“Hero,” a yearling, and “Bravo,” an eight-year-old registered Thoroughbred, were rescued Oct. 22 by Lynn Ismond, ranch manager with Healing Hearts Animal Rescue and Refuge in Willcox.
She received the call about the horses from a neighbor in the vicinity of the 5700 block of North Fort Grant Road on Monday, Oct. 21. Ismond responded and took photos.
On Tuesday morning, Hero “was down in the pasture. I watched him try to get up and he could not,” she told the Range News.
“I went over to speak to somebody at the house, but there was no answer,” said Ismond, explaining that she knocked on the door three or four times.
As she was driving off the property, Ismond called the State Livestock Department, but there was no one available at the time.
She also called the Cochise County Sheriff’s Office “but everyone was out on calls.”
“They said that somebody would call back, but I never got a call back,” Ismond told the Range News.
Months before, Ismond had talked to City of Willcox Humane Officer Kelly Colbert “about the possibility of needing her help in cases like this.”
She had also previously attended Arizona Department of Agriculture training where participants were told if they couldn’t get in touch with an inspector, “to use other means of law enforcement.”
Ismond called Colbert, saying that she needed help with a case involving horses.
Colbert was able to get in touch with the Sheriff’s Office, and was told that a deputy would meet them there.
“Tuesday, I picked up the horses and took them to Healing Hearts,” Ismond said.
Unfortunately, it was too late for Bravo, who succumbed less than two days later on Thursday, Oct. 24.
“We had to put the black horse down,” she told the Range News.
“He was already down when I went to feed them, and we could not get him up.”
About a week later, Hero lost the fight on Wednesday, Oct. 30.
“He was just too weak,” said Ismond, who spoke to the Range News the next day.
“Hero fell and couldn’t get up.”
He had fallen against the fence, and got his leg wedged around the post, she explained.
Hero fought so hard to get up, “he cut himself up everywhere,” said Ismond, adding, “I think he used up all of his strength trying to get up.”
“We had to put him down yesterday,” she added.
Both horses were laid to rest next to each other in the memorial garden at the Healing Hearts Refuge.
“I gave them a chance, and did what I could,” Ismond told the Range News.
“Hero had a good week full of food, caring, and love.”
When the property owners abandoned the horses, their tenants didn’t feed them and didn’t call for help, which angers Ismond.
“There was no hay on the property at all, and nothing worth eating in the pasture,” she said.
“The people who were still living there said it wasn’t their responsibility. These horses could have been helped far sooner than they were,” Ismond said.
“There are avenues for people when they see horses in this condition,” she told the Range News.
“We need to make people aware that this is not acceptable.”
“If you see horses abused or abandoned, contact law enforcement or an animal rescue group,” said Ismond, adding, “We are all in communication with each other. The more calls law enforcement gets, maybe the faster they will respond,” she said.
“People need to be aware that this is not acceptable.”
Asked about assistance available for horse owners in need of help feeding their animals, Ismond talked about the Tucson-based “Arizona Coalition for Equines” (ACE), which has a statewide “Assistance Fund Program.”
According to its website, ACE implemented the program “to provide help on a temporary basis to eligible applicants,” as well as a “supportive educational process.”
The program’s objective is to “assist in keeping equines in their homes until such time as any financial challenges can be reconciled.”
Applications for assistance are reviewed on a first-come, first-served basis.
Further information can be obtained by visiting the website, www.arizonacoalitionforequines.org, or by calling (520) 749-4026.
About three months ago, Ismond rescued three other horses from a property near Mescal, and they are now thriving.
“I never thought there could be worse than Bones and Casper, but I have experienced it now,” she told the Range News.
Healing Hearts is still in need of whole oats, rice bran, beet pulp shreds, and Alfalfa pellets, as well as corn oil, Red Cell, and the ulcer supplement Neighlox, along with shavings for bedding, for the horses it cares for.
To help, call Healing Hearts at (520) 384-4603, or visit the refuge’s website at www.healingheartsaz.org
(Arizona Range News - November 6, 2013)
No comments:
Post a Comment