Nadia is a 12 year old gray Arabian mare that was original part of a Pierce County Animal Control seizure in early June 2010, out of a hoarder situation involving 18 ponies and horses and 55 dogs that were living in filthy conditions. This is also the same place where Zanadu and Calamity (RIP) came from.
Nadia was one of only two remaining horses in Pierce County’s contracted foster home that had not found a home, and on 11/12/10, she and the other horse were taken to the Enumclaw Sales Pavilion and run through the auction. Sadly, Nadia ended up in the kill pen scheduled to be shipped for slaughter. At this point SAFE was contacted, as Pierce County Animal Control was willing to make a donation to a rescue organization to help get Nadia safe, but they would not buy her back from the auction yard.
Normally, it is not our policy to buy horses from auctions, especially after they have gone to the kill pen. Our take on this is that it is analygous to buying puppies from a puppy mill to save them…it is contributing to, rather than addressing, a systemic problem. We are inundated on a daily basis from horse owners asking us to take their horses they no longer can or wish to care for, from Animal Control/Humane Society organizations asking us to take horses for them, and from individuals pointing us to various threads or Craiglist ads about horses going to slaughter or being offered for free and begging for us to help. There are horses in need everywhere needing rescue, and paying overinflated prices to a kill buyer who laughs as he publicly refers to us as “bleeding heart idiots” is not the answer.
That said, we chose to make an exception to our policies (which we have before, Lucky being another case in point), because of the circumstances involved and primarily due to the loss of Nadia’s former pasture mate, Calamity, in a tragic accident last week.
Nadia is currently at the NWESC facility for assessment and quarantine as she spent nearly a week at the auction facility. Dr. Hannah has given her a brief evaluation and given her a body condition score of 2.5. Apparently she has had her vaccinations and a dental float, but Dr. Hannah is doing bloodwork on her and a fecal as well to rule out any physical explanation for her poor body condition.
We don’t know if she is broke to ride but from what I have been told, she is very sweet and easy to handle, even nervous and in a new environment.
