Lake County Animal Control officers say this two-year-old horse was left without food and water for six days, after first being found injured in a pasture.
Over the past month, we have reported on a llama left to starve to death near Forestville, and daily cats and dogs are picked up as stray (likely dumped) in various parts of the county and the most recent horror comes out of Lake County. An already ill horse was left in a pasture for three days then, in a move designed to hide it from the neighbors, one supposes, dragged into a stall where she languished for another six days.
An animal control officer in Lake County found the horse barely alive after it was in the stall without food or access to water. The horse is a two year quarter-horse mix now under the watchful eye of Betsy Bueno of Lost Hearts and Souls Horse Rescue in Santa Rosa. This is the same lady who is caring for that llama abandoned near Forestville.
Initially the plan was to euthanize the horse, now named Hope, but something made her rescuers think twice. Instead she is being nursed back to health. I use that term loosely because her neglect was so severe that she is on constant pain medication so her feet can be wrapped.
We know these are hard times and money is tight, but really folks, do not turn your backs on the most vulnerable of our society. If you cannot care for your animal, it is NOT a death sentence to surrender to your local humane society or animal shelter. What is an almost certain death sentence is dropping Muffy on a country road where if the cars don’t kill her, then the local coyotes, foxes or raccoons will.
Bueno says the biggest mistake people do is wait too long to get help.
As for Hope the horse, the Lake County District Attorney’s office is investigating the owner for possible felony animal cruelty and neglect.
