It happens with heartbreaking regularity. Whether floods or fires, people abandon their pets and other animals to their fate.
This year alone there have been several hurricanes and major wildfires, and yet, there is no national plan to deal with the most helpless victims: domestic animals.
If you live in a fire- or flood- or hurricane-prone zone, you know that the time may come when you'll only have seconds to get into your car and flee, not enough to get your pet or to release your horses and other animals.
You may have an evacuation plan for you and your loved ones, but animals are often not even listed on emergency lists.
While cats, dogs, and other small pets can be placed in carriers and taken along, larger animals face a more difficult challenge.
I don't know what the cattle industry or horse owners think would be the best way to give animals a chance for survival, but SOMETHING MUST BE DONE!
Some have suggested a dedicated organization that would operate regionally to evacuate and relocate animals as a precaution long before the danger to rescuers becomes insurmountable.
They would have trucks and drivers available, with additional ones borrowed from non-affected regions, in order to transport the animals to safety.
In the case of pets left behind, there could also be a reliable organization that could be tasked with rescuing those left behind by their panicked owners.
Hundreds of horses and other domestic animals have died horrible deaths burning alive in these southern California fires because their owners left them locked in their barns. See the horrible aftermath in images by the Daily Mail.
Animal owners have the SACRED TASK of caring for animals in their charge.
ANIMALS LIVES MATTER
HORSES LEFT TO DIE AT PADILLA RANCH IN SYLMAR
The Padilla Ranch in Sylmar was torched by the Creek wildfire in the early hours of Tuesday morning
Almost half of the 60 horses which are boarded on the ranch perished as the flames took hold
The ranch owners live nearby but were forced to evacuate their homes and leave the area. The returned on Wednesday to find 29 carcasses and others which survived but were badly burned
Creek is just one of five devastating wildfires which continues to ravage Southern California
Continue reading, including PETA's tips for evacuating with pets
Elderly horse named Bubbles hides among a pack of rescued mini donkeys to escape slaughter
Old, with frostbitten ears, and probably abused most of his life. But his spirit was strong, and so Bubbles used his horse sense - and his sixth sense as well - to sneak away from a horrible fate and into the loving hearts of animal rescuers.
Bubbles was being kept at a kill lot with the mini donkeys in North Texas
Becky's Hope Horse Rescue arrived to save some of the donkeys from death
Bubbles saw his way out and strolled right up to the nonprofit's trailer
He waited for the donkeys and the rescue workers saw he wanted to 'blend in'
Rescuers decided to pay $450 for Bubbles; he is now living on the Frisco ranch
An elderly horse named Bubbles staged a swift escape from a kill lot that would make any action hero proud when he tried to hide himself in a pack of mini donkeys.
Bubbles was destined for slaughter in Mexico when Becky's Hope Horse Rescue rolled up to rescue a few of the mini donkeys also being kept at his Texas kill pen.
The horse, who is believed to be near 30 years old, ignored a number of the lot's employees and strolled right up to the trailer, which he knew would take him to safety.
'He was intent that this was his ride out there,' Becky's Hope Horse Rescue wrote in a post about Bubbles on their Facebook page. 'We stood there staring as this old guy with crumbled ears from frostbite waited patiently for the group of mini donkeys to catch up so he could jump on the "freedom trailer" out of there'.
Sue Chapman, president of the nonprofit, said she believed Bubbles thought no one would notice him if he mixed in with the mini donkeys.
Continue reading, see more images of Bubbles and the donkeys, and watch VIDEO
Once Arthur, a Belgian draft who spent most of his life as a work horse in a farming community in New England, hit 30, he was of no use to his owners anymore. He had to take part in multiple auctions and was handled by a lot of dealers together with another horse named Max.
Cindy Daigre, founder of Ferrell Hollow Farm Senior Horse Sanctuary in Tennessee, saw their photos on the web and seeing their horrible shape, decided to save them. “I was told that Arthur was purposely starved while waiting to go to the next auction and the man that had him often sold thin old horses to the ‘cat man’ with exotic cats for meat,” Daigre told The Dodo. “I was horrified.” Daigre hired a transporter and brought both horses to her sanctuary.
Arthur was so weak he couldn’t even stand and didn’t care about his new surroundings. Max was in even worst condition – he was so physically abused, he was suffering from a back injury and had neurological issues.
Continue reading and see both horses fully recovered and enjoying a peaceful life.
Frederik The Great, a breathtakingly beautiful Friesian stallion from the United States, may just be the world's most handsome horse. Sharing his name with the ruler of Prussia from 1740-1786, the highly acclaimed horse has a muscular build, striking black features and flowing mane.
Continue reading and see more pictures of Frederik. See also this blogger's favorite pictures of horses: the horses of Camargue , France - (right)
Herd of horses took in a lonely penguin as one of their own when it was separated from friends in the Falklands
Pictures were taken at the Cape Pembrokeshire Nature Reserve, five miles outside of Stanley, the capital city
Falklands is one of the world's great penguin capitals and there are five different species of penguin on the island
Nuzzling up together on the frosty ground in the Falkland Islands, this might seem like the most unlikely of friendships. But this herd of horses took in a lonely penguin as one of their own and snuggled up with their curious new companion.
Continue readingand see more moving images of this tender animal friendship
You're the purrrfect stablemate! Amorous tabby cat rubs up to its horse friend.
They say opposites attract - and an amorous tabby cat and horse go a way to prove the theory. The two animals, who live on a farm in Brussels, Belgium, were filmed sharing a moment of affection together.
The friendly feline is seen sat on the wall of a stable enclosure rubbing up against the horse, who peers over the barrier. They live happily in a farm in Belgium.The video of their affectionate friendship has become a favorite on YouTube.
More than 21,000 join a Facebook campaign to save horses left to die in muddy field as experts warn of devastation to Britain's wildlife because of the floods
Badly decomposed horse found in a field in Leicester while a second one with severe injuries was later put down
Study warns that pesticides in floodwater pose a deadly threat to animals
140 oily seabirds washed up in south Devon in weather-related tragedy
Horses' Future Uncertain If NYC Carriage Rides End
NEW YORK (AP) — Time may be running out for the iconic horse carriages that carry tourists around Central Park. Mayor Bill de Blasio already has declared his intention to shut down the industry, saying it is inhumane to keep horses in modern-day Manhattan.
While that debate could be over, at least one nagging question remains: What will become of the horses?
Both sides in the carriage horse fight insist they will find a sanctuary for the approximately 200 horses licensed to pull carriages in New York City. But drivers warn that shutting down the city stables might have the unintended effect of eliminating a rare outlet for surplus horses pouring out of the farming and racing industries — sending them faster to the slaughterhouse.
"If they did not come to New York City, most of these horses would be dead," said Ian McKeever, an Irishman who owns nine Central Park horses and has been driving a carriage in the city since 1987.
That's an argument that infuriates the loudest critics of the industry, who say the nation's unwanted horse dilemma is no excuse to preserve an inhumane business.
"Anyone who cares about a horse wouldn't think that taking it and sticking it in midtown traffic is the right answer to that problem," said Allie Feldman, executive director of a leading anti-carriage lobbying group, New Yorkers for Clean, Livable and Safe Streets.
Last year, roughly 140,000 U.S. horses were shipped off to slaughterhouses in Canada and Mexico when they became unaffordable, or unprofitable, for their owners.
The root of the problem is unregulated breeding, said Wayne Pacelle, president of the Humane Society of the United States. Every year, far more horses are produced than can possibly get lifetime, or even middle-aged, care. The number of sanctuaries for retired horses is small — only around 500 nationwide.
In Pennsylvania's Amish country, which is the source of many of the horses that wind up working in Central Park, this oversupply plays out weekly at the New Holland Livestock Auction. Every Monday, buyers for foreign meat factories snap up horses — many still young and healthy — that once pulled plows, buggies and carts, or even served as family pets. All have been discarded because of lackluster performance or rising costs of care.
McKeever cited the case of his oldest horse, Roger, who was neglected and malnourished when he bought him from a Pennsylvania farmer in 1999. Roger is set to finally retire this month to a preserve on Long Island, McKeever said, after 15 years on the job in Central Park.
Another of his horses, Danny Boy, won trotting races in Australia and the U.S. before suffering a tendon problem. He, too, was headed for slaughter before getting a second chance as a carriage horse.
"When you give a horse a job, he is protected," McKeever said.
Carriage opponents note that, for a lot of horses, New York City is far from a permanent home.
City records on 720 carriage horses registered in the city from 2005 to 2013 show that about 30 percent spent two years or less on the job, according to an analysis prepared by the Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages.
Industry critics say that turnover represents large numbers of horses who are given a brief tryout in New York but don't last because they can't acclimate to the job or urban life.
The city does not track what happens to horses that leave the business.
Carriage owners insist their horses are as healthy and happy as any in a well-run rural barn.
Most live in one of four stables, hidden away inside old three-to-four-story buildings on Manhattan's far West Side. On days they work, the horses clop through city traffic, amid honking cabs, for up to 2 miles before reaching the spots where they line up for customers near Central Park. Most of the rides are in the park itself, but during some hours, the horses are allowed to visit a handful of other nearby attractions, such as Rockefeller Center.
Mishaps involving horses that bolt or get hit by cars make headlines every few years, with the most recent traffic or spooking deaths in 2006 and 2007.
"Horses do not belong in the middle of traffic in New York City. They do not belong in an urban environment like this. It's not safe for them. It's not fair when you think about what their lives should be and what our society is like," de Blasio said last week during an appearance on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show." He has favored replacing the hansom cabs with old-timey electric cars.
At the largest of the city's barns, Clinton Park Stables, the horses have enough room to lie down on beds of straw. They get regular visits from veterinarians and horse dentists. The building is equipped with sprinklers in case of fire. Overall, the horses appear to be in fine shape.
But there are drawbacks. The stables have no outdoor areas, so they horses must spend all of each day either in their stalls or in harness on the street.
Every horse spends a minimum of five weeks each year at an out-of-town farm, but critics say that isn't enough for animals that would benefit from daily turnout in a pasture.
Douglass Newbold, a dispatcher at the Large Animal Protection Society, a volunteer organization that enforces anti-cruelty laws in Pennsylvania, said horses clearly weren't meant for city living, but life in the countryside is often just as grim.
"If you asked the horses, 'Do you want to be out in a mud paddock with no feed, standing in a snowstorm, or in a dark stall on the fourth floor of some building in New York City?', I'm not sure how'd they'd answer."
While cats, dogs, and other small pets can be placed in carriers and taken along, larger animals face a more difficult challenge.
Some have suggested a dedicated organization that would operate regionally to evacuate and relocate animals as a precaution long before the danger to rescuers becomes insurmountable.
