Wednesday, January 31, 2007
A Woman In Need
I received this news from Pets Alive - a wonderful sanctuary that, among other things, adopts retired NYC carriage horses:
We have some bad news to report. Sara Whalen, the executive director at Pets Alive has been very ill. Earlier this week she had emergency surgery and will be in the hospital or physical rehab for the next 3-5 weeks. She has people at the shelter - wonderful people - Nancy and Tom - who have MOVED there with their pets to help out in this crisis, but she could use some help in other areas. Please be assured that the shelter is still running as close to normal as is possible, and all the animals are being cared for. There is a need for help though, as you can imagine. If you can help us in any way, it would be greatly appreciated. If you want to help AT the shelter - please call the office and speak to Nancy about that. While volunteers are GREAT, sometimes when you are overwhelmed, it takes more time to train or show a vol unteer what needs to be done, than to just get it all done yourself...so please call the shelter and leave your name and contact info if you feel you can help. Anyone who has volunteered before (and knows the routines) and can give the regular workers some time off would be appreciated. Tom and Nancy have been doing a phenomenal job but they are both running on fumes and also need a break. Please help out by NOT calling the shelter to ask how Sara is doing. Updates will be posted on the website's forum as we get them. We KNOW you care, but everyone is doing all they can do already, and having the phone ring all day isn't going to help them.
What Sara DOES need is help financially. She spends a TON of time online every day raising funds and money to support the shelter and is terrified that without her the funds will dwindle to nothing during her long absence. If any of you can host some fund raising benefits, or come up with creative ideas to raise money for the sanctuary, please do. This is what is needed most!
We will also be sending out a paper newsletter and Nancy is trying to also take care of that but Sara HATES impersonal newsletters. She hates to just print out labels, stick them on the mailing and send it out. She feels that loses the personal touch to the people that have given money, time and support to the shelter, so she prefers to hand address ALL her newsletter mailings. Since she obviously can not do that now, would anyone be willing to help hand address the newsletter mailings? This physical mailing will go a long way to helping bring awareness and help to the shelter. Please post on the online forum, or leave a message with your information at the shelter, if you can help with that.
Sara is being transferred to another hospital soon, as she has a need to be closer to the shelter, even if she can not be there. Believe us that ANY MONEY you would spend to send her flowers or something of that sort would be better spent in a small donation. I KNOW she would want that more than flowers at the hospital. As you know, these animals are her life and she simply can't recover without knowing they are safe.
Please help in any way that you can think up. Post different ideas on the forum, if you like, and someone will let her know about them.
Thank you to everyone for caring.Rob Thomas posted this on his website:
Hi troops!! without getting too thick into it, our dear friend sara whalen from pets alive is gravely ill and has been hospitalized. there's no telling how long it will be until she can get back on her feet, but it may be a while and even though she has some wonderful people (some of you!) who are physically helping out at the shelter, without her around, it needs more funding than ever. (and for a place that wasn't getting the funding it deserved in the first place, this is some task) please reach down and give a little to pets alive over the next few weeks. either send it directly to pets alive or you can send it through the pay pal button on the pets alive web site.sara is an amazing person who has sacrificed so much for her animals and even from a hospital bed her only concern, when we spoke, was the animals. please give anything, a dollar may not seem like a lot, but a lot of dollars all together could make a difference!much lovert
I can say that this is true. Even from her hospital bed she is continuing to try to work out arrangements for the most needy animals in her care. We are very grateful to everyone for your continued love and support at this time.
Tax deductible Donations can be made through our PayPal account or by sending a check to Pets Alive Inc., 363 Derby Rd., Middletown, NY 10940. Many companies MATCH gifts to non-profit organizations such as ours. When making a donation, please check to see if your company will match your gift!
...or you can click here to make a donation via credit card!
The following physical address is associated with this mailing list:Pets Alive, 363 Derby Road, Middletown, NY 10940.
We have some bad news to report. Sara Whalen, the executive director at Pets Alive has been very ill. Earlier this week she had emergency surgery and will be in the hospital or physical rehab for the next 3-5 weeks. She has people at the shelter - wonderful people - Nancy and Tom - who have MOVED there with their pets to help out in this crisis, but she could use some help in other areas. Please be assured that the shelter is still running as close to normal as is possible, and all the animals are being cared for. There is a need for help though, as you can imagine. If you can help us in any way, it would be greatly appreciated. If you want to help AT the shelter - please call the office and speak to Nancy about that. While volunteers are GREAT, sometimes when you are overwhelmed, it takes more time to train or show a vol unteer what needs to be done, than to just get it all done yourself...so please call the shelter and leave your name and contact info if you feel you can help. Anyone who has volunteered before (and knows the routines) and can give the regular workers some time off would be appreciated. Tom and Nancy have been doing a phenomenal job but they are both running on fumes and also need a break. Please help out by NOT calling the shelter to ask how Sara is doing. Updates will be posted on the website's forum as we get them. We KNOW you care, but everyone is doing all they can do already, and having the phone ring all day isn't going to help them.
What Sara DOES need is help financially. She spends a TON of time online every day raising funds and money to support the shelter and is terrified that without her the funds will dwindle to nothing during her long absence. If any of you can host some fund raising benefits, or come up with creative ideas to raise money for the sanctuary, please do. This is what is needed most!
We will also be sending out a paper newsletter and Nancy is trying to also take care of that but Sara HATES impersonal newsletters. She hates to just print out labels, stick them on the mailing and send it out. She feels that loses the personal touch to the people that have given money, time and support to the shelter, so she prefers to hand address ALL her newsletter mailings. Since she obviously can not do that now, would anyone be willing to help hand address the newsletter mailings? This physical mailing will go a long way to helping bring awareness and help to the shelter. Please post on the online forum, or leave a message with your information at the shelter, if you can help with that.
Sara is being transferred to another hospital soon, as she has a need to be closer to the shelter, even if she can not be there. Believe us that ANY MONEY you would spend to send her flowers or something of that sort would be better spent in a small donation. I KNOW she would want that more than flowers at the hospital. As you know, these animals are her life and she simply can't recover without knowing they are safe.
Please help in any way that you can think up. Post different ideas on the forum, if you like, and someone will let her know about them.
Thank you to everyone for caring.Rob Thomas posted this on his website:
Hi troops!! without getting too thick into it, our dear friend sara whalen from pets alive is gravely ill and has been hospitalized. there's no telling how long it will be until she can get back on her feet, but it may be a while and even though she has some wonderful people (some of you!) who are physically helping out at the shelter, without her around, it needs more funding than ever. (and for a place that wasn't getting the funding it deserved in the first place, this is some task) please reach down and give a little to pets alive over the next few weeks. either send it directly to pets alive or you can send it through the pay pal button on the pets alive web site.sara is an amazing person who has sacrificed so much for her animals and even from a hospital bed her only concern, when we spoke, was the animals. please give anything, a dollar may not seem like a lot, but a lot of dollars all together could make a difference!much lovert
I can say that this is true. Even from her hospital bed she is continuing to try to work out arrangements for the most needy animals in her care. We are very grateful to everyone for your continued love and support at this time.
Tax deductible Donations can be made through our PayPal account or by sending a check to Pets Alive Inc., 363 Derby Rd., Middletown, NY 10940. Many companies MATCH gifts to non-profit organizations such as ours. When making a donation, please check to see if your company will match your gift!
...or you can click here to make a donation via credit card!
The following physical address is associated with this mailing list:Pets Alive, 363 Derby Road, Middletown, NY 10940.
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Disposable Workers
It is interesting to note that the average working life of a police horse in New York City is 15 years. This compares with less than four years for a carriage horse
Sunday, January 07, 2007
Horse Welfare, continued
The feeding of horses:
10. With reference to feeding horses during working hours, this is sometimes done by the use of a nosebag, which is suspended from the head of the horse.
11. However, Dr Tim O'Brien notes that the use of nosebags is a completely unnatural way for a horse to feed, and is well known to present increased risk of respiratory problems over a period of time, as a result of inhaling food dust from the bag.
from Animal Aid http://www.animalaid.org.uk/campaign/sport/omnibus.htm
