Rescue Journal

but for the grace of god...

Carol  ·  Jan. 8, 2011

i read those things like the article below and i sometimes think...but for the grace of god, there go i.
i can so easily see how it happens...so insideous at first....one too many...two too many...ten to many...one hundred too many...and poof...the animals are all totally screwed.

but it is not just by the grace of god that i or anyone else not there go..it is also an act of personal will.
and we all have to understand that rescue is a balancing act and it doesn't always stay in a perfect balance.
easier to balance in a small way with just one or two being helped at a time but when you get into the bigger numbers..the balancing act gets harder all of the time.

take a personality like mine which will try to take on right to the limit of the heaviest load i can handle and man that tipe rope just gets higher and higher and the fall below gets further and further.
and i am deathly afraid of heights.
i wonder what it is like to not be afraid, to not dig down deep and carry one more soul to the higher ground while dreading and fearing every step of the way.

the hay is being delivered tomorrow, it is orchard grass...it is $13.50 a bale...i could buy local at $7.00 a bale...shit i could buy round bale silage for dirt cheap but these guys won't like it so i won't buy it for them. i want them to enjoy what they eat. i picked up today 6 cases of canned dog food...that was 124 cans at a cost of $274.00..it is barely a weeks worth for them. and they won't starve without it either..the shop is full of donated dry food. but they like a bit of it every day...so i buy it..it makes them happy...300 bucks to make 30 dogs happy for a week seems like a good thing to me.

i don't like to ask people for money..it makes me feel like icky..but i think if the animals were going to go hungry around here...i would be down on my knees and begging for them.

so i can't quite see how those animals were left to starve with such shitty hay that they would not eat. and i can't understand letting their hooves grow so long that they could no longer even stand on their own four feet. i can't understand a horse left with a broken hip, circling and unable to move in a straight line. i can't understand letting baby llamas be born and then just standing around and watching them die.

this is not just a simple matter of getting in over your head..this is an utter lack of caring and respect for the lives of the animals you pledged to protect.

or did they actually ever even pledge that? did they in fact take those animals in so they could get something out of it for themselves? power? respect? angel wings or halo's..money?...was it money behind the fairy tale good deeds?

this is my pledge to the animals here....saints will always be open in every single nook and every single cranny so we can NEVER hide the animals here behind some lying fantasy wall. and i will do my best to protect them from the power, the dream, the fantasy seekers...they are REAL and they have a right to be seen as they are.

i do not think any sanctuary or shelter can ever be perfect...how can you provide perfection in an imperfect world?

but it can be reasonable, it can be rational, it can be ethical, it can be respectful, responsible and compassionate, it can be real, it can even be imperfect...but it should never be a horrible lie.

i have litle patience for the know-it-all, do-little finger pointers who do not understand how difficult balancing quality of life in an animal shelter or sanctuary can be.....but better to let those ones snoop around your corners i suppose then risk the other by hiding behind closed doors... i have complete contempt for the ones who said they do want to do this but never had that act of will to find and hold that balance required no matter how difficult or painful it became.

here is the blunt truth in rescue...if you start fucking up then you better start bucking up and fix it asap...the animals are counting on you and you better be worthy.

if you are not.... then stay out of their lives. they have had more than enough misery..they don't need more in the name of good intentions but no brains or guts rescue....they would do far better all on their own.

i think rescue victims are the very saddest of all victims i know.

Comments

Mo

That is correct sheila.. the horse was not built to be penned up or put into a stall each night.. they are true grazers... their digestive system is also very delicate .. in the wild they eat with their head down & constantly moving.. man did not really do the horse any favors by domesticating them.

Wild horse have trouble in the winter cuz the snow bunches up in their hooves..and it's like walking on heels.. not very easy to escape from predators

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sheila

good question about the wild horses? Is it becomes in the wild animals are constantly moving so that their hooves wear down on their own. The fellow at Mountainview's animals (that are usually wild) animals had the same hoof problem (overgrown and twisting in)

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Jenn

how come horses hooves do not need to be done for wild horses?

and when did they start this "rescue" venture and if it has been 15 years of neglect did they ever care for the animals at all? and what was the "big funding source" that "dried up" and WHEN did it dry up?

Where were they getting their animals from? and did the people dropping them off not see that it was no "sanctuary"?

Can he not be chared by the state of Montana for animal curelty and neglect?

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Carol

he lies again...hooves do not get in that kind of shape from neglect of a year and a half...that is YEAR upon YEAR upon YEAR AND MORE YEARS of no ferrier care...we have only had to do percy's hooves once in 4 years but their cattle can't even stand??? and in the 15 years of her progressive disease they could not sit down and come up with workable plan on how to continue to manage the sanctuary care? and when their apparent single large source of funding disappeared they couldn't yell HELP from their mountain top that their animals were at risk?

these are simply human excuses for not doing...they could have done something but instead they chose to do nothing and that nothing brought horror into those animals lives.

the bottom line is...they were more afraid of what was happening to them then they were of what was happening to the animals in their care.

they put themselves first...and with that one single decision they moved from rescue into neglect and abuse. his excuse that they finally did ask for help is not good enough because that happened only when they could no longer hide from the suffering all around them.

far too little and far too late for starving animals who can't even stand and babies who should never have been born but were allowed to be born to die in the dirt at their mothers feet.

when "rescuers" do this kind of thing...it is beyond horrifying because they damn well know better.
these people were not rescuers...they were wanna-be's...and wanting to be means nothing if you haven't got what it takes to "become."

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Jenn

I recommend this article about the case: http://www.greatfallstribune.com/article/20101224/DC5/12240338

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