Sunday, July 21, 2013

Adoption: A GIFT Not a Right

 Have you ever rescued a horse? I mean really rescued a horse? You know, where YOU find it starving or injured or both, YOU talk to the abuser and convince them to surrender it, or God forbid, you have to buy it, then YOU haul it home, YOU pay all the vet and farrier bills, then YOU feed it and handle it and pay to get it trained?

I did. Once*. That was Annie. I don't even want to try to calculate the amount of time and money it all cost to rehab her. It was totally worth it, but I just might have to go throw up a little bit if I actually looked at the numbers.


ANyway, because of that experience I have a deep respect for horse rescues that really rescue horses not once, but dozens or hundreds of times a year. The time, money and physical effort spent could make these rescuers rich(ish) if they used their resource differently. Instead, they pour their hearts into helping horses. And yeah, sometimes horse rescues get help from wonderful volunteers... but it's the rescue operators that are at the barn every single morning and evening, 365 days a year, and it's their bank accounts on the line for the vet bills.

So when people act like they are doing a horse rescue a "huge favor" by considering adopting, and they go on and on about being a "rescuer," and a "savior," or worse, when people demand that they be allowed to adopt, like it's their God-given right to have any animal they want, I get PISSED.

And I JUST GOT PISSED.

Some bitch is harassing Saint Francis Horse Rescue here in Wisconsin because her adoption application was not approved. Saint Francis put a mare "on hold" for her, pending a visit and approval, and apparently this lady took that to mean she was going to be served that mare on a golden platter. So why wasn't her application approved?

1) She didn't answer all the questions on the application. And it's quite a reasonable one-- a couple pages, no financial info necessary, a few references asked for.
2) Some of her answers and comments were pretty sketchy.
3) She LIED about having a place to board. The barn she listed had never heard from her, much less received the deposit she claimed to have made there.

This lady's response to being denied? One hundred and fifteen text messages, each one delusional and threatening. Here are a couple of highlights:

"I am an approved adopter. I am the one to save her [the horse]. You won't take her from me. We had an appointment and we are coming. She is mine." Saint Francis saved this horse, bitch, not you. Getting a cheap horse after all the rehab work has been done is NOT RESCUING. And the only thing you've been approved for is a whuppin' if you do actually show up.

"You are rude and are being reported."  
To whom? The internet police?!


"You promised me this and I work for a vet and I am the best person for this poor horse. I am going to save her."  Isn't it funny how the worst people are always the ones who assume they've been "promised" or are "owed" things? And if this woman works for an actual vet, I will eat my helmet. Then I will find that vet, pull a jagged shard of helmet out of my ass, and stab that vet in the fucking heart with it, because clearly this woman should not be allowed to work with animals.

So right now, Saint Francis is expecting a visit from an insane woman with a horse trailer and a grudge. This lady is not just on the crazy train, she's the conductor, and for the sake of us all, I hope she gets in an actual train wreck.


It sickens me that such good people have to deal with this kind of crap. This incident has made me even more grateful for everything good horse rescues do, and especially grateful for Saint Francis and the mule I adopted from them. I am incredibly lucky to have been given the gift of a gorgeous equine in good health. If you have an adopted pet, take some time to appreciate that gift today... and consider donating some cash back to the rescue. Chances are your pet cost them much more to rehab than whatever adoption fee you may have paid. Did I mention Saint Francis has often waived adoption fees? Yeah, I'm pretty sure I morally owe them like $2,000.

Speaking of donating, Saint Francis will shortly be holding their annual hay drive, and on October 26th, they're having a fantastic fundraiser called Cowboys in the Kitchen in Stevens Point WI. There's going to be food and entertainment and handsome cowboys serving you. Sweeeet. Please consider donating towards hay and attending the event. You can find more info on their website.



*Maybe twice, if you count that llama. He's doing well, by the way.

11 comments:

  1. Your blog made me laugh. Today I laughed but yesterday I was not laughing. I think that crazy train derailed because nothing more has happened. I hope the woman was just venting and that authorities do not have to get involved here. Thank you for your kind words. We appreciate our adopters more than they know and that certainly includes you!!

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  3. And the information a good organization can give you is priceless. While my Craigslist stallion probably doesn't qualify as a rescue (skinny but not starving, long feet, unhorseworthy fencing - more of a precarious situation with nowhere to go but down), bringing him home gave me an idea of what a horse rescue has to deal with on a daily basis. Making the arrangements was bad enough - negotiation with the owners, booking him a stay at the vet clinic, finding a place that would board a former breeding stallion who had just been gelded. Worse still, I knew pretty much nothing about the little guy other than that he had a sweet face. While the owners had said he was really laid-back and had been green broke the year before, I had literally just seen him over the fence for five minutes. I didn't even know that he had a star until a couple days after the purchase. For several weeks, all of our interactions went something like this: "Gee, will he kill me if I do this?" If I'd gotten him through a rescue, however, someone else would have gone through all of that before I got him. It's awfully hard to put a price on risking your skin on an unknown horse. I was incredibly lucky that my little guy turned out to be as kind as he looks, but I am never, NEVER doing this by myself again.

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    1. Hah, "Gee will he kill me if I do this?" So very true!! Horse rescues have it allll figured so you never have to say that.

      It sounds like your boy DID qualify as a rescue... anything that you have to geld is definitely a huge project. You ROCK for taking him on.

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  4. Our oldest cat was simply adopted from the humane association, so we didn't really rescue her. On the other hand, we rescued our youngest cat. We found her as a tiny, starved kitten, made up of more dirt and fleas than cat, every bone in her body visible, mewing out in a grocery store parking lot. We brought her home. We had intended to just find out where the Humane Association was to take her there, but - obviously - she never left. It's been about 5 years since then and it's taken a lot of time and money to bring her back up to health, but we did it and now we have a wonderful, sweet kitty cat that loves to torment our poor old lady, haha.

    We rescued some orphaned ducklings (yes, we spent the time to try and find the parents and kept an eye out for any signs of them for a WHILE, and found nothing) because they were running around in traffic near our house. It took nearly an hour to wrangle them between digging for them through dense ivy and chasing after them through piles of dead leaves beneath thorny bushes, but we got all four of them safe and sound. We took them to a wildlife rehabilitation center that would rehabilitate them and then release them back into the wild in a safer location when they were old enough to fend for themselves. We left them the container we brought them in to use for future arrivals, a large bag of feed and $40 to help cover the cost of caring for them.

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    1. Awwww, love those stories!! That's true rescue right there! I wish I could give people like you and "s" some kind of award.

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    2. I think the knowledge that we gave an animal a second chance at life is award enough, haha. But thank you ;)

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  5. Thank you for adding my link-when I figure out Wordpress a bit more I will add yours :-) So far if it is not a WP blog I do it but am sure I'll figure it. Love your blog btw going back to read more now.

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    1. No problem! I like your blog a LOT.

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    2. Ditto! I read it back to the beginning these past few days :-)

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  6. People go INSANE when you deny their application. It's really ... unsettling.

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