We had received reports about horses near Orland that were in terrible condition. Two of our investigators, Tawnee and April, headed out to evaluate the situation.
On the way Tawnee realized the Orland Livestock Auction was underway. This is not a horse auction, but that day it was a goat and sheep auction. It was interesting as April and Tawnee pulled into the parking lot they were able to recognize people who have been involved in Animal Control issues in Butte county. It seems auctions pull in the alleged animal abusers for some reason. They must feel it is their one last safe haven or something. Tawnee only had $19 cash on her, and the auction only accepted cash or check, so they were unable to rescue any animals at this auction. April says she thinks it is the first time Tawnee left an auction without getting anything. FYI, this is not the auction we raised funds for.
Then it was back onto the road heading to the scene of the reported horse abuse.
When they arrived they found a lot of thin horses with hips and top lines protruding. It really reminded us a lot of the hoarding situation near Fresno, but this time something was different…
…Animal Control was there doing their job making sure the animals get the help they need. We are always extremely happy when local law enforcement will go after horse abuse and get the owners convicted, instead of just convincing the owners to get rid of their problem and escape criminal prosecution by voluntarily surrendering their animals. We will keep an eye on the situation, and we hope Animal Control will do their job.
Due to a recent burglary, we needed to put bars up over the windows to the office. We were dreading buying bars to go over the windows because we knew it would be costly, but had to be done. We started looking around the property to see if anything was on hand that could be used. The pig pen looked interesting. It had bars welded at about the right spacing, about the right height, maybe it would work? Come to find out, the last people that owned the ranch took the bars off the windows to make the pigpen. In no time at all the bars were back up in place and a lot of money was saved.
La Paz had an overwhelming amount of interest in him. Judylynn found a home that she felt would be the absolute best for him, and before long La Paz and his potential mom were getting acquainted.
Generally adoption applications can take a week or more by the time we get all the references, vet checks, animal control checks, and background checks done. But, the people got all their references on the phone, their vet, trainers, and they were previous adopters from another rescue, so we were able to talk to that rescue to get a reference. Everything checked out great, they even had their outdoor barn cat neutered the vet said. By the time they were approved the sun was slipping behind the mountain. They were extremely happy to be adding La Paz to their family.
La Paz loaded right up in their beautiful trailer and you could tell he was very content and trusted them already.
We have a short video of La Paz’s adoption, it’s really worth watching. Click here.
We found that there is a huge benefit to making adopters wait around a few hours while their application is approved. They wander around the shelter and fall in love with other animals. The wife was adopting La Paz, and the husband fell in love with Heidi and Eclipse. Look at that huge smile! He said that he contacted us back in the spring when we had baby goats, but we didn’t have any available by the time he contacted us. He was so excited when he found out we had goats available for adoption. We are so happy that the mommy and son pair have a wonderful home together.
The two younger members of the family got to adopt a critter too: a stylish Polish rooster. He was roosting by the time they picked him out, so it was an easy matter to put him in a transporting box. It was a great day and it was so great to bring such joy and happiness to every member in the family.
Thank you for your support that enables us to rescue and place animals into loving homes just like the ones in this blog.