Rescue Journal

witch hunters in rescue

Carol  ·  Jun 1, 2012

a friend suggested i go thru a certain facebook page and see what i thought and after reading some of the brainless things folks have written...i am thinking, it is another witch hunt.
let me tell you about the witch hunters in rescue...
first of all...
the instigators while not ever having done any real measurable rescue themselves..know absolutely all of the in's and out's of how rescue is supposed to be done.

you can spot a witch hunt from a mile away..there will be one or two people who are totally pissed off with the rescue and they validate their attacks by building as big of a like minded, blood thirsty mob as they possibly can.
anyone can vomit all kinds of toxic shit on the internet..on blogs, in forums, on facebook pages. lets be honest..i too wrote a post asking our readers to contact admiral and ADT and ask them to return our money. i did not ask anyone to trash them or ask for others to add their list of woes with either company to mine..i simply asked for some help. my intention was only to get an honest refund..it was not and is not in any shape or form, any kind of desire to bring either company down or get even. i believed we were entitled to a refund, we got it with your help and i am happy with that...that story is done.

but witch hunters really don't want anything except to destroy and they will not stop until they reach their goal. i have seen it (shit, i have been the victim of it) in rescue before. these people will not get up off their asses and pick up the reins and do rescue better themselves..they just feel big while sitting in their computer chairs getting high on the shit hitting the fan...look, hey... we are a powerful force to be reckoned with. so freaking what?..any mob is powerful, it doesn't make them right.
the truth becomes so tarnished and twisted it is unrecognizable on either side...everyone involved looks like totally frothing maniacs.

you got a problem with a particular rescue? the first thing is shut the hell up and stay off the internet. the second thing you do is you pick up the phone and report your concerns to the proper authorities..is it animal abuse? neglect? then phone the spca and register a complaint and let the experts investigate. if the experts do not agree with your assessment of the situation...accept that maybe you were wrong or misunderstood...maybe you are just a pissed off idiot too angry to see things straight. do not then start throwing more bullshit out that the spca does not know what they are doing. i am sorry...we get lots of spca cruelty seizures here and i can attest to the fact that they actually do know what they are doing, they do care and they do both quite well too.

if there is a witch hunt going on ..stay the hell out of it and keep your opinions to yourself. either there is an active and appropriate investigation and follow up going on or the file has been closed cuz it was determined it was in fact just another hysterical witch hunt blown all out of proportion.

for the rescues who find themselves on the wrong side of an angry, out for blood, mob..call the spca and invite them out to inspect your place. open your doors and welcome them in as many times as it takes and if they do have some suggstions on how you could do it better... be grateful and take their expert suggestions and advice and put them into practice. do not get your back up and get bitchy, rude and obstuctive cuz the spca is daring to knock on your pure and pristine rescue gate..that is their job and your job is to assist them and allow them to ensure that your animals are well cared for and safe.


witch hunts happen because people are stupid, they can't focus on issues and they focus on he said/she said and high emotions instead. and anyone who particiates in an on-line witch hunt, adding fuel and flame to the funeral pyre of a rescue..better be willing to accept the responsibility that if they are wrong..there is no excuse. you just roasted someone else who may well be innocent, and unfairly with cruel intention and with mindless mob driven purpose, be destroyed because you participated. and how many animals did you just forever screw out of any future help because of your mistaken participation?

it is not my job or anyone elses to agree with everything another rescue does...i don't have to like how they do things, i don't even have to like their motives. i don't have to like or even respect the people involved...but i damn well do have to keep my mouth shut if i don't know for sure that animals are being allowed to suffer. and if i think that they may be suffering, then i am speed dialing the spca and asking them to please go in and take a look. my job ends when i put in the report..their job begins when they get the report.

it is not my job to stir up a bunch of hysterical ongoing shit. my job is to behave responsibly, appropriately, reasonably intelligently and stay far, far away from the rescue burning, computer chair lunatics...i am far more interested in what the spca has to say.

Comments

Kelly B

Hey Carol-

Again, I know what you mean, though. At another barn I was at, these beautiful racehorses would come in for 'rehab' and then back to the track-and if they didn't win, well, we all knew where they were going...and lots of us got angry. But we were told it was none of our business. Frustrating indeed.

Dixie looks great. She makes me (and others) laugh because if she doesn't get attention she makes a fuss, dumping her halter on the ground or kicking at her stall door. I'm headed out there today so will give her a scritch for you.

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Carol

hi kelly...you are right, not all people will get rid of their horses...that was unfair (and you take such wonderful care of brook!) but sadly so many people do pass their horses on over and over again...the selling and buying and trading and leasing and ending up at the auction house and then the slaughter truck is almost a national sport of people shifting around horses in the equine world.

maybe that is how it is meant to be but it just seems so grossly unfair.

how is dixie..i did not get out to see her this week????? bad me...i will try to see her on monday.

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Kelly B

Hi Carol-

I totally get what you are saying about horses and the propensity for owners to get rid of them when they become useless, or when something better comes along. I guess what I'm a bit taken aback at is the comment that at some point "ALL" horse owners will get rid of their horses.

My horse Brook was adopted by me when she was 24. She was lame, underweight and broken down. I took her with the full knowledge she may never be sound or rideable ever. But I saw the look in her face when she was given a nice stall and field to run in, and I promised her I would never let her be used again. I rode her a couple of times but she made it clear she was done with all that dumb stuff. So at 28 she sits at Rick's place looking at the mountains and playing with another senior and a mini horse. I have no intention of sending her to slaughter. I will wait until she tells me she's done and then I will be there when she passes.

My other horse is 22, and I am committed to her for the rest of her days as well. My enjoyment comes from hanging with my animals, and learning their idiosyncrasies. I am not one of the owners who will get rid of my horses because they are 'useless'; riding is not the most important thing for me. Their happiness is.

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Brenda

Hi Dionne (and possibly Zoe): I will be at SAINTS tomorrow morning, but I HAVE to leave by noon in order to get back to Hope and drive my roommate into New Westminster for laser eye surgery - so I can't stay and do any extras tomorrow - sorry!!

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Bunny Horne

Carol, we just got back from Stormtek, bought you a new vest. If you aren't around tomorrow we will leave it on the table in the shop.

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Carol

at this point in time any real, large scale 'rescue" of horses is impossible.

if the general public brokered, bought, sold, traded, leased, obtained and discarded cats and dogs with not only the frequency that the average, perfectly normal and socially accepted horse person does...but wih the same acceptence that this is ok..then i could not rescue cats and dogs very well either...where the hell could i place them where people did not keep giving them away?

at least i can expect that cat and dog adopters who come to saints understand the expectation that this adoption is supposed to be forever...to horse people forever is only until the horse no longer meets their human needs. most horse people speak a totally different language than you or me.

in the grand scheme of things as for the outcries of rainrot and lice...who really gives a shit?...that horse was most likely destined for slaughter. who cares that three weeks later some poor suckered adopter has to clean either up?

our horses had lice last year, far easier to clean it up with only three horses who hve a barn to come into every night and an army of staff and volunteers to treat them. it is not like we have thirty or so spread out in various fields. our cow joy has rain rot this year...and she has tons of undercover protection areas to go too.

for the standard breds, coming off the track...the transition to field and herd life, is traumatic. for any horse for that matter...transitional change is hard but track horses have been socilly isolated stall dwellers, pampered with feed especially measured for maximum performance. suddenly finding themselves loose in a new "rescue" herd is not going to be an easy transition for them.

but i also saw dixie when she came in fresh off the trck...no longer raceable, bred to get the last ounce of value out of her then starved with crap food until the slaughter truck came. she CAME from the racing stable, underweight, filthy and depressed.

so i am not making any judgements here...someone could take a picture of gideon right now and post it from coast to coast and forget to say he is 37 years old with 6 teeth left and going thru another rough spot of refusing to eat very well. the thoughtless mob would be all over this screaming we were not taking care of him and letting him starve.

they only see the picture of a very thin and frail horse and read what any pissed off at saints or me people write...they do not see me, the staff, the volunteers trying everything we can to get the weight back on him and worrying ourselves sick over him at night.

what would you guys think if thousands of strangers as far away as florida or where ever, were judging the care that we give? what if they went after us over gideon and eventually forced us out of rescue? what would happen to all of the animals then?

and what really pisses me off here is this....

horses are commodities even to horse loving folks. they perpetuate and profit from the system that sends these need to be rescued horses to the auction house.

yet they dare to call foul?

sure their own horses are in great shape..and sure they look after them well or they wouldn't be of any use to them...but eventually they all get rid of them and they will eventually end up in the slaughter house...even horses "rescued" at some point end up there cuz very few people are 100% committed to keeping their horse alive and well and maybe expensively useless... for up to 30-40 years.

currently almost all horse "rescue" is really brokering..buy them and sell them to make room for more because honestly, that is as far as horse folks have emotionally and morally grown. one day maybe they will understand that once they choose to take on a life..that life should safely rest on their shoulders forever.
until then horses will continue to be bought and sold with the frequency, and with about as much thought and care, as flipping around used cars.

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Janice

I can understand going public to reach prior "adopters’" and gather evidence of wrong doing however before an on line assassination the documentation and proof must be in order. Also the page should of closed once a number of wrong doings were compiled to follow up and prove privately.



And as far as buying and selling goes verses rescuing and adoption, there are no "authorities" in this regard.

Its all buyer beware no matter what we are buying today.

It is not illegal to broker animals. or calling yourself a rescuer .

We are only accountable as a 'rescuer" by our supporters as that is really who is governing what we do and how we do it. I do what i do for the animals always as do you ..but there are not that many of us who are 100% out there.

Frankly i found it a breath of fresh air at first to read that people do care about the horses but the page lost my attention tonight when it went down the road with all the supporters of profit.. ya just can't condemn one mode of the animal business while your in another.

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