Diana – you are an angel!

We are still in need of gutters and gravel to go around the barn. Donations can be sent through Paypal: ohiospca@frontier.com or snail mailed to:

Ohio SPCA
P.O. Box 546
Grove City, Ohio
43123

This past fall, Cosmetology instructor, Roxanne Ames, and Environmental Science teacher, Lucinda Shurelds, began a small class fundraising project. After seeing an article in The Columbus Dispatch about our desperate need for hay, Shurelds and Ames decided to make our sanctuary their charity project for the year, and that small class project grew into a multi-county campaign.

First, the cosmetology lab and the science club held a bake sale and raised $250 to buy hay. When students from Industrial Diesel Mechanics, Equine Science, Landscape, Automotive Technologies and the Sophomore Construction Trades lab heard about the community service opportunity, they signed up to help. Members of the Future Farmers of America have continued to work on the project.

On a frigid 29-degree day, the students and their teachers worked together to repair fencing and fix-up the barn. Several students also transported hay donated by Equine instructor, Jo Sturgell. Another student donated three rabbit hutches. When mending the electric horse fence, students created a human fence to corral the horses. Shurelds collected cash donations from the DACC staff and delivered over 1500 pounds of feed donated by Tractor Supply Center and Champaign Feed Supply to the farm.

The good folks at the DACC have put together a video of the whole experience and have submitted it to Extreme Makeover: Home Edition on ABC. It would be a dream come true to have new barns for our animal residents. We would like to thank the students, staff, administrators, and the Superintendent at Delaware Area Career Center for their tremendous support of our sanctuary.

]]> http://www.ohiospca.org/sanctuary-animals/delaware-area-career-center-making-a-difference-for-the-animals/feed 0 http://www.ohiospca.org/rescued-animals/man-loses-custody-of-goats-after-journeying-through-at-least-four-states-2 http://www.ohiospca.org/rescued-animals/man-loses-custody-of-goats-after-journeying-through-at-least-four-states-2#comments Thu, 30 Jul 2009 15:23:59 +0000 admin http://www.ohiospca.org/?p=364 By: KELLEY SCHOONOVER

Associated Press, Wednesday, March 16, 2005 9:51 PM PST, CHARLESTON, W.Va.

A man who allegedly left a trail of dead goats through several states has lost custody of his 200-plus remaining animals pending the outcome of animal cruelty cases in Ohio and West Virginia.

Christopher Weathersbee, 64, fled to West Virginia with 16 of his goats, including a dead one he’d been storing in a freezer, in late February amid an impoundment and seizure by agents in Scioto County, Ohio.

Ohio agents found an estimated 80 goat carcasses on his rented property — including one in the house and another nine in a freezer, according to Teresa Landon, director of the Ohio Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. They also seized about 220 live goats from the property.

In West Virginia, shelter officials found another goat dead after a passer-by notified officials that the goats appeared thin and weak. Officials seized the 14 living animals — a seizure that was upheld Tuesday.

Weathersbee said Wednesday that he was obligated to care for the goats as a Third Order Franciscan. When they died, he said he didn’t have the strength to bury them, considering the fact the ground was frozen.

“I’m one old man trying to fight city hall in three states,” he said, adding that he is also seeking to overturn a 2004 animal cruelty conviction in Vermont.

It was not immediately known whether Weathersbee had retained a lawyer.

Weathersbee first came to the attention of officials in 2001 when he started seeking assistance in caring for his more than 300 goats while living in Corinth, Vt.

He wanted to start a no-kill goat shelter where he could produce cheese and wool, said Dana Starr with the Central Vermont Humane Society. He applied for loans, grants and even petitioned the governor for help.

“He couldn’t afford to feed them and couldn’t understand why others didn’t aid him,” Starr said on Tuesday.

At one time Weathersbee had some of the animals living in his house with him. The animals were allowed to breed and multiply and started starving, Starr said.

The Vermont humane society seized 44 goats in February 2004, she said, and Weathersbee was later charged with multiple counts of animal cruelty. He entered into a plea agreement under which he agreed to take his goats, including those that were seized, and leave the state, Starr said.

Weathersbee went to eastern Kentucky, telling Vermont humane officials his animals would be cared for as part of a vegetation-management project, Starr said.

He was in Kentucky only a couple of weeks, and it was unclear how many of his animals died by the time he arrived in Franklin Furnace, Ohio, on Dec. 28, Landon said.

Weathersbee is scheduled to have a pretrial hearing in Ohio next month on 15 misdemeanor counts of animal cruelty. If convicted, he could be sentenced to up to 90 days in jail and fined up to $740 on each count. He also faces 16 counts of animal cruelty in West Virginia.

He has previously acknowledged that he could not afford to give the herd sufficient care, but he refused to get rid of the animals because he said his religious views prohibited him from slaughtering any of the goats.

Read more on the status of the Ohio Goats…

On April 12, 2008, another group of vet students once again made a “farm call.” These young men and women provide an invaluable service to the Ohio SPCA by donating their time and by helping to keep the sanctuary residents healthy. We are very grateful for their visits.

Eric, Jenny Jenkins '08, Johanna Rosenfield '10, Morgan Schrock '10, Aaron Madeira '09, Lisa Mangus '09, Kristen Scrafford '10, Brian Hirshback '10

Inspecting the Goats

Sweet Pea arrived full of lice and with a leg that had been broken and never repaired. She now needs expensive surgery to repair the leg before she gets any older. Funds are needed for this surgery which will be done at the OSU Veterinary Hospital in Columbus.

Angel, a sweet small white goat, will forever live with damage resulting from neglect. When she came to us, her hooves were grossly overgrown and she had been walking on her knees for a very long time. Her knees will never be normal and she still wants to graze while on her knees. Due to long-term neglect, Angel walks slower than normal and raises her legs abnormally high. Additionally, she has what is called a parrot mouth. Her upper jaw extends beyond the lower jaw. Volunteers continue to treat her skin issues which have resulted in loss of fur. Despite her handicaps, Angel is thriving at the farm sanctuary. Both Sweet Pea and Angel have become favorites on the farm. Their rehabilitation continues.

Please consider making a donation towards their care and Sweet Pea’s surgery. Donations may be made through PayPal or by mail

By Holly Zachariah
hzachariah@dispatch.com
Columbus Dispatch

CIRCLEVILLE, Ohio – The highschool kids drove in posts to cordon off a secure pasture for the horses.
Then they moved on to the wooden fence at the back of the Pickaway County farm used by the Ohio Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. There, they pulled rotted boards and hammered in new ones so the 31 goats wouldn’t escape anymore.

Never mind the metal gates they repaired, the 17 rabbits they fed, the 500 bales of hay they delivered or the video they shot to submit the farm as a candidate for the television show Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.

The work that 60 Delaware Area Career Center students and their teachers did in a bitterly cold wind earlier this month was just the latest act of kindness to overwhelm Teresa Landon, the society’s director.

In the fall, Landon appealed to other animal-rescue groups after a deal with a local farmer went sour and the society found itself without enough hay to feed its menagerie for even a week, let alone through the winter (Sept. 29, Metro & State).

Generous Dispatch readers sent $18,000 to the society after that, enough for Landon to buy some hay – which was at a premium in the midst of a shortage – and pay two veterinary bills.

The story also inspired the students and teachers at the career center. They cleaned and repaired the farm as a community-service project.

Initially, senior Zack Hood helped round up hay only because his favorite teacher asked him. Then, he delivered the first 80 bales and was troubled by what he saw.

“I got down here and saw what she does by taking in all these animals and I realized she needed so much help,” he said. “I made it a mission to get into it and do whatever I could.”

Holly E. Hazard, Executive Director of the Doris Day Animal Foundation said of Landon, “Through your work investigating animal cruelty cases, pushing to prosecute offenders, and rescuing and rehabilitating innocent animal victims, you have set a shining example for others to follow.”

“In the face of what can seem like society’s limitless indifference and cruelty towards animals, people are often tempted to look the other way or give up in despair when they come across non-human beings in distress. Fortunately for the dogs of Morgan and Adams counties; a mange ridden mother dog and her four pups; and animals throughout the state of Ohio, your empathy and compassion compel you to act where others might not. Thank you, Ms. Landon, for proving that one person really can help make this a kinder world.”

From the Doris Day Animal Foundation (www.ddaf.org)

“As founder and director of the Ohio SPCA, Ms. Landon has personally responded to animal abuse complaints in rural southern Ohio, and then worked with prosecutors, sheriff departments, and the media to prosecute the offenders and alert the public. With her own funds, she has rescued many innocent animals and rehabilitated them, both physically and emotionally. Ms. Landon also helped persuade the Morgan County animal shelter to stop shooting dogs as a method of euthanasia by obtaining video footage, and ultimately shaming the county commissioners into ending the practice. She also successfully sued Adams County, Ohio to stop shooting dogs as a method of euthanasia and severely limited their use of the gas chamber which is currently allowed under Ohio law.” (2005)