Two horses are rescued amid massive California wildfires. Many have burned to death. Image: CNN.
Help
Wildfires in California are continuing to have a devastating impact on people and animals. This is especially true of horses. And that’s where we come in.
Many horses have burned to death. Many horses have been severely burned and need our help and support. Evacuated horses need food and water.
We have nearly exhausted our Emergency Fund providing wildfire relief for horses. There is still so much more to do.
Typically we use our Emergency Fund for winter hay to those in need. And winter is only just starting. But we couldn’t ignore the many pleas for help for the wildfire horses.
Double Up Today
All donations will be doubled by a generous benefactor who has already helped with generous private donations to help keep this funding going for wildfire horses can horses in need this winter. We are so grateful for his generosity! And of course yours.
By Gretchen’s Vegan Bakery. Click to learn how to make these delicious sugar cookies or watch video below!
Hello everyone. I know it’s not Thursday but I couldn’t wait to share this with you. All total, I reference more than 17 because I added a few of my personal faves which I have made myself and they are fab-u-lous.
There are 17 spookily cute ideas over at ChooseVeg.com. I picked my two favourites below with links to everything else.
Veggie Loaf Coffin and Mashed Potato Ghosts
Veggie Loaf Coffin and Mashed Potato Ghosts. Via ChooseVeg.com. Click image to go there!
The recipe for this is from WingItVegan.com. Here’s what she writes:
Make your favorite veggieloaf recipe but instead of baking it in a loaf pan, shape it into little coffins (with your hands), bake them and draw a ketchup cross on top of them. You can use this recipe if you don’t already have a favorite veggieloaf. You can shape the mashed potato ghosts with a spoon like these ghosts from last year’s Halloweegan, or you could always use a pastry bag or Ziploc bag to squeeze them onto the plate. They have little ketchup eyes and mouths that I drew with a toothpick.
Vegan Frankenstein avocado toast from Olivia Lin at Vegan Chow Down. Click to visit recipe.
How about some vegan Frankenstein avocado toast? Olivia Lin writes:
I don’t mind that my Frankenstein toast doesn’t have perfectly smooth green skin– it has some little lumps and bumps because I just smushed my avocado with the back of a spoon quickly and spread it on…I think that’s the beauty of Frankenstein, he doesn’t have to be perfect! (Keep smushing and smashing if you want a smoother consistency.)
This is a fun Halloween costume and the horse does not seem to mind the headpiece. Know your horse and dress him up accordingly.
People who love their horses want to include them in everything they do, especially during holidays.
Halloween can be a bit tricky because you must put together a costume that does not hamper a horse’s movement, distract him or make him uncomfortable in any way.
Note: We are not happy about the chain bit. We know why they are used but . . . just saying.
Speed Miller and his 21 year old Tennessee Walking Horse, Frisk. NOAH ELLIOT MORRISON.
FOR YEARS NOW, alert motorists on Detroit’s west side have been treated to an unusual sight. They have posted photos of what they’ve seen on social networking and even sent them to our office, in surprise and in puzzlement, but mostly in delight. What they have witnessed is a young rider on a Western saddle guiding his horse down West Seven Mile Road, past the gas stations and fast food restaurants, a sight that seems so out of place in the car-centric Motor City as to be remarkable.
Late this summer, the horseman finally calls and invites us to watch him ride. On a recent morning, we drive over to a house near the intersection of West Seven Mile Road and the Lodge Freeway. There we finally connect with 21-year-old Speed Miller, the “Greenfield Gaucho” we’d seen photographed so widely. He speaks with us while he carefully guides his 12-year-old Tennessee walking horse named Frisk out of a stock trailer, carefully grooming the animal, which eyes us contentedly.
Miller credits his love of horses to his grandfather, the elderly man who watches from the porch for a moment before allowing his grandson to handle the reporter and photographer. The elder has owned a 44-acre farm outside of Belleville for generations, and that’s where the young rider began his love affair with horses. That fascination began with his mother, who found encouragement from Miller’s grandfather when she climbed into the saddle decades ago.
“I was there all the time,” Miller says. “I was raised by my mom, but I spent every day with my grandad. My mom was always at work, so I’d be chilling with my grandad. I guess you could say that I was raised by both in a sense. I think me and my grandad are a little bit closer though, ’cause I spent most of my days with him. He taught me pretty much everything I know about these horses.”
[ ] when Miller began riding in the city and saw how young Detroiters connected with the animals, he realized he could offer them the same joy he found in horses.
“The kids were actually fascinated,” he says, “so I started bringing them out more, letting the kids touch them. Then, as I got more comfortable with the horse, I started putting the kids on the horse, just showing them a little something different. So I bring them down about twice a week. It’s kind of like a learning experience for both the children and the horse, in my eyes.”
Speed Miller and friend riding around the neighborhood. NOAH ELLIOTT MORRISON.
‘When I get on the horse, everything else really don’t matter. I can ride down these streets in the toughest neighborhood. It really just don’t matter when I’m on the horse.’
Botticelle horse by the Coliseum in Rome. Shutterstock image.
(ANSA.IT) ROME, ITALY — Rome’s famed ‘botticelle’ horse-drawn tourist carriages are to move from the streets of the Italian capital to its villas’ parks under a measure passed by the environmental committee on Tuesday, 25 September.
The move is set to be put to final approval by the mobility committee “within the first few days of October”, sources said.
“Among the key aims of the measure is to avoid all suffering to the horses, taking the botticelle activities to more suitable locations like parks and historic villas,” said the head of the Rome environmental committee, Daniele Diaco of the ruling anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S).
It will also be possible for drivers to switch jobs and apply for taxi licenses, he said.
Since no new botticelle licenses will be issued, the carriages may disappear if all 32 drivers apply to become taxi drivers.
Animal rights groups have long complained that the horses are subject to too much stress and strain on Rome’s hot cobbled streets.
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In pictures
Too much stress and strain? Hot cobbled streets? Yes, we agree. However, that’s only the beginning of what these horses suffer. Pictures say a thousand words. Look familiar?
Downed botticelle horse, Rome, Italy. Source not cited.Un cavallo a terra per un malore davanti a Palazzo Chigi, Roma 30 ottobre 2014. ANSA/GIUSEPPE LAMIDowned botticcelle horse, Rome, Italy. Source not cited.Botticcelle horse suffering heat exhaustion waiting for his next trip, Rome, Italy. Source not cited.Another distressed botticelle horse in Rome. Source uncited.
Where do the horses live? The same type of miserable conditions, totally unnatural for a horse, as any other carriage horse in any other city. This is a worldwide system of abuse.
Angelo Sed, president of the Romans horse-drawn carriage drivers (botticelle), prepares his horse “Inventore” before a day of work on October 2, 2014 in Rome. The Botticelle are the traditional Roman carriages used by tourists to sight Rome’s historical center. ALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP/Getty Images.Angelo Sed, president of the Romans horse-drawn carriage drivers (botticelle) and his horse “Inventore” arrive at the stable after a day of work on October 2, 2014 in Rome. The Botticelle are the traditional Roman carriages used by tourists to sight Rome’s historical center. ALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP/Getty Images.
We can’t use this image linked here without paying for it, but it shows what the typical stall looks like.
Ban Horse Drawn Carriages
Even with moving Rome’s carriage horses to park like settings, the horses will still be working in the same weather conditions, still living in the same crumbling buildings totally in situations totally unnatural to a horse, pulling heavy loads of tourists, and can still be spooked.
“Since no new botticelle licenses will be issued, the carriages may disappear if all 32 drivers apply to become taxi drivers.”
Here is the intended replacement for the horses.
Replacement cars for carriage horses in Rome, Italy. Imgur. Click to visit source.
This is the best we can hope for. However, what will happen to the horses? Turned into sausages no doubt, an Italian gastromic favourite.
Botticelle, historical carriages pulled by horses used for tourists in Rome, Italy. Wikimedia image.
