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Farm animals are becoming the latest casualties of an economy riddled with home foreclosures and soaring gas and food prices.
According Jacque Meyer, executive director of the Greater Birmingham Humane Society, a growing number of horse owners in Jefferson County are abandoning their animals, starving their animals, or both, because they can't afford to care for them anymore.
"We see animals come in (to the humane society) daily due to housing issues, due to the economy," Meyer said. "Yeah, it's a big deal."
What's quickly becoming an epidemic started last year during the drought, according to Meyer. When pastures and watering holes dried up, many horse owners who relied solely on open grazing in pastures to keep the animals alive suddenly had nothing to feed them.
That problem was only magnified by this year's skyrocketing price of fuel, which inflated the cost of hay--a commodity that has to be shipped into Alabama from areas that did not suffer through last year's drought, Meyer said. The price of corn-based products has also gone through-the-roof as a result of the increased demand for ethanol.
Any attempt to sell the horses are futile, too, because there is no market for them. It costs an estimated $5,000 a year to care for one, Meyer said.
"I think this is really just the beginning of a rough time for Alabama," Meyer said. "I think this year is going to tell a tale and hopefully we'll be able to handle it financially."
Since early summer, the Humane Society has taken in just shy of a dozen stray, abandoned or abused horses, as well as a pony, a mule and a goat, from Jefferson County. Nearly all of them are emaciated. Many are peppered with painful lesions and open sores from bacterial and fungal skin infections. One, a 4-year-old mare named Hurricane, lost her entire coat of white fur, exposing her blotchy, infected bare skin. Some horses were so sickly, they barely survived.
"Our goal, obviously, is to rehabilitate them and place them in great homes with great pastures (so they can have) a great life," Meyer said.
Of course, that hasn't been an easy--or inexpensive--task. The animals are kept and cared for at an undisclosed location in northern Jefferson County, where Humane Society members go every other day to bathe, medicate and spend time with the animals. It's time-consuming and costly and, even with the philanthropy of financial donors, the Society is still spending beyond its budget--a problem that's likely to worsen as the number of abandoned and abused animals continues to grow.
Meyer remains cautiously optimistic.
"I believe there's light at the end of the tunnel or I don't believe we'd keep doing this," she said. "I can't believe to do nothing is okay. The animals are here with us not for us, so we really have to take that in stride and we have to do the right thing."
If you are interested in adopting one of these rehabilitated horses, or if you are interested in donating to the Greater Birmingham Humane Society, click here.
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