Hope is a thoroughbred horse who had anything but a regal life until Lindsay Kern rescued her.
Hope‘s history is sketchy, but the one certainty is that the owner, thought to be a drug dealer, had starved her.
When Hope was rescued, she was a sack of bones covered with hair the texture of straw. Her mane and tail were coarse and snarled – the world‘s worst bad hair day.
She weighed about 700 pounds, 300 pounds underweight for a horse her size. She was about to end up on a dinner plate when Kern bought her at auction.
For good reason, she was named Hope.
Now, several months later, the rescue is turning into a success. Hope has put on about 250 pounds and Kern has begun training her.
Kern and her partner, Jesse Legroux, run Equi-Life Sport Horses, which offers riding lessons out of Twin Creek Ranch above the Kelowna airport.
“I rescued my first horse when I was 12,” said Kern. “I bought her and spent a lot of time with her. My trainers and I really turned her around,
so it‘s just gone on from there.
“When I first started doing this, everybody thought these horses could not come back. But we‘ve proven it can be done.
“More people are doing more things to help animals than ever before.”
They have rescued, rehabilitated and found new homes for 12 horses, and are working on five more at the ranch.
Many of the horses have come from the auction in Armstrong.
“The Armstrong auction sells productive horses too,” said Kern, “but the ones I‘m interested in are going to the slaughterhouse.”
There is a market for the human consumption of horse meat, especially in France.
The issue of animal rights goes back to the sixth century BC, when the Greek philosopher Pythagoras believed in the transmigration of souls between human and non-human animals. To kill an animal might be killing an ancestor, he argued.
The current animal-rights movement started in Britain in the late 1960s with a group of philosophers at Oxford University.
It‘s not often that philosophers start and sustain a movement, but as Richard Ryder, who was part of the Oxford Group, said: “Rarely has a cause been so rationally argued and so intellectually well armed.”
Today, animal law courses are taught in law schools and there are an uncountable number of organizations and laws worldwide that are meant to protect animals.
According to Wikipedia, countries such as Brazil and Germany recognize animal rights in their constitutions while Switzerland recognizes animals as beings, rather than things.
Cats, dogs, rabbits, horses and even pigs are getting help from those who now insist on a little tenderness.
A recent report condemned the treatment of live pigs on their journey from Alberta to Hawaii.
The World Society for the Protection of Animals says thousands of pigs have suffered neglect and mistreatment during that gruelling 6,000-kilometre journey.
The trip over land and sea can take up to nine days, and it‘s dubbed the worst animal transport route in North America.
Says Melissa Tkachyk of WSPA: “These pigs are being shipped like garbage on its way to a landfill. We treat our furniture with more respect.”
On the other end of the weight scale, the now well-known Kelowna rabbits – at one point faced with culling – will likely find a home with the help of The Responsible Animal Care Society and sympathetic property owners in Joe Rich.
“We started out in 1994 with strictly horses,” said TRACS‘ Sinikka Crosland. “There was a case of horse neglect in our neighbourhood. We had petitions going about on how to protect the horses.
“When that was all over, we looked at each other and said, ’We shouldn‘t stop. There‘s a momentum here.‘
“Sometimes, this kind of work feels like one step forward and two steps back. But the general trend is forward. There are lots of compassionate people in our society.”
Moving day for Kelowna‘s bunnies may happen sooner than expected because the application for permission to capture the rabbits has been expedited by the Ministry of the Environment.
“The ministry has been very supportive, and they want to fast-track the permit to allow us to take the sterilized rabbits up to the property in Joe Rich,” said Crosland, who added the property, owned by Vicki and Mike Streeter, will allow for at least half an acre to house the bunnies.
“We‘re working with them to build enclosures and hutches and so on,” she said. “It‘s a long-term project and a very expensive one, especially for the sterilizing of the rabbits.”
A Facebook site, “Save Kelowna‘s Bunnies,” has almost 500 people signed up who are willing to help.
“It‘s a good piece of land, a very suitable spot with compassionate people,” said Crosland. “We are having someone from Calgary come out to show us how to trap the rabbits.”
Critteraid and the Summerland Cat Sanctuary were established in 1992 to provide refuge for unwanted, abused, abandoned and feral cats. The sanctuary is based on a 10-acre farm.
When Maria Windsor found an emaciated horse lying at the end of her rural Penticton driveway last month, Critteraid set its sights on a bigger picture.
The horse is now gaining weight, getting some much-needed food into her belly and has an encouraging spring in her stride, said Windsor.
In the same spirit Kern‘s horse was named Hope, the Windsors are calling their horse Faith.
With the help of Critteraid, people can make a donation to the “Faith Fund” to help with feeding costs and to pay for a veterinarian‘s assessment.
Critteraid president Debra Silk said any money donated to the fund is set aside in a trust account and will remain with Faith for the remainder of her life.
The Critteraid team mobilizes in emergencies such as forest fires and floods to help provide transportation and temporary shelter to domestic or farm animals.
Critteraid also provides temporary accommodation for pets while women who have left abusive relationships stay at the local women‘s shelter.
In 2001, a group of former SPCA volunteers started the Vernon and District Animal Care Society, which has specialized in sterilizing dogs, cats and rabbits.
Heather Pettit said donations increased by 50 per cent last year over the year before.
“We are seeing an increase in support,” she said. “People are looking at animals more humanely. The attitude is changing rapidly and dramatically.”
She said her group recently went to the Kohler plant in Armstrong to trap and sterilize feral cats that have had a habit of moving into the property.
“They used to kill them,” she said. “But now the people at Kohler realize that it‘s not the cats‘ fault, it‘s the fault of people who dump them.”
She said VDACS also helps seniors and people on disability with the costs of having pets.
“Their animals are often the only family they have,” she said. Top of Page
