Horse Neglect

This past Saturday, Yalobusha County Deputy, Jim Bailey received a report of starving horses. When he arrived at the property he found four starving horses and one dead horse. The only horse on the property that wasn't starving was a horse the property owner had acquired just two weeks earlier. The deputy reported the property owner told him that he had been cutting enough grass daily to feed to horses. Clearly this wasn't the case.

Rain rot on her sides and back.

The horses arrived at Project Hope on Saturday evening. One by one as the horses were backed out of the trailer it was clear they were in dire need of immediate help. One of the horses had badly cut his left hock in a failed attempt to climb a fence to get to feed. He was unsteady on his feet and was badly banged up.

Clear starvation and leg wounds.

Each of the horses suffer from "rain rot", a fungal infection, that occurs when the animals are subjected to too much moisture for long periods. Dr. Abernathy came and treated the horse with the wounded leg - we're keeping the wound clean and wrapped. We also treated all the horses for parasites.

Dr. Abernathy gets to work on the leg wound.

Feeding was chaos for the first couple of days. The horses were so starved that they forced their heads in the feed buckets before we could direct them to their feeding spots. Each horse has been nearly single-handedly consuming a bale of hay per day. Yesterday morning was the first time the horses, emus, and pigs all ate in harmony in their designated feeding spots.

These horses reflect just a few of the scores of calls for help we and our partners in horse rescue are receiving. Everyone is overwhelmed and we are at capacity. Just getting to the cases is an daunting task. We are trying our best to guide law enforcement and people in the community to aid the horses they know are suffering. During an interview on "Mississippi Talks" radio on Monday, I let listeners all over the state know that it's time for our statewide disaster response program to trickle down to community efforts to aid animals in the daily disasters of they face.

We are grateful for our supporters and fellow staff who work so hard to see that we can perform the lifesaving work that we do. We'll keep you posted on the progress of these four horses.

Everyone resting comfortably at the Sanctuary.