New homes have been found for 40 horses in Ireland thanks to the power Facebook.
Last week 85 horses were rounded up and impounded in Cork. They were in varying states of health. Some were malnourished, others had skin or chest infections and some were lame.
Thirty of the horses were returned to their owners while, sadly, 15 had to be euthanized. Thankfully the remaining 40 were taken to the Animal Heaven Animal Rescue (AHAR) charity in Kerry.
AHAR have managed to find homes for all 40 of the horses and they are in the process of finalising paperwork such as the horses’ equine passports.
Veterinary surgeon Danny Holmes said: “The fact that homes have been found for these 40 horses is heartening. It’s a fantastic success and a credit to all involved in the operation.”
AHAR were able to line up potential homes for the horses thanks to Facebook. They are connected to 26,000 fans on their Facebook page and much of the process was carried out on the social network site.
Mr Holmes continued: “A lot of people were coming forward through Facebook, mostly family units interested in taking horses, usually as a rescue and not with any specific purpose in mind.
“I hope this is a model that will be repeated in other parts of the country.”
The success in finding homes for the horses illustrates yet again the incredible power of social media to rally people into helping good causes. In the past, it might not have been possible to reach out to new owners and some of the horses may have had to be destroyed.
AHAR says it hopes that mistreatment of horses and other animals can be prevented in future, but won’t hesitate to use social media again to help find homes for abandoned animals if similar cases occur again.
