We’re all struggling to make ends meet in the current economy. Inflation, rising interest rates, soaring fuel costs … add in other factors such as climate change affecting crops and water tables and it’s a recipe for disaster for many.

Horse owners aren’t immune, and neither are the various non-profit organizations who work to help rescue equines in distress. A recent story from CBC news highlights the issue facing owners that has caused an increase in horse surrenders from people who can no longer afford the feed and care for them.

Whispering Hearts Horse Rescue Centre (WHHRC) in Hagersville, Ontario, currently cares for over 80 horses and are a critical care facility that takes owner surrenders and also seized animals through the Provincial Animal Welfare Service. Brenda Thompson, founder and president of WHHRC (and Horse Canada’s 2020 Heroes of the Horse award winner), agrees that rising costs are impacting owners everywhere, including her farm. “Our fuel costs just to run the equipment has doubled. Feed prices are increasing every week, along with shavings for bedding going up forty per cent,” she says. “We have fencing repairs we need to do; however, with the cost of lumber going up two hundred per cent, we will be limited on what we repair.”

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