Evacuated horses back home
All the horses evacuated from the Trabing Fire are finally safe at home.
“It was utter chaos,” said Marguerite Nicholson of the fire that swept through Larkin Valley June 20.
The rescue effort was “very unofficial,” she said, and “just a matter of trying to help friends and neighbors in times of emergency.”
Volunteers joined with Santa Cruz County Animal Services to save 220 horses and livestock, including llamas, goats and a mini-horse, by sundown the day of the fire. The animals were evacuated to the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds in Watsonville and to the Graham Hill Showgrounds in Santa Cruz.
Animal Services was on the scene within an hour after the fire broke out after getting calls from frantic people who couldn’t get to their property to rescue their animals.
“We already had control officers in the field, and we called and told them to drop everything and sent them to the evacuation zone,” said Tricia Geisreiter, Animal Services coordinator. At the fairgrounds, “we were so busy keeping track of the horses that we lost track of how many volunteers showed up,” she said. “They’d say, ‘how can I help?’ And we’d say ‘here, feed the animals hay.’”
The last horses and volunteers returned home Sunday morning.
The most recent fire brings to light the necessity of having more people trained in equine evacuation, said Linda Murre, a volunteer.
Source: MercuryNews