5-26-09

Thanks to some generous people who donated to help save lives, the auction fund is currently at $50. Thank you so much!
Today was an office day for the most part, there is a lot of planning that is going into the Western States Horse Expo booth, and quite a bit of it got done today. 2500 business cards and 2500 brochures were designed and ordered. Is that enough? We don't know either, it is our first time attending the Horse Expo. The staff shirts are on the way, it will all get pulled together in time!

This afternoon a horse was brought early for the euthanasia clinic. His previous owner had exhausted all financial capabilities trying to help him, and she called us as a last effort.

We are going to have our vet examine him, but we don't feel his quality of life is very good. When he got out of the trailer he laid down and didn't want to get up for quite some time. His hind leg is causing him a lot of trouble.

He was very thirsty, so Tawnee brought some water in a small bucket over to him. He was very thankful for the water. It is really sad that such a beautiful, loving horse is in such sad condition. He has had over $40,000 worth of training, but received an injury that has financially exhausted his owner.

A few hours later a cute little pony was surrendered. Her owners had been on the waiting list and today was their day.

She is a real cutie pie. She took all the new sights and sounds in. She is halter trained, is leery of people, but hopefully with time she will realize that people are not out to hurt her.

She was brought with another horse who came in for the euthanasia clinic. He is in a lot of pain...

...and has a lot of issues going on with his feet. It's always sad when horses come in that we know we will have to say "Goodbye" to right away due to medical reasons, but we are comforted knowing we can provide this service for horse owners who are at the end of their ropes financially and who have no other options. We are so thankful that this horse is not in the slaughter pipeline. Every 5 minutes an American horse is slaughtered. Not this sweet horse!

And now we would like to take some time to highlight what we believe is a cruel and unnecessary risk of horses well being and life. When an event injures 6 out of 17 horse contestants to the point they cannot compete the second night, that should raise some concern right? That is 35% of the contestants being injured to the point of not being able to compete the next day during the very first race. No it does not happen every year that badly, but how high of odds does it take to assume that the entire event should be called off? We are talking about the Omak Suicide Race. Click here to watch the Humane Society video.

Perhaps a brief history lesson will help quench the argument "But it's a long standing tradition!" The Omak Suicide Race started in 1935 by a furniture salesman named Claire Pentz. The race was started as a publicity effort to attract visitors to the Omak Stampede. The race consists of a gallop / slide (oftentimes tumble) down a 62 degree hill, across a river (where horses have drowned during the race) up a hill and into an arena. There are many events that are steeped in tradition that should be stopped. Dog fighting. Cock fighting. Horse fighting. You get the idea. Just because something has been happening for years, does that automatically make it right? We don't believe so either. Click here to read the Humane Societie's article on the Omak Suicide Race.

What can you do to help? Contact the sponsors that support the suicide race. If there are no sponsors, there will be no race. The list of sponsors can be found on the Humane Society page dedicated to the Omak Suicide race by clicking here.

Many thanks to Bridget D, Suzanne M, Gail G, Scott C, and Amanda H. CustomInk .com, who we ordered the NER shirts from, visited our website and donated to help our cause! Thank you all who donated today, you can see your name here tomorrow! Click here. One of the donations today was for $3, no donation is too small to make it on the list, because every dollar helps!

After some deliberation we have decided to make the comments so that we don't have to moderate them, but you will need a Google account. We hope that you enjoy giving feedback!