Our founder Brittney was at work one day and received a flood of text messages about a beautiful draft mare being actively loaded on to a slaughter truck. We were not in the position to take any new animals, let alone a large horse – one of the many reasons we are working so hard on acquiring a larger property through our capital campaign. Then a message came through – the truck had pulled away, she was gone. An hour later, a flicker of hope appeared. Our friend at another rescue had gotten the truck to turn around and had safely gotten this big girl off the truck. She needed emergency medical treatment immediately.
Doctors at Ohio State Veterinary Hospital said she had been “worked to near death”. She recently had a baby (we do not know where the baby is unfortunately, or if it is still alive) and her uterus was severely infected as a result. At her age, she was too old to have been pregnant in the first place, another indication of the hell she had lived through. We believe she was worked as a plow or farm horse due to her size and breed, and due to the intense and unsafe work conditions she endured her body suffered multiple injuries, some of which she will have for the rest of her life.
Mia is under constant supervision, and we are actively monitoring her condition. In addition to her massive size, she requires much continuous medical care due to her previous life. Seeing the light return to her eyes, and her personality begin to show through as she realizes she is safe and loved reminds us why we do what we do.
If you’d like to learn more information about stopping the shipment of horses across the border for slaughter, please stay tuned for a later post detailing this troubling situation in the US.