First thing this morning Tawnee braved the 23 degree weather to load up 9 horses to take out to the vet for various reasons. 2 were having pre-adoption checkups, and the other 7 were the ones who were brought early for the clinic.
While Tawnee was heading out to the vet Ron was meeting up with Channel 2, KTVU from the Bay Area who had a camera crew meet Ron at a family who could no longer keep their horses and was utilizing our free euthanasia clinic.
Pancho and Quenuo were safely loaded and then transported to the clinic.
The KTVU crew followed Ron to the clinic where they did more videoing, interviews with horse owners, and spent a good deal of time making sure they accurately captured the days events. The airing should have been on the 10:00 pm news, and it should be on their website soon, click here for their homepage.
Evaluations were done by our vet and staff on each horse for adoptability and quality of life. Upon evaluation by our vet the adopter who stepped forward for the broodmare in yesterdays blog has also decided to adopt the other broodmare who has painful lameness and help her out with supplements etc to hopefully ease her suffering and give her a few more years.
It was a really sad day for many horse owners, many tears were shed, but they all knew it was the right thing to do. 
Here are some of the horses that came to the euthanasia clinic today. This poor guy has had an indent in his head his entire life. He sustained a face altering injury when he was young, and now that old age is creeping up on him his quality of life has diminished greatly. His owners made the hard decision to bring him to the clinic before his pain became worse as pain killers were no longer helping.
This poor mare, who has broken down hind legs, was taken to many different vets in an attempt to find a way to ease her pain and suffering, but to no avail. Pain killers were not helping her as well, but now she will be able to rest peacefully, never to know pain again.
This mare is in her 20's and both front knees are in terrible shape. Unbelievably enough she was still able to hobble along. It is definitely long past time to allow her suffering to end peacfully and with dignity.
Evaluations were done as the horses came in, and this horse, along with...
...Quenuo are deemed suitable for adoption and were brought into the adoption program. They appear healthy and pain free, and we will give them the best chance of finding a new loving home.
Freckle's adopter wanted to have a pre-adoption exam and pregnancy check done. Tawnee was joking to the adopter, who is the same one that adopted Hugs the dog, that everything she adopted from Norcal was going to be pregnant. Sure enough, Freckles has a baby inside. The adopter was unsure about adopting a pregnant horse, so Freckles was brought back to the rescue, but now we have received word that they want to proceed with her pre-adoption exam which will be finished up in the morning.
Finally the long day was drawing to a close. Tawnee loaded up the two adoptable horses from the Euthanasia clinic, along with the two broodmares, and brought them all back to the rescue. There were a total of 21 horses brought to the clinic today, the two broodmares and the other two horses were brought back to the rescue, so there will be a total of 17 horses laid to rest peacefully. Thanks to your support these 17 sweet, loving horses will know no more pain or suffering.
Tawnee finally made it back to the rescue, the white horse is a Peruvian Paso named Gypsy. She was brought to the clinic by another horse rescue who claimed she was 25+ and so lame she would lay down for 5+ hours a day. Upon examination our vet aged her at between 18 and 20 and believes she will be suitable for walk/trot trail riding. We are hoping she remains pain free and can be placed into a loving home. We will certainly be keeping an eye on her to make sure she is comfortable.
Once everything was settled down it was time to go through the mail. Imagine our surprise to open an envelope, inside that envelope was an envelope containing another envelope containing a stack of $100 bills. This kind person has been saving her money all year long and donated to save lives from the auction. We also received a $50 check for the auction fund, so our Jan auction fund is starting out at $1250. Thanks so much for your generosity!
We would like to thank each and every donor who understands the need for euthanasia clinics for horses. It is certainly not the most popular program to hold, but it is so needed to help end suffering and reduce the stream of horses heading to slaughter each and every day. Only with your support can this vital program continue to give horse owners an option, when often they have no options other than auctions or killer buyers. 
1 comment:
Before reding this blog I didn't understand the need for this clinic but now it really shows that your rescue thinks of everything about horses.
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