Donors come to the rescue of horses at Dream Catcher sanctuary

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Donors from across the country have come to the aid of a Northern California sanctuary for old and ailing horses. The sanctuary, which had run out of money, has received enough donations to keep operating through the winter, and the donations continue to come in.

The sanctuary’s manager, Barbara Clarke, had feared that the sanctuary would be shut down and that any horses not adopted would have to be euthanized. That won’t happen now. As of last week, donors had already ponied up more than $70,000.

‘Our situation is a complete reversal of what it was only a few weeks ago,’ said Clarke, who runs the remote Dream Catcher sanctuary in Ravendale, about 120 miles northwest of Reno. ‘The support has been overwhelming -- in capital letters.’ That’s Clarke above with a colt at the 1,200-acre spread.

The plight of Clarke’s nonprofit, formerly called Dream Catcher/a.k.a. Equus Sanctuary, was detailed by Louis Sahagun in an article published Aug. 27 in The Times. Donations dried up after a horse sanctuary with a similar name in the Antelope Valley was raided by animal control authorities. Some animals there were in such bad shape they had to be put down.

Read on for Sahagun’s full story and a photo gallery on the horse rescue.

-- Steve Padilla