I’m sure that many of you have been following (and helping with) the 800+ wild horses who were suffering on their South Dakota sanctuary, The International Society for the Protection of Mustangs and Burros (ISPMB).
This is a tragic story. The shorthand of the crisis, from what I have been told, is that the Director of ISPMB lost her way with the goals/rules of the initial charter of the Foundation. Due to pressures and other misguided choices, she turned her well-respected Mustang sanctuary into a shelter that was in shambles. There is a longer story here, but suffice it to say, ISPMB was very respected for many years. And then it fell apart – and they didn’t tell anyone until it was almost too late to help.
For the past few months, dedicated workers on the ground, spearheaded by Elaine Nash with Fleet of Angels and many other worker bees and supporters, have worked tirelessly (in horrible weather) to find homes and transport these WILD HORSES (no handling) to their new homes.
The State of South Dakota gave yesterday, November 30th, as the last day for these innocent and unfortunate horses. All Mustangs who were not adopted by yesterday – were going to slaughter.
Well… sometimes great work done by amazing humans does ‘right a wrong’…
Here is the latest update… it isn’t final, not all adopters have been verified, and moving 800 horses to individual homes will be quite an endeavor. But, this news is good. Very good.
THANK YOU, ELAINE, FLEET OF ANGELS AND ALL THE ANGELS ON THE GROUND WHO MADE ALL OF THIS POSSIBLE.
Latest update:
OK. Here’s an update on the update…
THE ISPMB ADOPTED HORSES CAN STILL LEAVE
Apparently there was a misunderstanding on the part of the Sheriff about the adoption campaign, who was notifying people that no horses could leave the ISPMB property after midnight tonight- adopted or not, and that they would be sent to auction later this month. However, this is the official word from the State’s Attorney to Fleet of Angels through our attorney this evening: ‘Anyone who has applied to adopt horses by midnight tonight will still be able to pick up horses approved for them.’
Now- here’s the good news/bad news situation: We have now received more applications for horses than there are horses to adopt. For the moment, we will honor all adoptions that have been approved. We will continue to explore what the future holds for this adoption campaign and for those innocent horses. So, forward ho- and thank you ALL for helping save as many of the ISPMB horses as possible! 11-30-2016
Older (outdated) news from today… this is what Elaine is referencing in the above, newer update:
?Elaine Nash? to ISPMB HORSES / EMERGENCY ADOPTION MISSION
I want to provide you all with an update, but there are so many moving pieces to this puzzle that it’s hard to provide good, accurate information. There are a lot of rumors flying around, which of course is typical for Facebook. One rumor is that the Sheriff made a side deal with someone in TN and is letting them have all of the horses in exchange for the TN person paying off the small debt of under $25K that Karen Sussman still owes the state. Supposedly, those people will pick up all the horses within the next two weeks. (I wonder if they know that there are dozens of blind horses in one of the herds, and that they panic, spin, fall, and run over people when disrupted. We’ll be sure to have the media there to film the loading of those horses.) Another rumor is that the State Attorney has decided to send all of the horses to auction in late December. Neither of those rumors has been confirmed, and are suspicious on several levels. Still another rumor- delivered by the Sheriff directly to our team that’s on site at ISPMB is that NO horses will be allowed off the property after midnight tonight- adopted or not. That seems odd, since some adopters have already been issued bills of sale, so ISPMB is no longer the owner of those horses. We have been told from the time I accepted the State Attorney’s request to create and manage an adoption campaign that preventing the slaughter of the horses was the goal. I hope he remembers his pledge to me about that.
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After weeks of working behind the scenes to get it put together, Fleet of Angels and our partner organizations have a terrific proposal on the table that would save every horse from slaughter. We have enough adoption applications in hand now to get every adoptable horse to a good home, and we have a truly wonderful program in place for some of the herds to live in a horse-perfect sanctuary in peace for the rest of their lives.
We will let everyone know as soon as we hear from our attorneys, who are in meetings on our behalf.
I want to thank EVERYONE of you who has worked to help us help the ISPMB horses. We don’t yet have an exact number of horses that have escaped the deadly fate so hoped for by some human monsters, but even if we don’t achieve the hoped for result for every horse, we will still have saved over 200 of the ISPMB horses from the worst possible fate.
This is still a situation in progress. No answers for questions until we have definitive answers for you. In the meantime, please don’t believe every Facebook rumor you read.
SUCH GOOD WORK. SUCH GOOD WORK.
DOES YOUR NEW ISPMB HORSE NEED A LIFT HOME? BE SURE TO SUBMIT YOUR REQUEST FOR ASSISTANCE AT www.FLEETofANGELS.org, in order to get a discounted rate with an F…
You are right and this is very, very sad news. Elaine Nash thought she could place these horses via the many adoption applications. But, Evidently, the owner of ISPMB is not letting go of several ‘special’ or rare herds. This has created
a huge issue. These horses still need to be adopted – or go to auction. 600 of them. (Only 200 were released to be adopted.)
So twisted and convoluted. It is tragic that the previous owner does not see the reality here. And so very sad for the horses.
Thank you for this link.
The auction for those horses remaining is Dec 20 here’s the Fb page ISPMB Auction Horses