DAYS END FARM HORSE RESCUE - DEFHR

Among our many other services and programs, Days End Farm Horse Rescue Rescues and Rehabilitates horses that have been impounded by Animal Control officials and documents the initial health issues and the recovery process as evidence so that the horses caretakers are held accountable for the cruelty or neglect they inflicted on their horse(s).

Once called, our Equine Rescue Team arrives on the scene much like an ambulance crew or rescue squad would. We coordinate with the impounding agency responding to the neglected or abused horses and other agencies dealing with accidents or animals in danger. Back at the farm, our Volunteers and Staff are already hard at work preparing the stalls and quarantine areas for the incoming horse(s).

Our team provides whatever care is necessary on the scene and may transport the equines to Days End Farm Horse Rescue. At the farm the horses receive immediate veterinary attention, diagnostic tests and examinations by our Veterinarians and Staff, much like triage in an emergency room.

The equines then begin their recovery process as our Staff, Volunteers and Veterinarians care for them while documenting and monitoring their progress.

The equines are sometimes signed over to Days End immediately and become our responsibility. Often, because they are considered evidence in a crime, they must be held until the trial and all appeals have been completed. At that point the horses may or may not be signed over to the farm. If they are the adoption process will begin, if deemed appropriate.

Our goal for adoptable horses is to place them into good, caring homes with people who have the skills to provide proper care. Each potential adopter is evaluated a minimum of three times, their references are checked, and the farm that will house the horse is inspected by our trained Farm Inspectors before adoption. Farm Inspectors also do follow up visits for two years following any adoption before legal title is signed over to the adopter.

Days End Farm Horse Rescue is not now, and has never been a Sanctuary. If that were the case we would quickly fill to capacity, our intended mission would end, and many horses would suffer as a result. Instead, we are a rescue facility that provides “Rescue” and “Rehabilitation” to horses and seeks to find “good”, “qualified” homes for them, when possible following rehabilitation.

The AAEP (American Association or Equine Practitioners) estimates that 2,700 more rescue facilities are needed right now just to care for the thousands of horses made surplus across the United States during the first year since the closing of the horse slaughter plants. Next year we will need more and still more the next year. Sanctuaries are not the answer.

The sad truth is that there is not, nor will there ever be, the money, the space and the facilities to house all the unwanted horses.

That being said individuals abusing animals of any kind should be held accountable and the animals suffering at their hands need to be rescued. Where will they go?

Days End Farm’s mission is to Rescue Horses! We assist the Humane Enforcement Officers / Animal Control Officers and the Maryland States Attorney as they prosecute abusers, while we continue to rehabilitate, train, socialize and place these horses that can be placed.

To unnecessarily endanger the public by placing horses that are known by us to be unusually dangerous would not only be irresponsible but might put Days End’s financial stability at risk of lawsuits.

Keeping horses that are determined to be unadoptable because they require expensive ongoing care and/or have a debilitating condition or keeping horses that are in severe chronic pain is irresponsible and unkind to the horses. It also jeopardizes our mission and undermines our fiduciary responsibility to our donors.

We understand that our volunteers bond deeply with the horses they care for at the farm. We also appreciate their sentiments and feelings when all does not go as well as hoped with a horse’s recovery or adoption. ALL of us share in the justifiable sadness!!

We grieve our loss, remember our efforts on their behalf, and remember them and all they endured but ultimately, the mission must continue: Horses will be rescued, cared for, rehabilitated and loved. People who are cruel will be prosecuted. Adoptive homes are sought for rehabilitated horses. New beginnings are happening with regularity!

Our job to alleviate pain and suffering while educating people about the needs of horses and the duties and responsibilities of ownership continues, and we couldn’t do it without; all of our very dedicated Volunteers and the many generous donors who believe in the mission of Days End Farm Horse Rescue.

For more information call:
301/854-5037 or 410/442-1564
E-Mail: info@defhr.org

Physical Address:
1372 Woodbine Road
Woodbine, MD 21797

Mailing Address:
P.O. Box 309
Lisbon, Maryland 21765

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