Happy New Year!
Our preliminary reports say that in 2019 we received a total of $830,025.80 in support, $814,655.14 was from direct public donations. 22.8 % of donations went to operations. 1.3% was given as grants to other nonprofit horse welfare organizations to help more horses in need. 14.1% went to staff our organization with qualified people to care for the horses and animals at our shelter and to pay our highly-skilled horse trainers who are able to evaluate, train and place the hundreds of horses that come through our shelter every year. 7.4% of donations went to Medical Care for the animals ensuring they received top quality veterinarian and farrier care. We work with multiple veterinarians and farriers to care and treat the large number of horses we rescue and shelter each year. 54.4% of donations were used to rescue and care for the rescued horses. In total, 77.1% of all donations went directly to help the horses. Horses are typically at our shelter for 90 days before being adopted into their loving homes. Upon arrival at our facility, each horse is evaluated by our veterinary team. Each horse is vaccinated, dewormed, microchipped and placed into quarantine if needed. After the horse has been cleared medically it is evaluated by our horse trainers to determine what kind of adopter would best fit the horse.
In 2019 we rescued and sheltered 622 animals and of those 622 animals, 579 were equines. Here is a breakdown of the animals that came to Horse Plus Humane Society in 2019: Horses – 475 | Minis – 36 | Ponies – 33 | Donkeys – 20 | Chickens – 27 | Mules – 15 | Cats – 10 | Ducks – 4 | Pigs – 1 | Dog – 1.
Intakes Month by Month –
January – 42 total: 40 Horses | 1 Mini | 1 Dog
February – 26 total: 23 Horses | 2 – Ponies | 1 Donkey
March – 36 total: 17 Horses | 8 Donkeys | 6 Ponies | 5 Minis
April – 45 total: 33 Horses | 6 Ponies | 2 Mules | 2 Donkeys | 1 Mini | 1 Henny
May – 61 total: 55 Horses | 5 Mules | 1 Donkey
June – 76 total: 35 Horses | 20 Chickens | 10 Cats | 5 Minis | 3 Ponies | 1 Mule | 1 Donkey
July – 34 total: 31 Horses | 3 Mules
August – 63 total: 54 Horses | 5 Minis | 2 Mules | 1 Pony | 1 Donkey
September – 58 total: 28 horses | 7 Minis | 6 Ponies | 6 Chickens | 4 Ducks | 4 Donkeys | 2 Mules | 1 Pig
October – 44 total: 35 Horses | 8 Minis | 1 Pony
November – 113 total: 102 Horses | 7 Ponies | 4 Minis
December – 24 total: 22 Horses | 1 Donkey | 1 Pony
We rescued 440 horses from the slaughter pipeline. We took in 136 horses through Owner Surrenders. We assisted law enforcement with seizure cases and abandonment cases bringing in 19 animals. Networking to help increase adoptions from other organizations, we took in 8 horses as shelter transfers to us. We had 1 horse born at our shelter in 2019.
As the nation’s largest Full Circle of Life Open Admission Shelter for Horses, we take in and rescue horses at any stage of life including horses that need humane euthanasia. When we are at auctions, we will purposely rescue horses whose owners should have had them humanely euthanized due to quality-of-life issues but took them to the auction instead. This does impact our euthanasia rate, but rather than turning a blind eye to horses that need euthanasia, we rescue them, give them loving care and stand beside them in the end. With that in mind, in 2019 we had a 40% euthanasia rate.
In 2019, we had 333 adoptions and adoption transfers! We worked with our equine adoption partners to help increase adoptions and are very happy that so many horses found loving homes who would not have had a chance without us. We had 18 horses who had been adopted but then were returned to us as their adoption did not work out. All of our horses are adopted out with an adoption contract and first right of refusal agreement if their horse is not the right match the horse can come back to us. We are always there as a safety net for all of our horses if they’re adoptive home does not work out. We are starting out 2020 with 69 equines sheltered at our facility. We hope they will be finding homes soon!
In 2019 we did a lot of improvements building new barns to help us rescue more horses and give them top quality care. Our goal for 2020 is to rescue 700 horses, and with your help we know we will be able to reach our goal and change the lives for all of those horses. We have some exciting things happening in 2020. We will be hosting a Horse Plus Boot Camp inviting other organizations to spend several days with us learning tools that they can take back to their organizations. Season 2 of the Reality TV show Horse Rescue Heroes planning is well underway and It’s looking like season 2 is going to be exciting! In addition, we are planning on posting a weekly Video Blog about the happenings at our shelter. Look for it on Thursdays starting next week!
Happy New Year, and enjoy everything that 2020 has to offer!
