Rescues are full, struggling to feed horses

High hay costs pose problems for horse rescue [link]

Associated Press | July 18, 2008

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (AP) — An organization in eastern Idaho that takes in horses from people who can’t afford to feed them has had to turn some horses away for the same reason.

Phoenix Equine Rescue and Rehabilitation in Bonneville County cares for 27 horses but is struggling to feed them.

“Even one horse is hard to take care of,” Brandy Crosby, who runs the organization with two volunteers, told the Post Register.

She said the $100 a month it gets in donations isn’t enough to cover the cost of the 100 tons of hay it needs annually. Hay cost $90 a ton last year but now costs $225 a ton.

Crosby said she has even been selling her blood to raise money to buy hay.

“You know, we just try to take it day by day and do the best that we can — plasma donations, whatever we can do to get some extra money, recycling cans and things like that — to help us get by,” Crosby said.

People who can’t afford to feed their horses have few options. Low-quality horses that are typically sold for meat aren’t worth much because there are so many on the market.

“The top end of the horses are still bringing good money, but the lower end of the horses, there’s so many of them they’re not worth anything,” said Gale Hardin, a University of Idaho Extension Educator. “People can’t afford to feed them.”

Crosby said some people are simply letting their horses go.

“Horses are being turned out, just let lose up in the mountains and in the desert,” she said. “And that’s starting to become a problem.”

She said some horse owners simply let their horses starve. Crosby said when she gets that kind of report she will contact the owner and try to get them to voluntarily give her the horses. If they refuse, she will contact authorities.

“I think a lot of people don’t mean for it to happen,” said Crosby about the starving horses. “It’s getting worse. It’s getting a lot worse. A lot of people are too proud to ask for help. If people would say something and make phone calls, to let people know they’re hurting, that they can’t afford to feed their animals and try to get help, I think we would have less of a problem.”

Bonneville County sheriff’s Sgt. Doug Metcalf said animal control officers are noticing an increase in the number of malnourished horses.

Of the horses Phoenix Equine Rescue and Rehabilitation does take in, they are returned to health and put up for adoption. Crosby said about 12 horses have been adopted out since the group formed about five years ago.

She said six horse currently being cared for are either blind or crippled and will live out their days with the group. But she said there are more horses in the region that need help.

“If we could get consistent donations, I would take them all,” Crosby said.

XP—What are your solutions to the horse overpopulation problem in America?