Ambivalence

Sorry for the late post! I've been busy. Part of that has been helping a friend buy/rescue a mare in a sketchy situation. This is her, with my friend:

"Shadow," an Arabian and ex-show horse, apparently belonged to an older gentleman who passed away three years ago. His son let the horse sit for those three years, and recently decided he wanted to be rid of her. Enter "Sam." Sam said she would find the mare a new home, picked her up, took her home, wormed and vaccinated her. She described her actions as a "rescue." Good for Sam, right?

Well, except Sam's Craigslist ad was vague and had no pictures, Sam failed to respond to calls and texts for long periods, wouldn't give her address and at first refused to show the horse to my friend-- the message was basically, "come and take her sight unseen, when I say, where I say, or no deal." Sam also kept threatening that the mare would be put down by the son if she didn't have a home soon... yet Sam was asking $350 for her.

Was Sam really a well-intentioned, if rather rude and scatterbrained rescuer who couldn't take on the mare herself? Or was Sam a lying bitch who used the threat of this mare being shot to make some cash?

This is the kind of ambivalent shit that is all too common in "horse rescue." Cherry picking decent horses in bad situations in order to make some cash, emotional blackmail... yeah, it's actually super common. Just read this expose of "rescues" that work with slaughter buyers to extort cash from tender-hearted donors and ex-owners. Horses do get saved... but is it rescue? I don't think so.

Well, Shadow is safe now. After I tracked down Sam's address and my friend forked over the cash, we rescued/bought her. She is getting grass and grain, and will be getting vet and farrier visits ASAP for her weird skin condition and overgrown feet. It doesn't feel good to deal with someone like Sam, but I'm very proud of my friend for saving this mare.

In other news:

AQHA lost the Clone Wars. A Texas jury found that AQHA's rules against registering clones violates federal and state anti-trust laws. They didn't award any damages to the breeders who sued, but that wasn't really the point anyway.

Speaking of cloning... Here's a nice little article pointing out how the raw material for cloning, like mares' eggs, come from horse slaughter plants: "The Push for Cloned Horses As Natural Horses Go to Slaughter."

Next up, remember my post on Facebook about hating humans? Some asshole had beaten a yearling to death while the owner and trainer were away. Well, I guess I don't hate all humans, because a ton of people rallied around the yearling's owner and raised enough money to pay the vet bills incurred trying to save the colt as well as enough to offer a reward to catch the asshole. Good job.


Finally, a New Mexico company trying to enter the horse slaughter business is saying someone attempted to burn down their building. They feel persecuted. Well, I have to say, I don't condone arson, or any kind of property damage or violence as a means of persuasion. I think that the mean old would-be arsonist should send this company a lovely card. Perhaps something like...

 ...yeah, good job anonymous arsonist. We all know it was wrong, and we all love what you did anyway.


Oh wait, P.S. a brief update on "the black stallion," i.e. the gelding Diego... he's doing well :) Super kudos to his adoptive family for taking such good care of him.