FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (click a question to see the answer :o)

Most Asked Question: Do I have to live in Pennsylvania to adopt from your horse rescue?

1. How do we decide which horses to take into Angel Acres?

2. Does it have to be any particular type of horse?

3. How can you become a foster home for rescued horses until they can get a home?

4. How do you follow-up to make sure a horse is being well taken care and is happy?

5. Are your adoptions restricted to a specific location?"

6. If I make a donation, is there any way for me to see where my money is going? Can I see financial information?

7. What kind of home set up does the adopting family need in order to qualify for an adoption?

8. If a horse is in normal foster care, how do you go about allowing the prospective adopter to see the horse>

9. If a horse is in training foster, are the rules the same as regular foster?

10. Do you have a "return" policy regarding adopted horses - such as if the home doesn't work out, or owner can no longer care for horse?

11. Are adoption fees ever refunded (like if the horse didn't work out)?

12. Do you offer any after-adoption education - horse care, horse training info/tips/advice?

13. Does Angel Acres retain ownership of horses that are adopted out?

14. Do you charge a fee to rehome a horse or take the horse back into rescue?

You do NOT have to live in Pennsylvania to adopt from our horse rescue! We adopt horses out the entire USA. We have two rescues that were slaughter bound that now reside in Hawaii, that went to the fabulous Shiloh Horse Rescue in Nevada first, and then onto Hawaii! Foster is different, see Question #3 above.

1. The majority of horses that come into our rescue are horses that are bound for slaughter for human consumption.

2. We concentrate on Thoroughbreds, but we do rescue other breeds.

3. Foster families must reside within a 25 mile radius of the rescue. They also fill out an application to foster a horse, just like an adopter would fill out to adopt a horse. Foster increments are 3,6, 9 and 12 months. We have a very limited number of foster families, as we do not like to have horses residing in foster care unless it is a life or death situation. The foster families we do have are...well...outstanding!

4. We have various methods in place to ensure that horses are happy, well-taken care of and generally being treated well in their new homes. We generally stay in regular contact with our adopters, ask for and receive updates via email and postal mail, receive video links to shows, events, etc. If there were to be a situation that would arouse our concern, we are able to send out an unbiased third party to judge the condition of the horses. So, far this has not happened, but it is included in our legally binding contract that each adopter signs. And other ways to ensure horses are happy and safe with their adoptive families.

5. We do not base adoption decisions on location of adopter. We adopt to the entire United States and Canada.

6. Absolutely! If you would like your donation used in a specific way, just send us a note with your donation.
Of course, our financial info is available on Guidestar and you can see it by clicking here

7. Please check out our adoption application for more info

8. Horses are not normally adopted from foster homes. Horses that are in foster care must come into the main facility to be evaluated by Jo and are not shown to prospective adopters during their time in foster care. We feel that our foster families are doing us and the horses a huge favor by allowing our horses to stay with them, so we do not like to inconvenience them in anyway. We visit and check in on the horses but do not bring anyone else to visit. Additionally, we cannot assure a successful adoption unless we have had ample time to work with them, reschool them, etc.

9. Same rule applies to this type of foster home as a regular foster home, see answer to #8.

10. We will always take our horses back however; we strive to make the best match possible for horse and adopter. We will not adopt a horse out to any home that is not what we believe the best match possible. We speak extensively with prospective adopters, we work extensively with each horse...this allows us to determine which horse would be suitable for each prospective adopter.

11. We do not refund adoption fees, but we will take the horse back and give the adopter a different horse if the match isn't not working out. We will also exchange the horse if he or she becomes lame, the adopter cannot care for the horse anymore (horse would be returned only), there is no time limit and we will always stand behind our horses.

12. ABSOLUTELY! We especially cater to new, beginning or returning riders! We offer LOTS of after-care! All adopters get Jo's home number and can call anytime day or night with questions concerning their horse...1 day or 10 years after adoption.

13. Angel Acres does NOT retain ownership of most adopted horses, we DO retain the first right of refusal (see our program page for more info). So, our adopters actually own their own horse, with an adoption contract.

14. We do not charge any fees to take a horse back into our rescue.

List of folks sponsoring boards around the country:

Emily Taylor

Sandra Houghton

Ellen Grossman

Lisa Taylor

Pat Boyer

Fran Burns

Leslie Alexander Foundation

More to come...

A brief description of our program is below.

A horse, usually a Thoroughbred, is purchased from the kill buyer, a Coggins test is immediately pulled at the sale. The horse is then transported to a quarantine facility that we use in Maryland, where he or she is boarded for minimum of 30 days. He or she is then transported to a training facility we have been generously granted use of.

At the training farm each horse receives his or her vetting, shots, teeth exam and floating if needed. The horse is then visited by our Blacksmith for his or her tootsie check, and then its off to the main farm.

Each horse then receives a minimum 60 days training (usually 90 days) in addition to ground work, and their prior track training, etc.

Our adoption fees range, on average, from $1800 to $3500. Some fees will be lower, some higher.

Each horse is brought up to date on teeth, feet, shots, deworming, etc. We run the rescue like a business, we need to be solvent in order to save more horses. We run an above board, transparent rescue and pride ourselves on our honesty and integrity.

We do not pull horses from the sale and make them available the next day...our program is thorough, we pay attention to detail, pay attention to the horses behavior, handling, riding and other details that help us make a great match for both horse and adopter.

We do NOT deal with broker horses, we feel this blurs the line between horses truly in need of assistance and those horses being sold for a commission to the seller/web site hoster.

To raise funds to save more horses we write grants, hold fundraisers, and charge adoption fees, etc.

The main differences between adopting (with a transfer of ownership in most cases) an Angel Acres rescue horse and purchasing from a horse dealer are:

• You have our personal guarantee on each and every horse.
• We strive to ensure an excellent match between horse and adopter.
• We offer after adoption support for the new horse owner.
• Your adoption fees save another horse from the kill buyer/slaughter house!

Please write or call if you have any questions about our program.

BRIEF OVERVIEW OF HORSE SLAUGHTER

Visions of an old, crippled, lame or sickly horse are usually what one envisions upon hearing the phrase "rescue horse". Many years ago, a horse that was no longer useful to its owner, was often sent to the "glue factory". Today's reality about horse slaughter couldn't be farther from the truth. Horses are now sent to foreign slaughter houses to be brutally slaughtered to feed diners in other countries.  Foreign consumers are eating our American Icon, The Horse.

Words used by the pro-slaughter lobby such as "unwanted horse, rendering, processing, necessary evil", and the like are words used to cleanse the process in the minds of people with compassion and kindness towards life of any kind. The pro-slaughter lobby should use the terms that are more applicable such as "brutal, inhumane, horse slaughter, torturous," and other words too numerous to list in this brief article.

Click here for more info on horse slaughter and what you can do to help stop it.

HEALTHY, YOUNG, SOUND HORSES LIKE DREAMER ARE SLAUGHTERED EVERY DAY

Jennifer Marshall Radebaugh Riding Dreamer

Dreamer was a 3 year old Thoroughbred race horse when he was rescued in 2005. Too slow to race yet sound, young and healthy, his owners decided his value was effectively zero and stopped feeding him. A concerned exercise rider borrowed money to pay off Dreamer's board and borrowed a friends trailer to transport Dreamer to his rented farm. 

As fate would have it, Fran Burns happened to hear about a horse in need of a new home and contacted the exercise rider that had saved Dreamer and the gentleman then rode him over for Ms. Burns to see. Having recently retired her 22 year old Thoroughbred gelding, Ben, she was in the market for a new riding horse. The gorgeous bay gelding was solid, sound, kind and willing; Fran agreed to purchase the gelding and take him into her equine family.

Purchasing Dreamer would forever change Ms. Burns  life, upon learning how close Dreamer had come to going to auction and possible slaughter Ms. Burns knew that she had to do something to raise awareness about horse slaughter and promote responsible horse ownership. She would go on to investigate horse slaughter and life would never be the same for Dreamer or Ms. Burns.

COMPETING ON BEHALF OF SLAUGHTER BOUND HORSES EVERYWHERE

A gorgeous, beautiful horse clearing a fence effortlessly on a beautiful day is not the image most people imagine when they hear the words horse slaughter. Each year over 100,000 healthy, young, sound American horses are transported under horrific and unfathomable conditions to Mexico and Canada where they are brutally slaughtered to feed foreign diners.

As a direct result of Ms. Burns strong desire to help horses around the nation and her dedication to raising awareness about horse slaughter, Dreamer now competes in horse shows in Maryland to raise awareness. He was the champion in the Open Hunter Division and 2nd in the Low Hunter Division in The Baltimore County Horse Show Association’s 2009 season with trainer Jennifer Marshall Radebaugh riding him in all classes.

In addition to promoting second careers for rescue horses, each time Dreamer competes and wins a blue ribbon, Ms. Burns makes a donation to the Angel Acres rescue fund; a fund used to pull horses from kill pens and secure their safety.

HORSES, AN AMERICAN ICON, DESERVE BETTER

Dreamer is a prime example of the typical healthy horse that is sent to slaughter; older, sick, lame or crippled horses are also sent to slaughter. While no horse deserves to be brutally slaughtered for any reason, it is especially disheartening that older horses that have given their lives in service, in any number of ways, to their owners are sent to slaughter every day. The very least that is owed to this American Icon, friend and faithful servant, is a humane, peaceful ending when that time has come.

This author believes that Ms. Burns sums it up nicely when she states, “Thoroughbreds are so very deserving of second careers. Whether it is trail riding, showing, polo, fox hunting they just need the chance. Dreamer is giving back to the thoroughbred industry without racing. I wish more people out there would do the same.”

Without the intervention of Ms. Burns, Dreamer most likely would have ended up as the main course on some foreign diners menu, instead he lives and competes to help other horses in need. The horse rescue world needs more people like Ms. Burns, going the extra mile day in and day out, to help end this brutal and undeserving trail to the slaughter plant and the exportation of horses over US borders to be slaughtered for human consumption.