An urgent appeal has been launched by the Easy Horse Care Rescue Centre in Rojales. The charity – which supports and cares for more than 120 horses, ponies and donkeys – is struggling more than ever to meet the continuously-increasing cost of feeding them and paying for veterinary bills.
Centre founders Sue and Rod Weeding are now using their own money to provide for the animals, as they have been left with no other choice. With one of their rescued horses Gracie being rushed to the Alicante horse hospital last week with abdominal pain and a raised heart rate, they face another crippling veterinary bill at a time when they are still paying off the last one.
Founder Sue Weeding said: “Because of the whole Covid situation we can’t have our monthly open day so we have lost the income from that. We survived the lockdown very well last time but obviously now things have caught up with us again; we are back in winter; we’ve just had Christmas, New Year and Kings so the charity shops haven’t opened that much and we are facing more cold spells. We still have to pay the rent, water and electric on the shops but are getting very little back to help the animals.”
The care then animas need comes at a price; a high price. “We have just brought one load of forage that was €2,000. That will last us 2 weeks. We are using our own private money again to buy the feed for the animals because we have no option it’s as simple as that. The horses have to eat,” Sue explained.
Even during lockdown the Rescue Centre was still receiving call-outs from police to help them rescue abandoned animals. “Lockdown or no lockdown it is still 7 days a week 24 hours a day we are on call,” Sue continued: “If it wasn’t for us, there would be nowhere for these animals to go which the police are finding. We have had horses brought to us from Granada because we were the only centre who would take them.”
The Rescue Centre is now officially registered and recognised as a charity in Switzerland and there are plans to re-home as many horses as possible to enjoy a new life there, but even without the current global pandemic disrupting life and plans around the world, re-homing horses is not easy. When they are seized by the police, Easy Horse Care is only a custodian of the animals and cannot re-home them unless they are legally made the new owner. Until that happens, they must simply carry on caring for them the best they can.
If you are able to help cover the cost of Gracie’s veterinary treatment, or help in any way you can donate to the charity now via their website www.easyhorsecare.net and follow her progress via the centre’s Facebook page.