The babies were more concerned about eating than what the guy with the big camera was doing.

Tawnee was interviewed about the situation and explained how all the babies were rescued.

The news guy was interviewed and Jason became the camera man.

Today was going to be a very busy day.  All of the babies had to have their ID tags put on, wormed, and given medication as some of them have a runny nose, and we want to take all measures possible to keep them healthy.  They also had their weight and height taken as well.  Since the babies are not used to being handled and none of them are halter trained, a chute was made with a squeeze so they could be treated.  It was so cute when they realized that scratching and rubbing felt good.  Their little lips started twitching and you could see the delight in their eyes.

This is Hope, she is a very cute little filly who is the friendliest and most curious out of the  whole group.  She wants to makes friends with people.  She has a hernia that needs to be fixed, we received some donations from Facebook fans for her surgery, but still need about $350 for her.

One by one the babies got their own special treatment.

Most of the babies were around 400 pounds, but the weight tape isn’t really accurate when a horse is emaciated.

This little baby has a huge scrape across her spine, which is protruding from her skinny body.  No doubt she went under something that was too low.

The baby with the scrape on her back is named Savannah.  She is so cute!

This is Forest, a colt.

While the babies were getting worked on one of the volunteers really fell in love with Dundee and placed him into adoption pending.  We are so excited for him!

He will have such a wonderful home.

At the vet office the gelding operations were getting under way.  When Apache was laid out to be gelded it was found that he was a true cryptorchid, and was unable to be gelded.  The emotionally devastating decision was made to have him never wake up from his anaesthesia.  We have done a cryptorchid surgery once, and it was extremely expensive and was quite the process for the pony to go through.  We wish we could save everyone, but sometimes giving them love and kindness is the only thing we can do.  No doubt this is why he was dumped into the slaughter pipeline at the livestock auction.

Tiz Again Roused was successfully gelded.  This photo really shows how skinny he really is.  Come to find out it was his birthday.  He may not know it, but this may be his happiest birthday.

Some people thought that the bay stallion we rescued was not actually Tiz Again Roused. We have his papers and everything matches up.   The rescued stallion is indeed Tis Again Roused.  You can watch one of his races by clicking here.

Back at the shelter the babies were still being treated.  This little guy was happy to get out of the chute.  He has very nice movement, his name is Lucky.

Powder, the albino, is doing good.  He was given medication to help with his eye, it was very goopy.  He is completely blind in his left eye, partially blind in his right eye, and is completely deaf and does not respond to any noises.

He seems to be doing OK and fitting in with the herd.  As long as the vet gives the clearance to be adopted he will be available for adoption.

This cute little filly is named Sunny.

The babies who hadn’t been treated yet watched on from their pen with wonder.  You could tell that a lot of them were still exhausted from their journey.  This girl laying down is named Daisy.

One by one they were all wormed.  None of them liked the taste of the wormer and wondered why people were sticking yucky stuff in their mouth.

It was so rewarding seeing the babies relax and enjoy human contact.  They have a lot to learn and we feel that it is a privilege to show them that not all humans are cruel.

This little guy’s name is Kodak and he is in adoption pending.

This little filly is named Blossom.

The next baby that was put in the chute literally thought she was dying.  She started crying and sounded like a dying rabbit.  She laid down in the chute as if giving up her fight for life.

Everyone stroked and rubbed her and soon she realized that they were not going to hurt her.

Her name is Tara.

This girls name is Bridget. She was given a “thumbs down” start to life (you can see it in the middle of the white star, the thumbs down is brown) but we are giving her the thumbs up treatment!

All of the babies are so cute.

This filly is named Ruby.

This is Cody the colt.

This is Pixie, she is one of the older ones in the group.

The sun was beginning to set and they were all thankful that the last baby was in the chute ready to be treated.

This is Peris, a filly.  She is the skinniest baby in the group, you can feel every bone in her body under her heavy winter coat.  As you can see in this photo she will try to eat dirt, no doubt she had to just to survive.  It’s so sad seeing a baby do this.

What a joy it was to finally have all the babies back in their pen: id’ed, wormed, medicated and measured.  All of the humans were exhausted.

Channel 10 and reporter George Warren did an amazing job on the baby rescue story.  It’s really worth watching, click here.

  A huge “thank you!” goes to all of you who helps financially and emotionally.  This is such a huge responsibility, helping all these slaughter bound babies, but with your help, and people who are willing to open their hearts and homes to a baby, they will find their forever homes, hopefully very soon!

  Apache was also ready to head to the vet for his gelding surgery.

   Tiz waited patiently by the trailer with Larry as Apache loaded up.

    Soon it was time for Tiz to load.  They were both a lot more trusting this time.  The first time loading into the rescue rig they were a little hesitant, but this time they knew they were safe.

 Meanwhile, we told you about the 14 babies that were coming, the truck was pulling up to the shelter.

It was a very long trailer.

The trailer was backed up to the round pen and it was time for the babies to come out.

  It was so exciting to see all of babies coming out.  They all looked scared and bewildered, but happy to be out of the trailer.

They were all wide eyed looking at the camera saying “We are hungry, please get us some food!”  We got them nice yummy food right away.

Tiz and Apache were safely at the vet, settled into their pen waiting for their big day, which was scheduled for the next day.

   Boots was also at the vet for his surgery.  His leg popped back and started working again. We have been working with our vet for a solution.  She doesn’t want to perform a surgery now that it is working again, but the chances of it locking again is extremely high.  No doubt that is why he was at the auction.  The vet believes that a special procedure with a course of expensive injections will make it where he will not require the surgery.  We are keeping our fingers crossed for Boots!  The procedure should start next week.

    The babies at the shelter were laying down in the sun snuggled up together.  They have been through a lot and we know that they must be literally exhausted.

We have a video about the babies up on Youtube now.  You will love watching this video!  Click here.

We desperately need homes for these 24 babies.  Thankfully we have people stepping forward to give homes, but there are a lot of babies.  9 of the 24 babies are colts, which will need to be gelded, which will cost about $1,500.  All the babies are on daily costly antibiotics for shipping fever.  Another thing we do not have enough of are yearling halters.   If anyone has extra yearling halters, or would like to purchase some, Horse.com has great halters starting at $3.99, click here.  We have quite a few yearling halters but not 24!

To help with the babies, click here.

   Thank you to each and every one that has helped both financially and emotionally.  Your support is vital to our rescue efforts!

Oroville, CA – 24 baby horses narrowly escaped being slaughtered in Mexico for human consumption this weekend after being rescued by Horse Plus Humane Society.  Most of the baby horses are emaciated, and all are infested with worms and parasites. These baby horses were bred on a large ranch in Oregon, and then shipped to a slaughter staging area near Turlock, California.

The baby horses were rescued in two groups.  The first group of 10 babies were taken to a livestock auction where the breeding ranch hoped to make a few dollars. Known killer buyers purchase horses at every auction to send to slaughter.  Killer buyers typically do not prey upon baby horses, but if the price is right, they will use any horse that is standing to fill their trailers for the three day trip to Mexico or Canada.  Three days with no food or water, exposed to the rain, wind and sun.

It was so exciting seeing the babies come out of the trailer one by one.

Soon they were in the pen looking around.  The little pony was very wide eyed and curious about his surroundings.

Some of the big horses haven’t quite mastered getting out of the trailer smoothly yet, but they all unloaded safely.

Each horse was led from the trailer to its waiting pen.

Intake photos were also taken of the horses.  This guy is so gorgeous.

His halter had been left on so long, its hard to see, but it was eating into the front of his face.

Horse after horse found its new spot at the shelter with yummy food and water waiting.

We know you would like to meet the auction horses.  We would like to thank our Facebook fans for helping us name them.

This 4 year old stallion’s (soon to be gelding) name is Apache Wind!

This coming 2 year old filly is named Reba.

This is a 2 year old, registered APHA, gelding. His registered name is BR Dun N Demanding, named Dundee!  Folks looked up his registered name and contacted his old owner.  Please don’t contact old owners as they will continue dumping horses at auctions, but won’t take the papers, and the papers make it nice to know the history.  So please, leave the contacting old owners to us, we had a very angry phone call yesterday, saying that someone from our organization called them, which we did not.

This is a 3-5 year old mare, she was rode through the auction. Her name is Kandy.

This is a 3 year old gelding, named Marcos.

This is Tiz Again Roused aka Tiz a 6 year old stallion (soon to be a gelding) off the track Thoroughbred

His last race was August of 2011, he won over $15,000 in his racing career for his owners. He made them money, they were done with him, he was useless to them, he was starved and then thrown away.

  Before he was sent to the auction he was posted on Dreamhorse for $2,500.  They wanted to sell him to a riding/breeding home.

  The next ad was later in time and they dropped his price to $1,500.  Apparently that didn’t work out either and he was dumped at the auction.  Somewhere through there he didn’t get all the food he needed and is skinny now.

 This little filly is named Willow.

This pony gelding is blind in one eye. He is a very cute little guy. His name is Stubbs.

This little colt is named Coco.

This little colt is named Phantom.

This filly’s name is Dixie.

This filly’s name is Cupid.

This cute little strawberry roan filly is named Strawberry!

This cute filly is named Legend.

This is an albino colt who has some eye trouble going on. His name is Powder.  He is completely blind in one eye and is mostly blind in his other eye.  The vet will be checking him out to determine his quality of life.

This is a little colt and his name is Teddy.

This little colt is named Patches.

That concludes the first group of horses, an interstate transporter contacted our rescuer Saturday night about 10-15 more baby horses from the same group that we could buy if we wanted: “It would be a good thing if you bought them, ’cause…”  We purchased them and they arrived on Monday at the shelter.  We desperately need donations for these 14 baby horses, we only raised funds for the rescue and care for the 17 that we rescued Saturday night.  Jennifer G. donated the funds to purchase the babies but we desperately need funds to care for them, give them medical treatments and geld the colts.  These 14 babies were an unexpected group, but we know we can count on you.  We rescued a total of 31 horses this weekend, and we only raised the money to rescue and care for 17.   PLEASE HELP!  To donate, click here.  We really need homes for baby horses too, we have a total of 24 babies at the shelter.  Please help us find homes for them!  Adoption fees for the babies are reduced to $100.  We will be getting the blog about them out soon.

Here is a way you can really help for free.  We have issued a press release about the 24 baby horses saved from slaughter and we need it sent to every TV station and newspaper, this is a story of national significance. The more media attention the more awareness is raised to the slaughter issue.  It is not just old horses that are ready to die that are being slaughtered, baby horses are shipped too.  People need to know that truth that horses of any age, breed, training, color, all horses, are sent to slaughter.  To read our press release, click here.  To send it on to your local media, just contact them.  You can also Google media and send it on to every news tip place you can find.

Thank you again for your support, both emotionally and financially.  We really need financial assistance with the huge increase of horses at the shelter.

This poor horse was standing dejected looking, wondering why it had been thrown away like a worthless piece of garbage.

There were a lot of horses at the auction, but when the babies came in the bidding practically stopped.  No one wanted to bid on the scrawny babies.  Our rescuer put her hand in the air and all 10 were saved!

After the auction the babies were put in a pen together.  They were bewildered and confused, but glad to still be together.  In all we rescued 17 horses at the auction and agreed to buy another 10 babies that were part of the group that were at the auction, for a total of 27 precious lives saved from slaughter!

Our rescuer worked late into the night making sure each horse was settled in.

Early Sunday morning our staff and volunteers were driving to the shelter.

The rescue rigs were hooked up, supplies were loaded and they headed off.

The first stop was at the fuel station.  Moving horses takes a lot of what is becoming more and more expensive fuel.

Arriving at the auction the horses that were saved were all very curious and friendly.

The halter had been left on this sweet stallion so long that sores were worn into his gentle face.

We were told that he was an artificial insemination baby.  No doubt his breeders thought he was going to be amazing and that he would never be an “unwanted” horse.  This picture was with his registration application that was never sent in.  We love getting background information on the horses we rescue!

Now he is a beautiful 4 year old stallion.  It’s horrible how people breed horses, neglect them, and then throw them away.

The babies were all waiting to see what would happen to them next.

In the group is an albino baby who definitely has some eye trouble going on.

The horses were all evaluated to make sure they don’t have any injuries.

This horse has the terrible habit of windsucking on panels.

This is a really beautiful paint.  To give you an example of how bad off the economy has made horses, and why nobody should be breeding, this is a 2 year old registered American Paint Horse Association gelding who is nicely trained on ground work  and a real sweetheart.  The winning bid for his life was only $60.  Don’t breed, color and training will not save a horses life!

This is a registered Thoroughbred stallion who is also very sweet with great manners, who is going to be gelded soon too.  He was born on February 21, 2006.  We will have to wish him Happy Birthday!  His registered name is Tiz Again Roused, so we will call him Tiz.

This little pony spent the whole night in the auction ring.  He is blind in one eye.  He was really confused.  We are not sure what is going on with him but both sides of his neck was shaved and around his eyes.  We’re not sure why someone would do that.  Any ideas?

It was finally time to get the horses loaded and to safety!  The babies were the first to load.

They were all so happy to hop in the trailer once one of them decided to be first.  As you can see in this picture the albino just doesn’t look perky.

Then it was time to load the big horses.  This boy was such a dream to handle and load.

All the horses were safely loaded and ready for the trip to the shelter.

One last check of the horses and…

…they were on the road.

Yet another stop at the fuel station.  Hundreds of dollars were spent in just fuel.

The babies were patiently waiting to see where they were going.  They have been through so much in their short lives.

Finally the babies got to get out of the trailer and into their waiting pen.  They were so happy to relax and stretch their legs.  The auction rescue story will continue in the next blog…

In the mean time, while you are waiting to read the next blog, we are posting the horses on Facebook and asking for names, so if you want to help name horses, visit our Facebook wall!  Click here.

Wednesday was a very quiet day at the shelter but that doesn’t mean the animals were being quiet!  The roosters, who are waiting for a forever home, were happily hunting for interesting tidbits to eat, scratching and pecking all over the shelter.

Cathy was hard at work cleaning up the miscellaneous bits of things that always seem to accumulate.  Thanks to Dan and Alyce for hiring a dumpster so the little bits of rubbish get taken away every week.

Gracie, the Halflinger, was relaxing with her new friends at the shelter. She has such a pretty face.

Grey, who is e-adopted thanks to Betsy W., couldn’t resist sticking his nose into the camera today.

Shadow is becoming a sweet girl.  Only recently has she began realizing that people are friendly and won’t hurt her.  She has been very shy, but is slowly warming up to the concept of human love.

Copper is a sweet approximately 4 year old Tennessee Walking mare who would really love a home.  She has been with us since early November, waiting patiently for her forever home.  She is trained to ride and is very sweet.  Check her out, click here.

Boots surgery is scheduled, thanks to your generous donations!  He is such a sweet little guy and we can’t wait until he is perfect once again.

Thank you all for your support, both emotionally and financially.

We had a lot of fun on Valentines and sent horse kisses out for all.  We also asked people to post their furry valentine up on our wall and had a tremendous out flowing of cute pictures and stories.  Many of the animals posted had been adopted from us which made our valentines that much better.  To see the pictures, visit our Facebook wall.  While you are there, “like” us if you don’t already, we have over 22,000 fans and the number is growing every day!  Click here.

The little rescued calves are doing so great and finally got the knack of drinking out of a bottle.  When they first came to us they were completely clueless about where food was supposed to come from.  With lots of tender care they finally have it down like little pros.

We are extremely thankful as we were able to find a very wonderful home for the calves with 10 acres of irrigated pasture where they will sit back and eat grass when they are older.  They were loaded up in for yet another car ride.

Soon they were in the new pen at their adoptive home checking it all out.  When they are older they will be turned out into the beautiful lush grass.  They can’t wait to run and play in the sunshine!

Dot came out Tuesday to evaluate horses.  This is Princess Ariel.  We are not sure why her intake paper said she is 13.1 hands, as you can tell she is a full sized horse.

Ariel is very attached to Prince.  After her evaluation she was happy to be standing next to his side once again.  Gracie, the Halfinger seen in the background, is in adoption pending.

Princess Ariel and Prince are a very adorable couple and we need to find them a home together as they are extremely bonded.  They are older and it would be completely unfair to break the loving bond they have, so we are only considering homes that will adopt them together.

Meanwhile April and Larry were dropping off the two horses that were delivered at the SAFE Surrender Site.   This is Misty and Squanta.

Joey is back at the shelter and Dot was evaluating him.  He first came to us in April of 2010.  He came from a therapeutic riding school.  He was a little much for the kids at the school.  He was adopted out and had a great home, but his behavioral issues were a little too much for his adoptive family too.

Riding him he prefers to trot over walking or cantering, and he is pushy on the ground.  He is 10-12 years old, a QH gelding.  To see the blog where he first came to us, click here.

Dot wanted to evaluate the two cutting horses.  The papers didn’t identify which was which, so we will call this one Misty.

They are both anxious horses that are trained to ride, but they both act like it has been awhile.  We are going to let them settle in and give them another evaluation.

Please remember the auction rescue fund, every dollar really does help!  Please donate today, click here.

At the SAFE Surrender Site two horses were surrendered on Wednesday the 8th.

Little is known about them other than they were abandoned by their owner and someone brought them to the SAFE Surrender Site.

They are both supposed to be trained to ride and working horses, and they are supposed to be trained for cutting.   We will be evaluating them as soon as possible.

Friday our staff was heading in two different directions.

Tawnee and Cathy were headed to a courthouse.  It was the next court date for the ongoing case of trying to get a restraining order against the person who threatened to shoot Tawnee during a recent rescue.

Cathy and Tawnee spent all day at the courthouse.

Larry Alex and April were arriving at their destination to pick up 4 lesson horses that were no longer needed at a riding stable.  They were going to be shipped off to auction, but a concerned individual stepped in and notified us about the horses.

We would like you to meet Prince, a 26 year old Arabian gelding who is about 14 hands and is losing his sight in his right eye.

This is Gracie, a 14 hand Haflinger, age unknown.  She is trained to ride and was a lesson horse.

And this sweet face is Princess Arial, a 25 year old Arabian Morgan mare who is 13.1 hands tall.  She is also a lesson horse and trained to ride.

This is Maggie, a 17 hand Thoroughbred mare.

They were all safely loaded into the rescue rig and they headed back to the shelter.

It was a long day at court and nothing was decided yet, other than the next court date.  After the court hearing Tawnee stopped by the foster home to see the calves as she had not met them yet.

They are just so adorable and just full of love.

The horses from the riding stable made it back safely to the shelter.  Saturday they were turned out into the 15 acre pasture and thoroughly enjoyed romping around with the other horses.

Sunday the trailer was on the road once again…

…Bonnie was being delivered to her new home!  We are so happy that she has found such a wonderful adoptive family, congratulations to them all.

Monday morning Maggie was galloping in the pasture and enjoying stretching out her legs.  She was a retired hunter/jumper and started galloping straight towards the fence.  She leaped through the air, remembering the days when her legs were young and springy.  Sadly, she did not clear the fence as she had expected to, and severely injured herself.  In all the years, and over 2,000 horses, we have never had a horse severely injure itself at the shelter due to an accident.  Maggie was rushed to the vet.  At the vet she was examined and found that she had done some extensive damage to her legs all the way down to the tendons, both hind legs were severely injured and she had an injury between her front legs in her chest.  We were told that she did not have a good prognosis for recovery.  It would not be fair to try and rehab her.  We said “Goodbye” to sweet Maggie and she was humanely euthanized.  This left all of our staff very sad and heavy hearted.  Rest in peace Maggie.

The shelter was closed Monday due to the rain.  It will be open on Thursday if anyone would like to come visit the horses!  Generally we are closed on Thursday but due to the rain we will be welcoming visitors from 1:00 – 4:00 pm on this Thursday the 16th.

Please remember our auction fundraiser!  Your donation, no matter how large or small, directly goes to rescue and care for horses, keeping them out of the slaughter pipeline.  Please help!  Click here.

We made contact with one local dairy who said they didn’t want to give any calves to us.  We gave them our number and told them that we would be available if they ever needed us to take some.  We got a call on Thursday from the dairy and they said that someone had ordered 3 calves, but they didn’t end up buying them.  If we wanted them we could buy them for $10 each.

Soon our rescue team was heading to the dairy to pick up the babies.  The cows at the dairy looked on wide eyed, wondering what was up.

This is the life of the dairy cows at this dairy.

The precious babies were loaded into the van.

The cows on the other side of the walkway watched on with wonder.  You could tell they were thinking “What are they doing with the precious babies?”

The little babies were wide eyed wondering what was happening too.  They were going for their first car ride.

We would like you to meet Boomer.

This little guy is named Bucky.

Last but not least, this is Banjo.

They are just the most adorable little guys.  They were 1 day old when they were  rescued.  If we had not purchased them the dairy said they would have killed them.

Soon it was time for their first meal.  What yummy warm food it was for them too.

After their little tummies were full they laid down for a peaceful nap.

When the babies were sleeping, Cathy headed out to get some additional calf supplies.  We would like to thank Jennifer G. for donating for the rescue and initial care of these babies.

Parcy, our resident steer, was once a baby just like the little guys in this blog.  He was taken to a livestock auction where we purchased him for $5.  He is now a big boy and loves sticking his nose into everything, even the camera.  Click on the photo to see it larger.

Note: The calves were posted on Facebook and have found an adoptive home.  If you are interested in saving a calf, contact a local dairy and place your order.  There are over 4,000,000 unwanted male calves born to the dairy industry every year.  If Banjo, Bucky and Boomer have inspired you to save a calf, contact your local dairy today.

   Thanks to your generous support, Boots is going to have his surgery done!  The cute little guy can’t thank you enough and neither can we.

    As you know, our camera fundraiser was not going well.  We completely understand that people would rather donate their hard earned money to directly saving lives.  In all $150 had been raised.  A generous couple has donated the use of a Canon t3i, with the stipulation that we purchase an extended warranty and accidental insurance.  They wish to remain anonymous.  Thank you so much!

   We had a horse surrendered, it was taken to an off site SAFE location until it could make its way to the shelter.  He was immediately placed into adoption pending, so look for an adoption photo of him soon!

   Not much happened at the shelter this week, there was rain earlier in the week.  Wednesday was a beautiful day and it was time to get stuff done.  Black Socks was on the schedule.

   A few weeks ago Black Socks was standing sad and dejected in an auction yard feeling hopeless.

   His feet were overgrown and today was his trimming day.

   He was a pretty good boy for his front feet, but refused to have his back feet touched.

   He had quite a lot taken off his front feet.  He had to check it out himself to see how much was taken off.  That’s all hoof, it’s not a horseshoe!

 Stardust is such a sweet boy and has mellowed out a lot since coming off the track.  Cathy enjoyed giving him a good grooming job today.

   On November 6th we rescued Stardust Dancer from a livestock auction.  You can read more about him by clicking here.

He is so handsome now!  He had a rough time at first as he got strangles from the auction.  We nursed him through it and he is so gorgeous.  Stardust is going to be writing his old owner, Gary Barber, CEO of MGM Grand Studio, asking for his college tuition to further his training as he is only track trained.

  Meanwhile Shotsy was getting groomed.  It’s hard to believe that this horse is the same horse from a mere 17 days ago…

 17 days ago Shotsy was laying, starving and exhausted, at an auction yard.  It is because of the auction rescue fund that horses like Shotsy are saved, and hopefully soon Shotsy will be in a forever home, maybe yours?

   He definitely loves attention and getting messed with.

   He was a good boy getting his front hooves done the second time.  His feet were so long when he came to the shelter he got them done upon intake, but he still needs corrective trimming to get him back to perfect.   He is not letting us do his back feet yet.  When he was getting his feet done he wanted a snuggle and hug from Tawnee.

Then the snuggle became a “hold me now, I’m relaxed and know I am safe.”

   He has made an amazing transformation and is ready for his new home.

   The Photo of the Day is a picture of Clyde,who is in adoption pending, waiting to be taken to his new home.  It was taken with the new camera and you can really see a lot of detail.  Click the photo to see it larger.

Thank you all who support us both financially and emotionally!  We really appreciate it!