Funds allowing, Lifesavers, Inc. rescues animals in various ways. Our efforts focus on wild horses because this is where our expertise lies.
BLM horses
These may be private rescues of horses that have already been adopted by individuals from the BLM who no longer want to keep their horses. Reasons for surrendering horses tend to be financial or hardship, but most often it is because the adopter didn't have the skills, time or inclination to handle a wild horse. More about why we rescue mustangs here.
Nevada Estray Horses
In March of 2000, Lifesavers entered into agreement with the Nevada Dept. of Agriculture as a cooperative adoption agency for the Virginia Range horses. These horses are not managed by the BLM, but rather the state of Nevada. They are captured when they become nuisances and are held for two months pending adoption. If not adopted in that short amount of time, the state will send the horses to a livestock auction where they will undoubtedly be sold for slaughter. We go to Nevada and bring home horses whose time is running out. They are wild and require gentling. Once gentled we offer them for adoption. Lifesavers teams up with Nevada wild horse welfare groups whenever we can to provide a network of assistance to these and other wild horses.
Other Wild Horses
There are many wild herds in the U.S. and not all of them are BLM managed. Some are managed by the state they are in such as the Nevada Estrays, and some belong to Native American tribes, some may belong to private ranchers where the wild horses live on their private land. Some wild horses are managed by the U.S. Forest Service and the Parks Dept. Often these mentioned agencies or individuals will ask for help in placing unwanted horses in an effort to scale down the population of the herd.
In the summer of 2003 Lifesavers was involved in it's biggest and most challenging horse rescue to date. The Fish Creek rescue saved 150 horses from starvation. These horses were vicitims of a politcal power play betweein the BLM and two Shoshone sisters who owned a large herd. Upon removal of the horses from the BLM land, most were transferred to a California ranch, but 150 were not. There were left behind in Nevada in a small contained area. These were heavy pregnant mares and very young foals. They were abandoned by the new owner and neglected severely. When Lifesavers found out about the dying horses we jumped in. It was a huge logistic nightmare, but we managed to tie up all the legal loose ends and bring the horses to safety.
PMU Rescue
PMU stands for pregnant mare's uriine. From this an estrogen replacement drug is made for menopausal women. It is called Premarin. Hundreds of Premarin farms across Canada and the NW United States used to be in production. Due to public outcry and boycott of the drug, 2/3 of the former farms have shut down. However, the drug company, Wyeth Ayerst, is still promoting their product and is still supporting many farms. The tragedy with this industry is that in addition to keeping mares pregnant and "online" 6 months of the year, the offspring of these mares creates a glut market of foals and most end up at the slaughter house. Read more about it here
Auction Rescue
In the beginning of Lifesavers operations we frequented the local livestock auctions in order to rescue horses that would likely be sent to slaughter. Over time experience taught us to avoid the auctions and try to intercept horses at-risk prior to auctions where often they can become sick, injured, or sold behind the scenes. Therefore now we purchase at-risk horses directly from feedlots or "killer buyers" before they are sent to livestock auctions. Killer buyers are horse dealers who buy for the purpose of sending horses to the slaughter house. Auction rescued horses may be domestic horses as well as mustangs.
All rescued horses are provided feed, care and love. If a horse is healthy and sound enough we will attempt to relocate them into good homes where they will be loved and well cared for. In the cases where the horses are not sound, or healthy, they will remain on the ranch to live out their lives as sanctuaried horses.
Please read A Day At The Auction which will give you a better understanding of how we perform auction rescues.
Send donations to: Lifesavers, Inc., 23809 East Avenue J., Lancaster, California 93535
Phone for more information: 661-727-0049 or email lifesavers@wildhorserescue.org
© 1997 Lifesavers, Inc.