In case any of you are looking for a last minute tax deduction, I just got a mailer from my favorite non profit horse rescue group. Last Chance Corral www.lastchancecorral.org 5350 Pomeroy Road, Athens, OH 45701. It is run by Victoria Goss. In this day and age when Presidents of charities are making tons of money and only small amounts actually going to the needy, there is no question that she is giving everything plus some. I have been to her facility several times. Its about 1.5 hours from my house. The foal barn which is attached to her little cabin is way nicer than her living quarters. Her foal barn is heated and warm, the cabin is heated only by a wood stove. Most of her first floor is basically the office and storage area for the foal supplies
In the early months of the year she rescues newborn foals that are meant to be destroyed. They are only born so that a mare will be available to nurse the valuable racing foals and the mother can then go back to be rebred at the stallions farm as live cover is required by the jockey club for all racehorses. Last year she rescued 207 from the breeding farms in KY. Some of these poor babies are born prematurely because the delivery is induced so that they will have an available nursemare. They don't even let the babies get a meal or two to get colostrum. Sometimes they offer to sell her some on top of what she pays them for the foals. She has an incredible survival rate and only lost 6 babies last year. The care of these foals is very labor intensive. The rest of the year she gets OTTB to be retrained and resold and also goes to the killer auctions, buys some horses and ponies that have potential, trains them and sells them. This helps raise funds so she can save more horses. There is a hay shortage in southern Ohio due to the drought and hay will be much more expensive. Instead of buying toys for the needy kids, like I usually do for Xmas, I took all that money plus my usual amount and sent it to Last Chance Corral so that she can buy more hay. Any ways, I always wonder about which charities to donate to and this is one I know is a good one. Her charity has been around a long time and has won several awards for worthwhile charity. -- Anna Southern Ohio
