Is it really so bad

It's the Tuesday after Thanksgiving and I reread my turkey day post and I have to laugh at myself. Tryptophan can make you do strange things.

On some levels though things really are bad for horse rescues. We are all full. Horses in need go to the auction and from there to Canada for slaughter. Of the 5 counties we used to deal with 3 are effectively out of the horse impound and rescue business. One is even closing down animal control all together. Horses die in the fields or are dropped off in the national forests to forage for themselves.

Horses that go to auction are being sold for $65 to kill buyers.

But things are slowly changing. Prices for hay and grain are down. Old fosters who couldn't afford to keep our horses are returning. New fosters are showing up and the best news of all is that we are slowly starting to adopt out horses.

The T-day post was about an impound of 15 horses. One died of old age. 9 have been adopted, 2 are at foster homes and 3 are still here with us at our intake barn.

It's coming on 2 years now. During that time we did squeeze in 2 more equines (mini and hinny) but effectively things were closed to incoming traffic. Now we are slowly opening up new capacity at the same time that animal control is withdrawing from the horse seizure business.

It's hard to say then where things go from here. The need has never been greater but the structure of the horse rescue business has been completely turned on it's head. 2 years ago there were 10 identifiable horse rescues in Western Washington State. now there are over 30. Where before people would drive by and shake their heads or at best complain to animal control now a few are actually organizing to save at least a few of the hundreds of unwanted and neglected horses in this area. Government withdraws and people step forward. Maybe things aren't so bad.

For us the question is an old one. How do we really make a difference. Caring for a few horses makes a big difference to them but it does nothing for the underlying problem of horses and people in America.

The last 2 years have been a time of great churn. But we are still here. All of this tumult has given us a different perspective. Both broader and deeper. Primarily though it has given us time, time to think about the bigger picture, time to build an extraordinary force of volunteers, time to solidify a real board of directors, time to plan and work on many new levels.

Stay tuned, the best is yet to come.

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