DAYS END FARM HORSE RESCUE's
Response Teams Helps Georgia Horses

By Brad Wind

Six months after Days End Farm Horse Rescue assisted the Humane Society of Washington County, MD with sheltering and evaluation of 74 horses seized during a criminal investigation, the Days End’s first-responder RED (Rescuing Equines in Disasters) Team provided critical evaluation services to an even larger impoundment, this time in Mansfield Georgia.

Within hours of being contacted, Brooke Vrany, Director of Programs and Emergency Services at Days End, and fellow RED Team responder, Erin Ochoa, were on site May 29th and 30th in Mansfield. Their job, to help classify the 99 equines impounded in late February. For this large group of animals, time was running out!

The state impound facility had exhausted its funds to care for the one-time neglected equines that constituted the impoundment. Also depleted was the facility's volunteer corps, leaving a severe shortfall of expert manpower with which to make ready the 61 horses slated for sale at public auction the very next week.

Over two tireless days, Memorial Day weekend, Brooke and Erin evaluated numerous horses and established records of their mental and physical health knowing that every bit of new knowledge they could gather would improve the chances of these horses finding an owner at auction. Put simply, a horse that no one knows anything about presents immediate questions as opposed to a horse that has been professionally assessed. For these horses to have a chance of finding the best home, they desperately needed to be profiled.

Toward this end, the two Days End RED Team responders functioned seamlessly as a cohesive strike unit alongside three responders from the Humane Society of the United States' Southeast Regional Office and two Georgia State Department of Agriculture facility workers. The horses received all due attention including halter breaking, handling, and in appropriate cases riding. Using expert methods, each of the horses were evaluated by Days End’s and their collaborator’s exceptional standards of professionalism. Afterwards, Brooke Vrany noted how beautiful, happy, and even how well-trained, some of the horses were. Thanks to the response effort, every horse found not just a new home but the best one possible despite the circumstances.

"It is gratifying to be called in to assist with big projects and crisis’ even states away," said Director Vrany. "What was really great about this collaboration was that it showed that a great working relationship could be established between Days End, the Humane Society of the United States, and the State Department of Agriculture for Georgia despite any differences. That we could come together under one mission and one cause and have a general feeling of doing good and be able to perform as a unified emergency response team is truly a winning situation!"

The local Georgia NBC affiliate WXIA-TV covered the story of the auction, including footage of the Day's End responders in action.

 

 

For more information call:
301/854-5037 or 410/442-1564
E-Mail: info@defhr.org

Physical Address:
1372 Woodbine Road
Woodbine, MD 21797

Mailing Address:
P.O. Box 309
Lisbon, Maryland 21765

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Days End Farm Horse Rescue, Inc. is a non-profit, volunteer based humane organization whose mission is Fostering compassion and responsibility for horses through intervention, education, and outreach.