At the end of a long, narrow road, tucked in closely to the rugged Santa Rita mountains, lies the Jumpin’ Jack Ranch, a safe haven for abused and neglected horses.

On a recent Saturday morning, about 20 prospective volunteers, including myself, ventured to the tiny town of Amado for an orientation and equine safety class. Upon arrival to the Jumpin’ Jack Ranch, we met Karen Pomroy, founder and president of Equine Voices Rescue & Sanctuary. Equine Voices was established in 2004 with just four horses.

Today, under the tutelage of Pomroy, the sanctuary houses approximately 40 horses, with a large number of volunteers, assisting with everything from care and management to fundraising to office and computer work.

“Equine Voices is a non-profit organization dedicated to saving Premarin (PMU) mares and foals from slaughter,” said Pomroy regarding the rescue’s mission. “We are a voice for the many horses that cannot speak for themselves, working to end their senseless slaughter for overseas markets. In addition to rescuing PMU mares and foals, we assist horses that have been abandoned, abused, neglected and those used in the illegal drug trade.”

E.V. is also the first equine rescue and sanctuary in Arizona to receive accreditation from the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries.

“Equine Voices Rescue and Sanctuary is exemplary in so many areas, it is hard to choose just one to highlight,” said Patty Finch, GFAS Executive Director. “But clearly laudable is their work to help pregnant mares cruelly exploited for urine collection, used in the manufacturing of Premarin.

“Not only does Equine Voices rescue the horses that are victims of this ruthless industry and the cast-off foals created by the process, but they also work to educate the public and members of the medical community about the source of these estrogen-replacement drugs and the cruelty inherent in procuring them,” Finch added.

The accolades for Equine Voices continue. Not long ago, the rescue was featured on NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams for its efforts in rescuing approximately 20 horses, which were abandoned by drug smugglers in the vast, Southern Arizona desert.

One of those horses was Sundance, a Palomino gelding. Sundance was found with 300-400 pounds of marijuana strapped tightly to his back. A few wounds are still visible today, but after months of painstaking recovery, his sores have almost healed.

Sundance is only one of four horses still at the rescue. Thanks to Equine Voices, the others that were so cruelly abused and abandoned, now have productive and useful lives and have been adopted out to new homes.

To learn more about Equine Voices Rescue & Sanctuary, or to find out how you can help, go to www.equinevoices.org. You can also e-mail them at info@equinevoices.org.

 

 

This entry was posted on Monday, August 8th, 2011 at 9:39 am and is filed under Uncategorized. Tags for this post: abused horses, Arizona horse rescues, neglected horses, sanctuaries, Tucson horse rescues. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.