Hay grant helps bail out Elgin horse sanctuary
ELGIN — Caring for a horse can cost an owner $250 a month just for food and bedding.
But a recent grant awarded to the Illinois Equine Humane Center means that horse owners who are having a hard time caring for their animals might be able to keep them at least a bit longer.
(Michael Smart/Staff Photographer)
(Michael Smart/Staff Photographer)
Gail Vacca, who operated the center for four years in Wilmington, moved the center to 9N673 Kendall Road — just west of Elgin's far-west border — in September after it lost its lease at the former location. Currently, 14 horses are living at the center. They include horses saved from slaughter and ones that once ran on Illinois racetracks.
The $5,000 grant is earmarked "to provide feed for equines awaiting adoption as well emergency hay for owners who need short-term assistance," according to an announcement from the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which awarded the grant.
"The ASPCA Equine Fund is devoted to promoting humane care and respect for horses, and provides grants to nonprofit equine welfare organizations in the U.S.," the announcement stated. "The ASPCA Emergency Hay Support grant program provides feed for rescue groups and humane organizations. Over the last two years, the ASPCA has awarded over $1 million in grants to equine groups across the country."
Already, Vacca said, the grant has helped an Elgin-area horse owner who was having problems paying for hay feed her 25-year-old horse. An animal of that advanced age isn't rideable or adoptable, Vacca said.
"The lady, she didn't want to give her up," Vacca said. "We were able to help her find low-cost hay ... and (allow) her to keep her horse. This grant helps us do that when there is a legitimate need for owners."
She also is working with the Horsemen's Council of Illinois to set up a "hay bank" in the state. If eventually created, she said, it will help those with both livestock and horses to find hay to feed their animals at a low cost.
While the recession is hard on horse owners trying to feed and bed their animals, in some ways it has been good for horses. Breeders are less likely to have mares bred when there isn't a market for the offspring, she said.
"There are a lot of irresponsible breeders out there," Vacca said. "There is a lot of backyard breeding that shouldn't take place. But with the economy, they are taking a second look at their breeding practices."
That means fewer mares breeding over the past two years. "People just can't afford them," she said.
But with that also has come an uptick in the number of owners relinquishing their horses to organizations such as the Equine Humane Center. "In the past 18 months, there has been an increase," Vacca said.
The horses she has now include several purchased at auction. The center was bidding against slaughterhouses, she said, and managed to save the horses from that fate.
"There were 65 horses offered that day. We saved 13," Vacca said. "Not a single horse was sold for slaughter."
Those purchased weren't all old horses, either. They included yearlings and 2-year-olds.
"They had nothing wrong with them," she said. "Some owners just needed to sell and disperse their stock."
