a long trip to the midwest and were unable to write the blogs on the road.
Jason and Tawnee, along with a volunteer film maker, visited Valley Meat Company in Roswell, the Rio Grande Livestock auction, the Texas Export Pens in El Paso, and the Midwest Livestock Auction, owned by Dennis Chavez. We are working on getting all the footage edited together and hope to release it soon. It was hard for Tawnee to look in at the proposed horse slaughter house in Roswell. It is very desolate right now, with no action from either human or animal, and we hope it stays that way. In the past the slaughterhouse had violations for not properly disposing of the remains. There were bones scattered around and old cow heads dumped on the ground just on the other side of the fence. It is very clear that if this slaughterhouse opens for horses, the environmental health concerns will once again become a huge issue.
It was sad seeing the slaughter trucks in person that haul loads of horses to their brutal deaths. The slaughter pipeline is real, it happens every day for thousands of horses. Not only old, unwanted, unusable horses, but to young, healthy fat horses that are often trained to ride and someones companion and pet. The horse slaughter industry must be stopped!
Another reason they were driving to the midwest was to pick up a hydraulic horse squeeze chute that was custom made. There have only been 30 made in the last 10 years since they have been manufacturing them, and we are the first Humane Society to have one. We are so excited! We will be able to handle wild horses safely, floating their teethe, trimming their hooves, and treating injuries that we would not have been able to before.
Back at the shelter Kirsty is very busy training and evaluating horses from the last auction rescue. We also have a very special guest: Martina is interning for a month all the way from Austria! She is in her second year of veterinarian study. She has 4 more years until she becomes a licensed vet in Austria. She wanted to visit our shelter to get as much horse experience as possible. She is very saddened by how animals in the United States are so disposable, from the racetrack to Big Ag, to people’s back yard animals they get tired of. We are delighted to have her and she is such a great help.
Many of you will remember Tara, who won 3rd place in the Extreme Rescue Makeover competition. Well, she didn’t win first place, but…
…she won Steven’s heart. She has been spending a lot of time at the shelter, and they have been enjoying many long rides together. Steve asked Tara if she would be willing to “adopt” him, and she agreed to put him in adoption pending. Tara and Steve are officially engaged to be married! They haven’t picked a date yet, but we will definitely keep you posted. They are planning on having a wedding at the shelter and want to invite you all.
It’s a great win-win as Steve is in adoption pending, and Willow (who Tara trained in the Extreme Rescue Makeover Competition) was adopted into a very loving home last week.
Thank you all for your support! We really appreciate your donations, and again congratulations to Steve and Tara!