Help for Abused Animals

On the morning newscast out of Santa Barbara came the sad news of a substantial impound of starving animals from a farm in Piru. Taken were 69 rabbits, 34 sheep, seven horses, three dogs, one cat and one cockatiel.

The telecast requested donations of food since the horse population at the Humane Society had doubled since the day before. Saddened by what I had seen and having no horse food to give, I drove over to the shelter and wrote a check to help defray the enormous expenses of caring for and feeding these newest residents of Ojai.

I wasn’t sure I wanted to, but I decided to take a stroll to see them. These fine and beautiful creatures, hip and rib bones protruding, were grazing on the sorely needed alfalfa. Yet each one looked up, walked over to the fence and looked longingly over at me for a pat on the muzzle. It was hard for me to understand that after what humans had done to them, they still longed for a human hand.

I urge all concerned citizens of the county to help out the Humane Society at this time. These horses will be nursed back to health not by human hands petting their foreheads but by human hands writing a check to pay for their care.

BARBARA ANN SNYDER

Ojai