DAYS END FARM HORSE RESCUE

Days End helps in Haiti

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 18:50:00 +0000

Today was our second day "in field" teaching the Haitian veterinarians. We were in the town of Mer Boulet, north of Port Au Prince, which is a mountainous region. (over 70% of Haiti is mountainous terrain that is restrictive to food production and stricken with poverty). Like yesterday, we set up a care clinic for the locals and their Equis. There are so many emaciated animals and poor people, it's a true culture shock. Nothing like anything I've seen in the US or my travels to any other country. The people are so grateful for our treatment and education. They line up their pack animals outside the clinic gate and wait for hours....just for a chance that we can possibly help them. We have averaged over 100 dentals, vaccinations, wound care, and trimmings along with a good education to the owners about nutrition ( body condition) and the importance of padding under the pack saddle. It is overwhelming to see so many equids suffering when so much of it can be changed with simple education. The Haitian vets have almost zero experience with "hands on" care, until now, most didn't even know what normal vitals are. What colic was! But they are learning and eager to replicate the clinics we have set up. They now see how they can help their people and the horses and have the knowledge to provide, at the very least, basic care. I have seen only 5-10 equids out of a 100 that are above a BCS of 2.5. None that are above 4. These animals are truely a beast of burden.

You can see the depression in their eyes, the way they hang their heads. I am so grateful for our team and the opportunity to share compassion through education. No matter if it is Haiti, Maryland, England, Russia.......horses are horses and they and deserve better. In this case when the animals are better so are the people. It's a two fold project. Humanitarian and Animal Welfare.

Tomorrow will be another town and another clinic. Stay tuned.

Zodiac got a booboo!

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 05:20:00 +0000

Zodiac came in from the field for his afternoon meal with a gash on the right side of his withers. By the time the vet got there yesterday evening, some swelling started to show up on his side resembling that of a hoof. So we're guessing he probably took a good kick to the side.

The vet stithced up his wound nicely after inserting a drain to prevent abscessing. The wound stitched up nicely, so hopefully he'll have minimal scarring He is on antibiotics and Bute. Zodiac will be in through the weekend and then we may try paddock turnout with his buddy, Casanova, as long as he is continuing to heal nicely and the naughty boys behave themselves!

If you will be out to the farm in the next week, be sure to visit Zodiac and give him an encouraging kiss on the muzzle!

FoxNews Broadcast Today - February 2, 2012

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 23:10:00 +0000

2/3/11 - Update to the below post from yesterday,

We appreciate everyone’s comments and passion regarding horses. Days End certainly did not intend to insult anyone’s efforts towards the banning of slaughter. Again, we support you and hope that slaughter is banned in a timely manner. We also hope that horses will not be permitted to be transported to their death across our borders where we have no control over their treatment. As slaughter may, (due to our laws), be a reality for the time being it was only our intent to say that lets work on making sure that we can control how this is done in the future, never that we agreed or fully understood how it was done in the past.

Days End Farm Horse Rescue is certainly not an expert in the world of horse slaughter. We have not devoted our efforts, like some, to saving horses from auctions or trucks bound to slaughter houses. We have chosen to focus our efforts on horses that have been neglected and abused by their owners and support animal control in bringing criminal justice to their lives. We have staff trained as expert witnesses to help ensure that the laws regarding abuse and neglect are upheld and, over time, help strengthen those laws to protect equines. We work on educating horse owners and the public on the proper care of horses and promote responsible breeding.

The bottom line is that all of our passion here is centered in a place of love for horses. We hope that we all can work together to help the horses who are suffering from welfare issues here in the United States due to overpopulation. We believe that the root of the problem starts long before a horse ever sees the fate of slaughter and will continue to focus our efforts on promoting responsible horse ownership.

2/2/11

Today FoxNews was out to Days End Farm Horse Rescue to do a story on the overturning of the horse slaughter bill which outlawed horses from being slaughtered on American soil. Unfortunately this bill did not protect them from being transported great distances in horrendous conditions to neighboring countries for slaughter. When today’s news piece was edited it became apparent that Days End’s position was not made clear. To address this Days End would like to remind everyone that we do not support the slaughter of horses and we hope the slaughtering of horses everywhere would be banned. However, until this becomes a reality, slaughter in the U.S. would allow us to ensure and enforce stricter regulations and humane practices, with the ultimate and hopefully timely solution being a complete ban on horse slaughter everywhere.

URGENT VOLUNTEER UPDATE!

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 20:55:00 +0000

Every year Days End Farm Horse Rescue has been blessed to see an increase in the number of volunteers who want to help DEFHR accomplish our mission. Last year we had 1,800 people come through our gate.

As DEFHR grows, we want to better enhance your experience with the horses and to use your time more wisely. Because of this, we need to better plan who will be here each day and as a result we are excited to launch an online scheduler which is required for you to be able to volunteer your time. It is our hope that by limiting the number of people per shift, we will be able to improve the volunteer experience in the ways that you have requested and to allow you to have more one-on-one time with our staff an horses.

We recognize that this added step may not be convenient for those of you who are used to just dropping in at the farm. We ask that you have patience while we all transition to this new process. Ultimately, we feel this will allow you to see what days have the greatest needs at DEFHR so that you can schedule your valuable time accordingly.

The online scheduler is almost ready. All you need to do is click on the link below, click the grey button that says "NEW VOLUNTEER REGISTRATION" to create a username and password, and then wait for an email from with the next step!

Click here to create your login for the online scheduler!

Please create your login as soon as possible so we can get you up and running!

Thank you so much for your help!

Royal and Daredevil - Match Made in Heaven!

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 20:05:00 +0000

Royal and Daredevil are now getting turned out together in the Blind Paddock (formerly the Sheep and Goat Paddock), which was revamped this past month to make it suitable for our blind boy. The match between Daredevil and Royal couldn't be better.

Royal had a hard time transitioning out into our larger herds. Both the horses and the wide open space seemed to be too much for him and he would very quickly become overwhelmed and anxious. We decided to try him as a seeing eye horse for Daredevil since all other options weren't working and we couldn't be happier with the result.

Since turning them out together they have been glued at the hip. After turning them out today, they bucked and played. When Daredevil spooks at something unexpected, he seeks refuge behind Royal. And Royal isn't afraid of his new buddy! We couldn't be happier with this match. Not to mention, their colors truly compliment each other. A true Yin-Yang relationship!