Post by Admin on Jan 3, 2008 20:48:52 GMT -5
Horse Rescuers Taking in Record Numbers Amid Drought, Hay Prices
by: The Associated Press
December 30 2007, Article # 11074
A horse rescue agency that operates in North Carolina and two other states has taken in almost double the number of abused and neglected horses it usually accepts each year, and more than half came from North Carolina.
Workers with the U.S. Equine Rescue League largely blame the dramatic price increase for hay, which is in short supply across the drought-parched Southeast. The record dry conditions in North Carolina have wiped out hay crops and affected pasture land that horses would normally graze through November.
The nonprofit organization normally takes in about 100 horses each year, but the agency now has 170 horses, including 90 from North Carolina, said Jennifer Malpass, director of the league's Triangle chapter. She said hay prices have doubled in some areas.
Malpass said her chapter usually receives about 300 bales of donated hay before winter, often from large horse operations. But donations were down two-thirds this year, she said, and volunteer rescue workers have used their own money to help.
The hay shortage has also increased the severity of abuse and neglect, said Amy Woodard, a volunteer who leads the league's efforts in the northeastern corner of the state.
The problems aren't confined to North Carolina.
Kathy Grant, an equine cruelty investigator in Tennessee, said a round bale of hay that cost $12 this summer have soared in price, some to $100. The rural roads in her eastern Tennessee community are lined with pastures dotted with emaciated horses, she said.
"A lot of the farmers around here have hay, but they're holding on to it," Grant said. "When they're releasing it, they're charging exorbitant rates. A normal person can't afford it."
In Virginia, the U.S. Equine Rescue League has taken in horses that are dramatically under their ideal weight. Since its creation in the spring of 2006, the organization's Richmond region has rescued 51 horses, 20 of those were rescued in November, Susan White, the rescue league's lead investigator for equine cruelty in Virginia, said earlier this month. The league also operates in Indiana.
Most recently in North Carolina, several horses were surrendered by a Randolph County woman this week after investigators received reports of several dead horses and 11 others being held in a tiny corral with little food and no water.
Jauvanna Craven, 51, of Groom Road, Sophia, N.C., was charged with 11 counts of animal abuse and eight counts of improperly disposing a dead animal. Craven could not be reached for comment by the News & Observer of Raleigh.
The county's health director, MiMi Cooper, said she was shocked by the animals' condition and by the way dead horses were disposed, saying she found scattered pieces of the animals.
"She said that she was running a rescue operation," Cooper said. "That's not how you rescue horses."
Malpass said local government agencies usually don't have holding facilities for horses, so they depend on her organization and other rescue groups to take in the animals.
The local Equine Rescue League chapter took in four of the horses, which the group will try to nurse back to health and place in foster care until they're adopted, Malpass said.
by: The Associated Press
December 30 2007, Article # 11074
A horse rescue agency that operates in North Carolina and two other states has taken in almost double the number of abused and neglected horses it usually accepts each year, and more than half came from North Carolina.
Workers with the U.S. Equine Rescue League largely blame the dramatic price increase for hay, which is in short supply across the drought-parched Southeast. The record dry conditions in North Carolina have wiped out hay crops and affected pasture land that horses would normally graze through November.
The nonprofit organization normally takes in about 100 horses each year, but the agency now has 170 horses, including 90 from North Carolina, said Jennifer Malpass, director of the league's Triangle chapter. She said hay prices have doubled in some areas.
Malpass said her chapter usually receives about 300 bales of donated hay before winter, often from large horse operations. But donations were down two-thirds this year, she said, and volunteer rescue workers have used their own money to help.
The hay shortage has also increased the severity of abuse and neglect, said Amy Woodard, a volunteer who leads the league's efforts in the northeastern corner of the state.
The problems aren't confined to North Carolina.
Kathy Grant, an equine cruelty investigator in Tennessee, said a round bale of hay that cost $12 this summer have soared in price, some to $100. The rural roads in her eastern Tennessee community are lined with pastures dotted with emaciated horses, she said.
"A lot of the farmers around here have hay, but they're holding on to it," Grant said. "When they're releasing it, they're charging exorbitant rates. A normal person can't afford it."
In Virginia, the U.S. Equine Rescue League has taken in horses that are dramatically under their ideal weight. Since its creation in the spring of 2006, the organization's Richmond region has rescued 51 horses, 20 of those were rescued in November, Susan White, the rescue league's lead investigator for equine cruelty in Virginia, said earlier this month. The league also operates in Indiana.
Most recently in North Carolina, several horses were surrendered by a Randolph County woman this week after investigators received reports of several dead horses and 11 others being held in a tiny corral with little food and no water.
Jauvanna Craven, 51, of Groom Road, Sophia, N.C., was charged with 11 counts of animal abuse and eight counts of improperly disposing a dead animal. Craven could not be reached for comment by the News & Observer of Raleigh.
The county's health director, MiMi Cooper, said she was shocked by the animals' condition and by the way dead horses were disposed, saying she found scattered pieces of the animals.
"She said that she was running a rescue operation," Cooper said. "That's not how you rescue horses."
Malpass said local government agencies usually don't have holding facilities for horses, so they depend on her organization and other rescue groups to take in the animals.
The local Equine Rescue League chapter took in four of the horses, which the group will try to nurse back to health and place in foster care until they're adopted, Malpass said.