05/10/2025
Silent Wave Horse Rescue has been actively rescuing equines for 10 years now. In those 10 years, plus the couple extra that I started rescuing horses before SWHR was formed as a dedicated organization, I’ve pretty much seen everything humans can do to animals, especially equines. Or so I thought. Yesterday threw me a new loop in the “how cruel can you actually be to your horses” category. I’ve seen or rescued horses who are abandoned and even starved (Bonnie and Bella last March, in plain sight of a highway on private property), usually folks who abandon a horse will do that cruel act in a location where they think the horse has access to grass and water. It makes the perp feel better about themselves. Such an act is cruel (and thankfully illegal) in itself, like leaving puppies at the roadside with a bag of dogfood and a water dish (Shawn Duncan). Yesterday morning a call went in to the Grant County Sheriff’s Office reporting two horses abandoned at a hunting camp. Your first thought is, what happened to the hunters, are they okay? What’s the situation? After many calls with dispatch to get the exact location out in the middle of nowhere, 1-1/2 hours from us, I gathered an amazing little posse of volunteers and headed out to meet the GCSO deputy at the site. What greeted the deputy, our volunteers, and myself will never be forgotten. Indeed, we were met with the horrifying vision of two starving and beaten down mares CORALLED within a temporary solid enclosure of barbed wire, with no food or water, next to an apparently abandoned RV. These mares had NO water (Deputy O had already hauled water for them, immediately when he got there). There was a hay pile teasing them a mere 30’ away OUTSIDE the shoddy but impenetrable fence, and worst, there was a running creek about 100’ away—water they could hear but not access. Logs and tree trunks within the corral were chewed down. These horses were starving and would have died of dehydration if a Good Samaritan hunter had not paid attention in passing by and called the sheriff immediately. We figure they’d been left for days to a week already, maybe with just enough water to keep them alive for a while, or the occasional passing hunter got a little water to them, just enough to keep them alive.
These two sweet sweet mares are in pretty rough shape and are being held in private protective custody as this is a very active LE case. If you know who left these horses, or if they were stolen from someone—anyone missing two sorrel mares?, please contact us or call the Grant County (Oregon) Sheriff’s Office with information. Thank you to the hunter who had the presence of mind to report them to LE, and huge gratitude to Scotta Calister, Les Zaitz, and Brandy Graves for jumping on board on their quiet Saturday to accompany me to get these two horribly failed horses out of hell and to safety.
And a huge thank you again and again and again to the Grant County Sheriff’s Office under Sheriff Todd McKinley and his very finest of deputies, and to Angie at Dispatch, for responding immediately and showing up for cases like these, for continually ensuring our safety as we respond to such SKETCHY situations, and for demonstrating repeatedly that Grant County Oregon will not tolerate animal neglect, abuse, or abandonment. What people do to animals, they do to humans. We are blessed here with law enforcement who takes the law very seriously. You are the best of the best.
What kind of evil person(s) does this???? What suffering…….how very crushing.
If you see horses in rough shape, abandoned, starving, or in trouble, please don’t post them on Facebook—-call the county sheriff immediately. We know these horses were seen well before the first call came in yesterday morning
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