If YOU can spare it, this is a completely WORTHY cause to donate to. They have been inundated with a plethora of abandoned, neglected, ill horses and they are doing all they can to take care of them, they are desperate .. I WAS going to put a photo of an abused, sad horse here, but I really don't care to see pictures of that nature........... It has become a familiar path for the Ohio SPCA; transporting horses rescued from horrible conditions to Woodland Run Equine Veterinary Hospital.
One by one, a sad parade of animals is unloaded and led to the first food and shelter they've had in far too long. "All of these horses are hundreds of pounds underweight," said Ohio SPCA Director Teresa Landon.
On a body scale ranking of 1 to 9, she says these are at most a 1.5. "Once a horse gets to a 1, they are in danger of organs shutting down."
The horses are all examined by Doctor Christopher Beinlich. "Normally you'd see muscle through here and you wouldn't be able to grab onto the bones there,” he said, showing one horse’s protruding skeleton. “You can feel her backbone, see her pelvic bones. You can almost see the bumps on her skin. That is from fungus."
In the last three months the Ohio SPCA says it has rescued 18 of these horses, each requiring medical care and boarding, costing thousands of dollars.
"Our emergency vet funds are gone. They're depleted," said Landon. "And at this point, we're going to have to seriously consider if we can even help this number of horses if the public does not come forward. Because we're going to have bills we cannot pay."
Landon says she can't bear the thought of not being able to help an animal in need.
Now, she and her volunteer staff say they're the ones in need of rescue. "We need a lot of people to come forward right now if we're going to continue to save lives."
It's worth pointing out the Ohio SPCA is not affiliated with the American SPCA, and does not receive support from the fundraising campaign seen in frequent television commercials.
