Statesman Journal May 6, 2006

Members of a Salem volunteer group are caring for the animals

BETH CASPER
Statesman Journal

May 6, 2006

Alena Zimmerman leads a muddy, wheezing gelding toward what must look like heaven to a horse: a yard covered with thick, bright-green grass.

Zimmerman looks on as the horse chews a mouthful of green blades -- a stark contrast to the situation he came from, she said.

The horse was one of 13 surrendered Wednesday night to volunteers with Oregon Animal Care Center, an animal-rescue operation in the Mid-Willamette Valley.

Alerted by a neighbor about the horse neglect, the nonprofit organized almost 30 volunteers to help the horses. Within 12 hours, 13 of 27 horses had been removed from the Lebanon farm.

Volunteers throughout Marion County agreed to house and care for the removed horses until adoptive homes are found. Zimmerman in Salem has six horses, a Jefferson volunteer has five stallions and a Silverton volunteer has two fillies.

Volunteers hope that, for the health and safety of the horses, the owner will surrender the rest of them.

"It was shocking," said Brittany O'Neal, a care-center volunteer. "You go in there and say, 'How could someone do this?'"

Zimmerman and several other volunteers said that some of the horses were in stalls with manure 3 feet deep, had sores on their legs and had problems with their hooves.

"It just makes me sick," Zimmerman said.

Linn County Sheriff's deputies are investigating the situation.

Officers first visited the property Feb. 14 but did not find any life-threatening problems, Capt. Bruce Riley said.

Since then, authorities with the sheriff's department have visited the property at least twice.

Riley said the property owner has been cooperative.

"Our goal is the safety and care of the animals initially," Riley said.

But the case still is open while officers determine whether it is a criminal matter, he said.

In the meantime, Zimmerman will care for the six horses at her West Salem farm. In the past six years, she has taken in 17 rescue horses, but this is the most at one time.

She plans to bathe, brush, vaccinate and pamper the horses until volunteers find people to adopt them.

bcasper@StatesmanJournal.com or (503) 589-6994