By Kim Mosiman | Executive Director
Sound Equine Options (SEO) helped Linn County Sheriff’s Office seize 34 horses on Wednesday, April 24, 2019, after 14 were found dead on a property outside of Lebanon, Ore.
Deputies executing the search warrant on Wednesday found some of the horses standing in septic mud and water, full of urine and feces. The horses were so emaciated that their ribs and hip bones were showing, and some had difficulty walking. The horses did not have access to clean drinking water, and there were no signs of an adequate food source. Criminal Animal Neglect II charges are pending for the property owners.
SEO needs donations to help cover the cost of caring for the 34 horses. On average, SEO spends $2,500 per horse, which includes the veterinary care, rehabilitation, and training needed to find each horse a suitable, permanent home. Providing 34 horses with quality hay will cost $3,000 a month alone. These horses will also require dental and farrier (feet) care, deworming and vaccinations, and ongoing veterinary care.
SEO spent all day Wednesday assisting deputies with the seizure. The rescue effort included coordinating more than 30 volunteers and a dozen horse trailers to catch, load, and haul all 34 horses to an equine hospital in the Portland area.
It took several days to evaluate and treat the horses. Several of the mares are visibly pregnant, so their numbers could grow to 44 or more. Once stabilized, horses are sent to foster homes where they receive individualized care, quality nutrition and additional veterinary care, including additional doses of dewormer and vaccinations.
Most horses usually remain with SEO for six to nine months before they are adopted. However, horses from law enforcement cases must remain in protective custody until court proceedings are over, which means these horses may not be able start SEO's training and adoption program for an extended period of time.
In general, it often takes a horse 3 to 4 months to recover at a foster home before it is strong enough to begin SEO's training program, which includes ground manners, desensitizing, and whenever possible, riding. Proper training is a life insurance policy for horses. Good training helps make them desirable and reliable partners, which leads to more successful adoptions.
Training can take another 3 to 4 months, depending on the age, disposition, and previous experience of the horse. Some of the horses SEO takes in have never been handled or were handled poorly. Our trainers use natural horsemanship methods, which focus on creating a bond of respect and communication between people and horses. It builds a horse’s confidence and is the fairest way to communicate with a horse. The result is a solid partnership and connection between horse and rider.
SEO's horses are available for adoption to pre-approved adopters who complete our application process and site visit inspection. Adopters also must demonstrate that they have the skills, knowledge and resources needed to properly care for the horse, which must include regular veterinary care, farrier care, and proper feeding. Adopters must agree not to sell or rehome the horse without prior approval of SEO. All new homes are also inspected.
Properly rehabbed and trained rescue horses are as good, if not better, as those available for sale through private sellers. SEO's adoption return rate is very low, which they attribute to their training program.
Sound Equine Options (SEO) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded in 2009 to assist the growing number of neglected, abused and abandoned horses in our community. Our mission is to save the lives of horses through support, education, rehabilitation, training and adoption.
A licensed rescue, SEO focuses on law enforcement cases to help break the cycle of abuse, neglect, abandonment and suffering for local horses. Although Oregon leads the nation in animal welfare legislation, it lacks the resources to address the increasing numbers of unwanted horses in our area. By caring for abused, neglected and abandoned horses, SEO fills a great need not currently being met by local, state or federal government.
On average, SEO is caring for between 40 and 60 horses at a time that had been neglected, abused, or abandoned. For every law enforcement case we take in, there are approximately 3 more that remain in bad situations because we don't have the resources or the capacity to help them all. That means there are hundreds of horses in our community that are suffering, right now.
SEO exists solely on private donations, small grants and fundraising. To learn more about SEO, visit soundequineoptions.org.
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By Marie Naughton | Marketing & Communications Director
By Kim Mosiman | Executive Director
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