Success Story: Shelter Shih Tzu

TBAR-Adopted-Shih-TzuTrue Blue Animal Rescue pulled this little dog from BARC. This 10 month old Shih Tzu was dirty, matted and sad. She also has weak back legs that go out from under her when she runs and plays. After a thorough vet evaluation we were pleased to find out she has a birth defect in her hips that causes her no pain. After that report and a nice haircut at Fabulous in Fur, Janet decided to adopt! It does our heart good to know this little sweetheart is getting the love and care she deserves. Adopt, don’t shop!www.t-bar.org

Pet of the Week: Emerson

TBAR-Adoptable-Puppy-EmersonPuppy love this summer. This week we have chosen to present to you is named Emerson. He is a young male German Shepherd/Labrador Retriever, which will make him on the large side. He is up to date with his routing shots and will be neutered. Now, how can you not look at this face and fall in love? Come and take him home with you.

T-Bar has a lot of animals that are waiting for their forever home. If this pet of the week, is not the pet you are interested in, we probably have just about any pet you could want. T-BAR is a no-kill rescue. Not only do we like having our animals adopted out, we also are in dire need of foster homes. That way we can help more animals out there, who are in perilous times alone on the streets. Please save a life by adopting a pet, instead of buying a pet and please have all your pets spayed and neutered. It is the right thing to do. If you are interested on where you can help or to look at all that is available to either adopt or foster, please go towww.t-bar.org and see all the animals that deserve a second chance and fulfilled life full of love, email [email protected] or call (936)878-2349 and one of our volunteers will get back to you as soon as possible. Adoption Fee: Please email [email protected] for adoption fee! Adoption fee includes neuter or spay, up to date vaccinations, heartworm tested if old enough or started on heartworm prevention as a puppy, deworming and a one year TBAR membership.

Write to Your Representative to Stop Horse Slaughter

TBAR-Please-Help-HorsesCALL TO ACTION! Please READ, WRITE and SHARE!

The baby and mother horse pictured are safe but many others are dying every single day.

Please help stop the senseless torture and subsequent murder of hundreds of thousands of horses every year. We need you to write your representative and ask them to support the SAFE ACT. All the information is in the letter below. You can use whatever portion of this letter to send to your representative. Just be sure to alter it to make it yours and say what you want it to say. Right now slaughter buyers are lying to people and purchasing their horses under false pretenses and then putting them in feed lots to be shipped off to Mexico to die. They are terrified, sick and injured. The killers are selling them at high prices by using emotional blackmail on kind hearted people. The end result is that they get richer and go out and buy more horses to kill. The SAFE ACT is the only answer. Once we get that passed, we will tackle the overpopulation problem in a humane way. Click here to find your representative.

To: The Honorable Representative (Rep.s last name here)* use link I sent to get the Rep’s info
(Washington mailing address here)

Dear Representative :

Greetings from (your full name), a constituent in (your district). As an advocate for decent treatment of animals and for safe and accountable business practices, I am writing to urge you to cosponsor the Safeguard American Food Exports (SAFE) Act ( H.R. 1942) and support it when it reaches the HOUSE.

Knowing that some 150,000 American equines, including heavily pregnant mares and even foals, are transported from the US to Canadian and Mexican slaughter houses to be sold as meat for human consumption by people in other countries, angers me and honestly, shocks me. I thought we were better than that. I feel this way because I know that our own country determined back in 2007 that the average American horse has received drugs that are not allowed to be given to animals raised for human consumption. My horses certainly got regular wormer, parasite repellents,anti inflammatories like Bute or Banamine for muscular/skeletal sprains, arthritis, etc. as well as anti-biotics and sedatives needed for teeth floating.

Approx. 10,000 race horses a year go to slaughter. An extensive investigation by the New York Times uncovered evidence that race horses are routinely given illegal drugs and bizarre concoctions like cocaine and cobra venom stimulants and to mask injury-related pain. The money incentive to win is driving the market for developing more powerful stimulants, legal or otherwise. Recently a new drug surfaced: dermorphin (“tree frog juice”) – an extract from South American tree frogs, when injected into horses acts as a painkiller 40 times more powerful than morphine. Food safety agencies have no means to test horsemeat for new substances such as dermorphin, much less determine their toxicity to humans, therefore they can never confidently state that they’re conducting all the right tests to ensure that horsemeat is safe for human consumption. The cost to develop and continually refine such tests would be enormous and

Not only did we determine that horse meat was not safe for Americans to consume (assuming we would – though the vast majority poled said they would not eat horses, and also oppose slaughter of our horses for export – we also found horse meat not safe as an ingredient in our pet food. Horses, like dogs and cats are companion and show animals, not food.

So my question is: if it is not safe for us or our pets – why on earth would we send our horses to become food for people in other countries ? This strikes me as indecent and dishonest business practice. I recently read that the European Union (EU), some 120 nations who’d been a major customer, banned all horse meat exported from Mexico (remember, over 90% of horses slaughtered in Mexico come from the U.S.). Canadian horse meat suppliers are under close scrutiny by the EU and have been given a period of time to correct the health/safety and cruelty violations found by the EU’s audit. One main requirement Canada must now meet to keep Europe’s business is total accountability for each horse’s vet history – a way to accurately trace and prove that the horse has not received any of the extensive list of drugs banned from use in animals raised for human consumption. Frankly, I don’t see how that is even possible. All U.S. horses have received many of these drugs in their lives, some routinely. This includes the mustangs in BLM holding facilities. And many vet histories are incomplete. But, if it were possible to create such a system, who is going to pay for it’s set up and man power ? Taxpayers ? Kill Buyers? Slaughter houses ? And all this trouble for others to go to in order to sell a little meat from horses whose breeders and owners have skipped out all together on responsibility for or compassion for their own animals.

Because 92.3 % of horses from U.S. kill pens are young, fat, well muscled and obviously cared for up to the point of being sold for meat, it is obvious that these horses come from people who overbreed, or lost control of their breeding business and decided to cut loses and get back a couple of hundred per horse. Looking at the shocking numbers of emergency horse rescues on the news – whole herds of horses in such bad shape the sherif could legally seize them, I wonder why on earth these people bred several more years of foals when they didn’t sell their first crop.

Though the SAFE act has plenty of substance and justification in its addressing the issue of health risks of horse meat, of course the cruelty involved matters to the all of us. So many are trampled in those transport trucks yet arrive alive, but in agony, the truckload endure as much as 38 hours of standing packed tight, but with their heads lowered to the height forced by the low ceilings of the trucks (making balance exhausting & painful)so they arrive with horrible lacerations of ears and heads. Often through the southwest extreme heat in metal transport – no water or food causes the smaller or weaker ones to fall and have legs, necks and faces trampled. If you are not familiar with the typical method of stunning a large animal so it’s heart keeps beating until it reaches the kill floor, I sincerely suggest that you watch the footage and see for yourself how inefficient the live bolt to the head is. Equine necks are long and powerful and the bolt box cannot hold them still enough as they struggle in terror. The ideal stun spot on their head is so often missed and conscious, they endure repeated blows – maybe to their eyes. Since a horse’s brain is farther back in a very sturdy skull, the stunning doesn’t always keep them unconscious, so they feel what it is to be bled, gutted and dismembered while conscious. It seems to me that the slaughter pipeline and process is exempt from the same animal welfare and cruelty laws that allow an officer to seize an animal and arrest its owner for abuse such as confining in extreme temperatures, beating, shocking, denying food and water.

Slaughter is not necessary to deal with equine overpopulation. The solution is responsible breeding and ownership practices and new laws to see them done. The hope lies in the absolutely amazing numbers of decent citizens in every state who have created equine rescues, both large and small – the growing numbers of Therapeutic Riding ranches for people of all ages and disabilities, including new programs devoted to helping our war vets and doing a wonderful job of it. The volunteers that constantly come up with great solutions to unwanted horses have a great deal to share with our law makers, if you’ll but take the time to tour and ask. If the pipeline to foreign slaughter is no longer available to breeders and to people who no longer want or can afford their horses, no one is going to suffer nearly as much as the hapless equines they should be responsible for. They will adjust and find new ways to manage their horses. So many laws passed to protect human victims of discrimination bare this out.
Sincerely,

Pet of the Week: Bella

TBAR-Adoptable-Dog-BellaBella is a friendly and well behaved female dog. She is crate trained and housebroken, up to date with vaccinations and is spayed. She is 5 years old so she’s past the puppy stage making her a great family pet and companion.
T-Bar has a lot of animals that are waiting for their forever home. If this pet of the week, is not the pet you are interested in, we probably have just about any pet you could want. T-BAR is a no-kill rescue. Not only do we like having our animals adopted out, we also are in dire need of foster homes. Please go to www.t-bar.organd see all the animals that deserve a second chance, email [email protected] or call (936)878-2349 or email [email protected] and one of our volunteers will get back to you. Adoption fee includes neuter or spay, up to date vaccinations, heartworm tested if old enough or started on heartworm prevention as a puppy, deworming and a one year TBAR membership.

Pet of the Week: Gina

TBAR-Adoptable-Dog-GinaThis pet of the week is just beautiful.Gina is a well behaved and very sweet female dog. She has been spayed, up to date with vaccinations and worming. She would make a great family pet and companion. So what do you say? Are you right for Gina?

T-Bar has a lot of animals that are waiting for their forever home. If this pet of the week, is not the pet you are interested in, we probably have just about any pet you could want. T-BAR is a no-kill rescue. Not only do we like having our animals adopted out, we also are in dire need of foster homes. That way we can help more animals out there, who are in perilous times alone on the streets. Please save a life by adopting a pet, instead of buying a pet and please have all your pets spayed and neutered. It is the right thing to do. If you are interested on where you can help or to look at all that is available to either adopt or foster, please go to www.t-bar.organd see all the animals that deserve a second chance and fulfilled life full of love, email [email protected] or call (936)878-2349 and one of our volunteers will get back to you as soon as possible. Adoption Fee: Please email [email protected] for adoption fee! Adoption fee includes neuter or spay, up to date vaccinations, heartworm tested if old enough or started on heartworm prevention as a puppy, deworming and a one year TBAR membership.

Success Story: Macy

TBAR-Adopted-Dog-MacyMacy was a stray when a True Blue Animal Rescue member decided to save her life and foster. She’s a small bully breed, housebroken, friendly and great with kids yet nobody adopted her. She ended up staying in foster care for months. We found ourselves wondering why nobody wanted to adopt this wonderful dog but we’re pretty sure Macy knew why. Her foster family was falling more in love with her every day and Macy was doing her best to make that happen. When someone finally did ask about adopting her the foster family realized that they couldn’t let her go. We call that foster failure but for Macy it’s a huge win. You can tell by her smiling face that she couldn’t be happier! Thank you Casie and Cody for fostering and failing. We couldn’t be happier for the whole family!

Horsemen’s Market Day 2015

Are you looking for a way to contribute to TBAR? We are looking for item donations (think: garage sale items), event volunteers, and buyers to come by our booth on Saturday! Horseman Market Days 2014 True Blue Animal Rescue 12

True Blue Animal Rescue will once again be at the Brazos Valley Driving & Riding Club Horsemen’s Market Day! It always takes place the third Saturday in August (Tas Free Day!), and this year that falls on Saturday, August 15, 2015 from 8:00 am to 2:00 pm at the Brazos County Expo – East Pavilion. The address is 5827 Leonard Road in Bryan, Texas and it is just East of Highway 47.

We will not have any animals with us, but we will have a table full of goodies we will be selling to raise funds for animal care! The entire 60,000 square foot facility will be full of people buying, selling, and trading all equine-related items. Last year the event saw 150 booths sold, with vendors selling everything from jewelry, pillows, clothing, saddles, tack, trailers. The event also has some vendors doing demonstrations, such as blackmithing and clipper sharpening/repair. When you get to the event you can ask at the Registration table to see the list of vendors and what they are selling.

Admission and parking is FREE! There is a concession stand run by the Expo, but you are welcome to bring in your own snacks. Bleachers are available for sitting. The Pavilion is a non-smoking facility, and attendees should be prepared that there is no air conditioning (although the large ceiling fans keep it comfortable). The floor inside is packed clay. Bring cash to ensure you can purchase from all of the vendors!

Horse-related items are the most appropriate donations for this event. The items can be anything, from tack to t-shirts. We appreciate all items, and if they are not sold that day we will store them for our next event.

If you are looking for a volunteer opportunity for just the day, or even a longer-term commitment to us, we are always looking for great people to join us!

Please send an email to [email protected] for more info, or call 936-878-2349!

Success Story: Star

TBAR-Adopted-Dog-StarRemember Star? she was in the streets, alone and afraid. Lots of people walked past her but nobody would help till Gisele saw her and couldn’t get her out of her mind. . She went back and took it upon herself to rescue this poor hairless dog. She treated her demodex and showed her what it was like to be loved. Gisele planned to put her up for adoption when she was healthy but before too long it was obvious that a bond had been made and Star was there to stay. Just look at Miss Star with Gisele on vacation. You can see the happiness and love. It is with joy in our hearts that we are announcing this foster failure. Hooray for Gisele and Star. Please consider fostering or adopting. Go to www.t-bar.org and look at all the animals that are waiting for their forever homes.