Spirit Horse Rescue: Bah Humbug!

What's going on with Spirit Horse Rescue in Janesville, WI? They've gotten a ton of sympathy in the media lately, because they have been ordered to re-home 23 horses before April 1st 2019. What's up?

The answer is that a shit-storm which has been gently simmering for about a decade has reached a boiling point. For years, the horse "rescue" owner DeeDee Goldberg has been more or less hoarding horses, as I said in my 2013 blog post, Questionable Practices at Spirit Horse Rescue.

If you don't want to go read that, here's the short version: although (like many hoarders) Goldberg has the best intentions, she continually take on more and more horses, keeps them in not-great conditions, and refuses to adopt them out. Why? Because she doesn't want to geld them or get them trained, and she doesn't trust anyone else to give them a "good" (Parelli/hippy/organic/snowflake) home. Basically, she's one of those individuals that believes horses shouldn't have to do anything "unnatural" (including taking people for rides when they don't feel like it). Also, she's constantly broke. If you go back and read my past blog post (srsly just do it) you'll see plenty of desperate cries for money because she's out of hay, the vet refuses to do anything more until paid, etc etc.

DeeDee currently has somewhere between 33-38 horses on far less than 30 acres of land. This violates the "one horse per 1 acre" ordinance in her municipality (a very common law and sound horse-keeping principle). She got away with the situation for years, until...

...A Right to Life Animal & Equine Sanctuary popped up near Janesville, run by Porsche Lynn Kettelhut.

On the Right to Life Facebook page, captioned "baby training."
I assume training as in, "train the foal to get her foot stuck in that super loose halter and panic, running on three legs and crashing into a nearby hobo encampment." 

Porsche is your typical broke crazy wannabe rescuer. She took on horses even as she said she can't afford cancer treatments, and is, "not working due to her health issues and has no income at this time..."  She also complains about her neighbors' ATVs making too much noise... in the daytime... out in the country... Arrghh. Look, I can't do a full story on this. At least the horses look well cared for, the fences aren't barbed wire, and it is a registered 501c3... plus, I just do not have time for this right now. Norse Horse is so tired guys. So, so tired.

ANYWAY,

This new would-be rescuer also wanted to have more than 1 horse per acre of land. She assumed this would be okey-dokey, since DeeDee/Spirit Horse was nearby and was getting away with it.

In the summer of 2018, Porsche brought two more horses to join her herd of 4. This meant she had 6 horses and two ponies on 6.3 acres. She applied for a Conditional Use Permit and then a Variant, spending a bunch of money in the process, but was denied.

Spirit Horse had applied* for a Conditional Use Permit back in 2007 and was approved for 27 horses. Spirit Horse applied again in 2010 to have 35 horses, and was denied... but no one enforced the law in their case, and DeeDee accumulated that number anyway.

When Porsche did not give up any horses, the Town of Janesville sued Porsche and her husband for about $14,000 in fall 2018, demanding that the couple not only get rid of two equines but also pay for the Town's attorney fees. A judge knocked that way down to $500 in fines, plus getting rid of 2 horses. The couple refused, so a judge then awarded the Town a $12,000 judgement. You can read more about it at Right to Life's GoFundMe page.

This was a clear case of double standards. Two horse rescues violating the same law. One gets punished, one doesn't. And Porsche was pissed.

She went to the media, and the Gazette Xtra picked up on the story, writing two pieces about the Town of Janesville's hypocrisy. The Town started to feel the heat. Finally, they told DeeDee Golberg that if Right to Life had to play by the rules, so did she.

DeeDee has claimed that Spirit Horse has actually adopted out 27 horses this year. If this is true, I will eat my fucking hat. Many, many people have said that over the years they have called, texted, and emailed about adopting a horse and gotten no response, even when they've sent in the adoption application. I would honestly be shocked to learn of Spirit Horse having done even five real adoptions this year. Certainly, I have not heard even one person come forward and say they got their horse from DeeDee in the past year.

DeeDee also says that most of the remaining 30-some horses at Spirit Horse are all too sickly to be adopted. Hmmmm....

Let's talk about the seven horses actually listed for adoption on the Spirit Horse website, shall we?
It doesn't seem like DeeDee is trying very hard to get them adopted out:

• All of them have been at the rescue for at least a year.
• None of them have adoption fees listed.
• None of them are broke, or they were broke before they came to Spirit Horse but DeeDee has never ridden them.

Stetson-- Morgan, age 8. His picture is labeled "gelding," but when you download his description, he's labeled "stallion," and with DeeDee's history of failing to geld, I wouldn't be surprised if he's still got his balls. No health/behavior problems listed. He's been at Spirit Horse at least 3 years, and he's still not broke. In fact, he's still doing "Groundwork – Beginning." This guy looks fabulous, and if I were in the market, I'd be seriously considering prying him out of the rescue's clutches.

Vera-- Quarter Horse mare, age 15. No health/behavior problems listed. She came from a surrender clinic in 2016, and is still doing "Groundwork – Beginning," despite the fact that her surrendering owner described her as broke to ride for an intermediate rider. This is sad-- here's a horse that could have been worked a bit and adopted out within 6 months. Instead, she's been allowed to sit for two years. Not only is this bad for the horse, who is getting older, less rideable, and less adoptable every month that goes by, this is bad business. Adopting out good horses like this faster could help pay for sick and injured horses who really do need to stay at a rescue long-term.
DeeDee says, "We are taking it really slowly with Vera, and she is beginning to show interest and a bit of trust. With a great deal of patience and slow, careful work..." Yeah, with two years of careful work, this mare should be a dressage horse by now.

George-- Quarter Horse stallion, age 3. "Will be gelded before adoption." Why hasn't he been gelded already? He's Vera's son, so he's been at Spirit Horse since 2016 as well. He, too, is still doing "Groundwork – Beginning."

Autry-- Quarter Horse gelding, "mid-teens." Gut issues and a sore back when he came in, but reportedly broke. He's better now. He has been at Spirit Horse since August 2016, and, you guessed it, he's doing "Groundwork - beginning."

Morgan & Winter -- Appaloosa mares, no other info given. Not helpful for potential adopters.

Hope-- paint mare, age 9. She was seized in a 2010 neglect case, then spent about a year and a half under HSUS guardianship before being turned over to Spirit Horse. So let's give them maximum leeway and say Spirit Horse has had her since 2013. That's still five years ago, almost six. Why is she still not broke? She's of course still doing "Groundwork - beginning."

Oscar-- Mini stallion, about age 6.  He's been at Spirit Horse since October 2017.
 "Will be gelded before adoption." Why hasn't he been gelded already? Has a vaguely described eye issue and "likes to play stallion games." Great.

Do you see where I'm going with this? If Spirit Horse were Spirit Dog, none of the dogs would be neutered or housebroken.

Did I mention that Spirit Horse deliberately took in four wild mustangs in 2017? Yes, despite DeeDee's constant desperate please for funding since at least 2013, despite having so many horses already that she couldn't get them all broke and gelded, she took in four untouched feral horses. And two of them were pregnant mares.

Yes, while other rescues took in (and then adopted out) local horses who needed help, DeeDee shipped in these magical-historical-miracle "Hallelujah Horses." And she did get plenty of great publicity for it, despite the fact that there are 300 more mustangs just like them waiting for homes in a government facility in Ewing, Illinois that nobody talks about, and about 5,000 more across the country. Speaking of publicity, I wonder...

I have heard from a couple of people that when they contacted DeeDee about adopting a certain horse or two, she refused to discuss it, and said that she would be permanently keeping the horses as "attractions." As in, attractions at a circus. Or a zoo. Could this be a reference to the magical mystical mustangs? Are these narrow-chested grade crossbreds with attracting tourists in droves?!

No. Of course not. *sigh*

DeeDee Golberg's solution to her predicament is not to adopt out more horses, or even, God forbid, euthanize a bunch of them. Her solution is:

Yes, if you click here, you can send her your hard-earned money so that she can buy her very own, bigger, fancier farm! She only wants $500,000!

Gee whiz! Can the public buy ME a really nice farm too?! I mean, I have about as good of a track record as Spirit Horse-- I've rescued, rehabbed, and rehomed six, plus that messed-up llama (which has got to count for like three more). Come on guys, it's ONLY a half-million dollar donation based on some sappy sentiments, online pictures, and my promise that I'll be so much better at rescue than I've ever shown myself to be in the past, pllleeeeeaaaaase?!

LOL. On a serious note, Merry Fuckin' Chrismas ya'll.



*Note: When I say "Spirit Horse" here, you should know that DeeDee Golberg doesn't actually own the land/farm her rescue sits on. The land is owned by Kelly Cusick, who "rents" (donates) use of the place to DeeDee.