Woman Reports Baby Horse That Had Been Left to Die by Neighbor for 5 Days
The Pegasus Project dedicates its time to protecting the welfare of our countryside’s most beautiful animals.
Founded in 2009, this group’s mission “is to rescue, rehabilitate, retrain and rehome neglected, abused and abandoned horses, donkeys and mules throughout Texas.”
Quite often, volunteers respond to complaints, investigate cases, and register mistreated horses into their program. They then “nurse them back to health” in hopes that they will find a forever home.
Just recently, the organization dealt with one of these situations in Van Zandt County. President Allyson DeCanio said she received an email from a woman named Jenola Johnson who wanted to report her own neighbor.
She told DeCanio that one of the owner’s female baby horses had been down on her property for the past five days. Sadly enough, no one had even attempted to help the animal up.
Other neighbors tried confronting the owner about the filly, but he appeared unbothered by the issue. Apparently, he told one neighbor, “if she gets up she gets up.”
DeCanio and her team quickly responded to the situation Monday night, Jan. 29. Come to find out, it was way worse than they expected.
In addition to the neglected filly, ten other horses were starved and malnourished. Since December, Johnson has fed and taken care of the herd herself.
Determined to help the animals, the Pegasus Project signed over the ten horses to Dallas SPCA. They decided to care for the Filly at their ranch until she was able to stand on her own.
Pictures of her rescue were posted to the group’s Facebook page. One post said they were watching her closely until she regained her strength.
“She can’t get up, so we will hand feed her and offer water every 4 hours round the clock for the next several days,” the post read. “We are all hoping that she will survive.”
The very next day, the rescue group shared some good news. She was finally able to stand on her own!
Now that she was making some progress, the horse got the new name, Gia. In Italian, it means “God’s gracious gift,” and that she truly was.
The owner was later charged with “animal running at large,” though the group hopes he’s also charged with cruel treatment as well.
Fortunately, through all their efforts, they have helped to save the life of this helpless young horse.
“Ever since we got Gia up on her feet yesterday morning, she has stayed up,” the group said in their last update. “Let the healing begin!”
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