Abandoned horses are latest victims of financial collapse

By Kara Finnstrom and Chuck Conder LANCASTER, California (CNN) — The sound of pounding hooves thunders in the high desert air. A cloud of dust marks the trail of a herd of wild horses as they race across the arid plain. This is Lifesavers Wild Horse Rescue, a shelter for wild mustangs and unwanted horses near Lancaster, California. Lifesavers President Jill Starr says she and other shelter operators are witnessing an equine crisis. "People have lost their homes, their jobs, their hope," she said. "And they are giving up their animals." "We’ve had horses come onto the property in a horse trailer, unannounced, and just offloaded and [owners] ask us, beg us, if we could take these skinny horses," she said. Starr says she has taken in so many unwanted horses in the past year that her resources are stretched to the breaking point. "All of a sudden it’s like somebody flipped a switch and people started bringing back the horses they adopted from us," she said. … The Los Angeles County animal shelter is killing abandoned horses at a rate of three or four a week. …

Economy causing horse crisis: People ‘giving up their animals’