(NB! This video will be upsetting to watch. I know people will question why I bother to film these things at all. Its partly for our own sake, so that if the owner comes later and accuses us of killing the horse, I can pull out the footage and show him how sick his horse really was. Its also because I think people need to know how bad things can be here, to understand why we make the decisions we do. For instance, many people were extremely upset to see whipmarks on another foster horse. But when you know that you can find horses like this one in the street or in the trash or in the desert, I hope you also realize why owners here dont view whipmarks as the end of the world, or why a horse that has survived colic is not put to sleep just because its tired. It doesnt mean that its RIGHT, but the general standards for both people and animals here mean that you get a different perspective than you would in a wealthier country. For those wondering why Im filming instead of helping, the guys were inside getting straw, and we let him in peace so he would lie down. If you start fussing with them, they sometimes force themselves to keep standing up and we wanted him to rest) Sometimes we get comments on the page saying things like Youre a scam! These are not your photos, you made them in photoshop!, alternatively You just go out and take pictures of the worst cases to get money from people!. I wish that these photos and videos werent real. And I wish that I would need to go out and actively search in the garbage heaps for the horrible cases to post them. But the reality is that I dont even need to leave my flat to end up spending my day in tears in front of yet another horrible sight. Today I was still at home when Sherif came and knocked on the window, practically black in the eyes with anger. A previous foster had returned, and he was in a horrible state. Many people seem to think that we just take in horse after horse, with no thought for if they should return to work or not. This is not true. As I have written before, every horse that is taken in for fostering is taken in after careful consideration. Do we know the owner, and how has he behaved previously? Does he usually retrieve his horse after a few days, or does he usually let it stay and gives it a chance to heal? If its a new owner, we always give them a chance. If its an owner that has made problems several times before, and that clearly doesnt care about his animals, we dont foster. Its just as frustrating for us as for you to only do band-aid work, and we would like to see lasting results from what we do. That being said, we must also remember that we work in Egyptian standards. If we were to refuse every horse that is not holding up to the Western view of a healthy horse, we would never help anyone. This horse was taken in for fostering while I was in Norway. I came back, saw it, and I assumed that the owner would be willing to sell. This had also been Sherifs intention when he took in the horse. We had never fostered for this owner before, and the horse was worthless as a working horse. He was severely emaciated and with dropped hind fetlocks that were both calcified and swollen. He was a bit like Skinnymare, didnt put on much weight but walked around, was eating very well, and seemed content. We knew that with those hind legs he wouldnt be able to live a long life, but we thought we could buy him and give him a nice, comfortable life for the last part of his journey, and a painless ending when that day came. Then one day I was away to have lunch with a friend, came back and the horse wasnt here. In panic I found Sherif, who told me the owner had taken it away in the morning. Sherif had tried to buy the horse or at least make it stay, but the owner was adamant that he had had the horse for a long time (this is true) and that he knew it didnt have long left and that he wanted to feed it. Sherif tried to say that we were feeding it too, but to no avail. There are no animal welfare laws in Egypt, and we dont have authority to refuse to give back a horse. Usually, if we pretend not to care, the owner will think twice and come back. If we seem desperate, they will just demand an enormous amount for us to buy the horse. Fast forward to today, when I come out and find a horse on three legs with holes in it. Sherif didnt believe his own eyes when the owner came, and asked the owner what on earth he was thinking taking the horse home in the first place. The owner said I know you dont feed white corn, so I just wanted to feed him properly at home. (Clearly all our yellow corn and boiled barley and beans and oil and hay and clover didnt count) We knew that this was it. Had he only had healthy legs, he could have had a chance. We have rehabilitated worse cases than him before. But with those hind fetlocks his days were already measured, and with one leg now injured as well, in addition to a severe cold with snot dripping from his nose and so many pressure sores... it was kinder to let him go, even though it was such a hard decision to make. I never get used to putting horses to sleep, and its worse when I dont feel that they are ready for it mentally. Sometimes they lie down and you know they just want to go. But this sweet boy spent the entire day eating, he would eat and rest, eat and rest, and I just couldnt make myself tear away his clover to put him to sleep. So we made him a little nest of straw, I put fly cream on all his sores and practically showered him in fly spray, and then we handfed him clover and hard feed and chaff for the rest of the day. After sunset he seemed to have finally satisfied his appetite and laid down and fell asleep. I did the usual routine: cried my eyes out, sat with him and stroked his neck and told him how sorry we are that we didnt help him more, that he will never feel pain again. Then he got the injections and he was gone. His body was so exhausted that he didnt even draw a final breath, he just left us in the blink of an eye. We will always remember you, beautiful, beautiful boy.
Posted on: Thu, 13 Nov 2014 21:02:11 +0000
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