You can make a difference by donating today to Casey's Safe Haven Horse Rescue and Sanctuary.
Casey’s is located in a rural town northwest of Chicago. We are non-profit organization licensed as both a sanctuary and rescue. We are the only licensed sanctuary in northern Illinois which means certain rescues will live out their lives with us because of health and/or age and will never be able to be adopted out. Our Sanctuary budget is our largest expense because of health reasons requiring vet and medical care to keep them healthy and comfortable. Equines come to Casey’s in a variety of ways - Those that will live out their retirement years with us, often coming to us with not only emotional pain but physical needs that negate the ability to find them a forever home. Others come to us for a variety of reasons, such as neglect, abuse, death of an owner, and financial reasons. These equines are taken in with the goal of first rehabbing them, making sure they are healthy, and then finding a loving, forever home to live out their lives.
One of our Sanctuary rescues is a little pony named Cece. Cece was rescued from a hoarding situation and was found tied up behind the garage. Due to a badly malformed hoof resulting from an untreated injury, other rescues had said no to her because a local vet and farrier recommended that she be put down. But not Casey’s! Last year we thought we were going to lose Cece from a terrible infection that developed in her hoof. Her spirit proved to be indomitable! We never expected her to walk normally because the foot was so badly deformed and infected, but she proved us wrong. The good news is that we eliminated the infection and the angle of Cece’s hoof has slowly changed through the work that Mitch, our barn manager/trainer and his farrier have done using special shoe supports they designed. Watch the “before and after” movie included. Cece will follow Mitch like a puppy in showing her gratitude.
Casey’s is a relatively small operation. Our annual expense budget is approximately $250,000. We were hit very, very hard by the pandemic because the major source of our funding comes from events and fundraisers. Through the pandemic, we cancelled many fundraising events. It has been a very slow process in coming back. Our average cost for maintaining our equines now exceeds the norm due to special dietary needs, supplements, medicines, and more frequent vet care. Like everyone else, inflation has hit us hard. We have made an effort to control our fixed costs, but our variable costs, such as hay, feed, and vet visits have risen by over 25%.
