EQUINE RETIREMENT COMMUNITY; RANCH A SANCTUARY FOR HOMELESS HORSES.Byline: Daily News and wire services Once a grand racehorse racehorse refers usually to thoroughbred but may also include standardbred, trotter. , Aurora nearly starved starve v. starved, starv·ing, starves v.intr. 1. To suffer or die from extreme or prolonged lack of food. 2. Informal To be hungry. 3. To suffer from deprivation. at a bankrupt ranch. Helen, an appaloosa mare, lost her sight and feared attack from other horses. Golden Boy stood ankle-deep in waste in a broken pen. The horses were destined des·tine tr.v. des·tined, des·tin·ing, des·tines 1. To determine beforehand; preordain: a foolish scheme destined to fail; a film destined to become a classic. 2. for shoe makers in Japan and dining tables in France until Linda Moss bought them at auction or stock yard and moved them to Equus Sanctuary, a retirement community for horses. ``The horse market is extremely ruthless,'' Moss said. Moss opened the horse haven in 1989 after rescuing at auction four horses that were headed to slaughterhouses. She's nursed them to health at various locations - including Smiser's Ranch in Newhall - until relocating three years ago to a 40-acre ranch in Littlerock. She now cares for 230 horses that nobody wanted. ``I've been a horse person most of my life,'' she said. ``I used to show and go to all the sales, but I began to notice a lot more horses than people buying them. ``When I researched what was happening to the surplus, I was shocked,'' she said. Unlike unwanted domestic animals, many surplus horses are not euthanized. Instead, they are bludgeoned and bled like cattle to prepare them for human consumption, she says. Many of the horses are old, blind or are sick, but some are healthy and young but tossed aside when they could not be broken, were overbred or bored owners. The Equus Sanctuary is funded through donations - $30 to care for a rescued horse to $500 or more to pay for a rescue. Moss said all the money goes toward the animals' care, and administrative costs administrative costs, n.pl the overhead expenses incurred in the operation of a dental benefits program, excluding costs of dental services provided. are absorbed by the sanctuary's operators. Feed alone costs $20,500 a month, she says. CAPTION(S): 3 Photos Photo: (1-2--color) Linda Moss, left, leads Nardo back to his corral corral a small fenced-in enclosure with high, wooden fences, suitable for holding cattle or horses. corral system a management system in which range cattle are put into corrals and fed hay for a period when the environment is most at the 40-acre Equus Sanctuary near Littlerock, where Moss tends to 230 horses she has rescued from the slaughterhouse slaughterhouse: see abattoir; meatpacking. . Above, Daisy and Annie take a peek over the fence. (3--color) Ranch hand Lionel Vasquez spreads out feed for retired horses at Equus Sanctuary near Littlerock. Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. |
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