I have been asked to coordinate the biggest rescue assisted seizure of horses in U.S. history. Please cross post this message everywhere, as we need to place 300 Virginia Range horses within the next week or so.
Here's the story:
These are Virginia Range horses that are/were controlled by the State of Virginia, NOT by the BLM. The State either sold or gave Slick Gardner 300 of these horses and he took them to California and starved them. This is the same guy who cheated Mary & Carrie Dann out of so many of their horses by writing them a bad check to pay for them and he starved them, too. You can read more about them on Lifesavers webpage, under "Fish Creek Horses".

Anyway, the DA in California has stated that he will ask the judge to turn over all the horses to 501c3 equine rescues across the U.S. IF we can get at least 75% of them placed by the time Slick goes to court on this.

The plan I have been asked to carry out includes raising all the shipping costs so that the rescues get the horses completely for free. So,...

I need 501c3 equine rescues to contact me. They must meet certain criteria, including using an adoption contract and providing some form of follow-up inspections on these horses that they adopt out.

I need private rescues and those with 501c3's pending to contact me so that they can be put in touch with 501's that are taking in horses so that they can take in horses under the 501c3.

I need ADOPTERS so that I can put you in touch with a 501c3 near you that is getting some of these horses.

I need donors to donate for the transport costs.

I need people to help with fundraising and to give interviews to the press.

The adoption fee that the rescues set for these horses is up to the rescues themselves. The United States Equine Sanctuary, the rescue I volunteer for, has set the adoption fees at a straight $200.00 per horse, no matter what age, sex, color, or if the mare is in foal or not. Slick has allowed the horses to breed indescrimantly, so many of the mares are in foal, BUT there are no guarantees. If a mare looks pregnant, we are not going to have her sonogramed or anything.

A lot of you will remember the fiasco of the Nevada 980, billed as the "biggest rescue in history". I am taking steps to see to it that this is not a repeat of that. Neither I, nor my rescue, had anything to do with that "rescue". I really think that turned into a greed fest and some people got really greedy with the horses and it made for a lot of trouble. In this rescue effort, it will be nice if the rescues can make some money off of these horses, but it is BY NO MEANS the goal of this ordeal. The main thing is that the horses get placed in permanent, loving homes where they will be taken care of for life, not starved, and not sold for slaughter. California is an anti-slaughter state and the DA is very strict about the anti-slaughter issue in this.

Yes, it's true that my rescue is the one that will be accepting the donations to pay for transport, but the way that is going to be set up centers around it all being open and above board. The way it will work is, each rescue will try to solicit donations and pledges. The donations shall be sent to the rescues themselves. Those rescues will, for example, open the envelopes containing the donations and record the name of the donor, amount sent, and any other information they want to, then send the donation to my rescue. Within a few days, the name of the donor and the amount will appear on a special web page on my rescue's website as a confirmation.

It will be permitted for the rescues to go pick up their own horses themselves. Otherwise, I'll arrange for transportation, so I need transporters to contact me, too. There was a major problem with transportation in the Nevada 980 and I am not going to allow that to happen again.

Although the adoption fees for these horses is not going to be set by anyone but the individual rescues receiveing horses, here is how my rescue is going to handle this:

Adopters will pay the $200.00 adoption fee and $25.00 filing fee my rescue normally requires. They will pay all the money up front, before they get any horses. In the event no rescues are awarded any horses, 100% of that money will be refunded. Normally, we don't refund the filing fee, but in this case, we will be making an exception. The ONLY way that 100% of the adoption money will not be refunded is if the adopter pays using Paypal, because Paypal keeps about 5% of the money that goes through it. We won't be able to refund money that Paypal kept, but we will refund everything else. I am hoping to be able to use the adoption fees to go pick up the horses my rescue is getting. Refund policies are up to the individual rescue, so if you'd like to adopt, shop before you adopt.

I already have some adopters who need to be hooked up with rescues. The way I'm handling this is, I tell the adopters which rescues in their state are participating and they get to choose which rescue to adopt from. I do this even in the state my rescue operates in, Texas. It doesn't matter who the adopter adopts from, from the rescues standpoint. All that matters is that we get these horses safely placed.

If you are interested in this and would like more information, please contact me at headquarters@usesr.org .

Thank you, and please do cross-post this message.
United States Equine Sanctuary & Rescue

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