Surrendering a Horse

Please also see “Temporary Assistance Program” and “Euthanasia Grants: The Matilda Grant” below.

The majority of our horses have been surrendered horses.

Surrendered horses come to us for a variety of reasons, including financial difficulty, difficult behaviour in the horse, urgent surgical needs, and family conflict.

Charlie’s Angels is a small organisation, run entirely by volunteers and relying solely on donations from the public to do our work. We simply don’t have the resources that a large organisation such as the RSPCA might have available to them.

We do not have an open door surrender policy.

Unfortunately, we cannot take every horse for which we receive a request for surrender. We can only accept as many horses as we can support financially, both in the immediate term, as well as through the long-term efforts of rehabilitation. While we may have enough ‘space’ to take on more horses, we just might not have the financial resources to do so. For example, we once spent $3,000 on a horse in just seven weeks trying to save him, only to have to euthanase him. We were happy to spend the money, because we had made that commitment, but we obviously can’t spend money at that rate for every horse we take on or we would be bankrupt.

This situation can change at any time, so just because we cannot take your horse one month, does not mean we can’t take it a month or two later, so it may be worth you checking back with us at a later date. It is totally dependent on our fundraising efforts and how many adoptions we’ve had recently.

We also need to consider the overall diversity of our herd of foster horses and how reasonable it might be to adopt the horse into a forever home. We also need to assess the availability and skill levels of our foster carers, as well as their resources (property, grass species, stables, yards etc.) and set up for rehabilitation.

If you would like to surrender a horse, your best efforts to assist our fundraising activities are greatly appreciated.

While we may not be able to accept your horse, we may be able to assist you to find a home for the horse.

Please know that we take every request for assistance very seriously. This is a horse’s life we’re talking about and we are here to serve horses. We rationally AND emotionally look at every request on a case-by-case basis. For the horses that we have to say no to, we think about them long after contact with the person has ceased.

If you feel that you would like to look at surrendering your horse as an option, please email us at charlies-angels@live.com.au or phone us on 0401681908 to discuss your needs.

Temporary Assistance Program

If you are having difficulty caring for your horse and are in need of temporary assistance, we might be able to help you.

Temporary assistance can take many forms, including agistment and care, and financial details are worked out on a case-by-case basis.

The need for temporary assistance might arise due to loss of income, natural disasters, serious illness in the family or other exceptional circumstance. The spirit of the temporary assistance program is that your horse is still your horse, but we might be able to help you through a difficult time so that you can reunite with your horse on the other side of the difficulty.

Euthanasia Grants: The Matilda Grant

The Matilda Grant was born from a euthanasia grant we gave to a horse we called Matilda in her dying hours. We may be able to assist you with a euthanasia grant if money is the prohibiting factor for you to perform this necessary and compassionate act. The Matilda Grant will be paid directly to the veterinarian who performs the euthanasia.

Contact

To talk about your needs, you can email us at charlies-angels@live.com.au. Please email us rather than leave a commenton this page. It is much harder for us to manage comments.