Wisconsin Horse Rescue Loses 24 Horses in Barn Fire

WHO WILL RESCUE THE RESCUERS?

December 1, 2010

If you haven’t yet read it, look up the article in Friday’s Nov. 26, 2010 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. But consider yourself warned… get out your Kleenex.

In short, a barn owned by Cindy and Jim Bondowski burned down. What makes this barn and these people special is this: it housed many horses abandoned by their owners due to sickness, injuries, or hardship (a ‘rescue’). It also housed some of Cindy and Jim’s favorite, cherished, special, valuable and dearly loved personal horses. Eight of those being the ‘minis’; miniature horses specially bred. Jim told me his dream was for them was to be the “mini Budwiser team.To talk to them about those minis is to talk to someone who has lost a child (8 of them). Tiny, helpless, beautiful little ‘horsies’… babies. Regardless, they are now with all the other poor creatures of God that never made it out of that blazing, chaotic inferno.

Yesterday I traveled out to the Bondowski’s farm on a cold, breezy, and even snow-flurried day. The sky was gray and unforgiving. The weather actually matched the sad, depressing event of which I was to observe the aftermath. I had attempted to prepare myself for the devastation I was about to enter into. We in Wisconsin pass by old farms and barns in all our travels. We pretty much take them in stride. We are, after all, the Dairy State. Unless you’re a writer or photographer these barns and silos hold no particular interest for you other than being aesthetically pleasing in an artsy kind of way. But what I observed was neither pleasing nor artsy. And there would be no preparing for it. It was simply heartbreakingly, horrifyingly, tragic. My imagination ran wild at the thought of these giant terror stricken animals full of frenzied panic and confusion, desperately seeking escape. I could easily launch into a detailed, sickening description of burnt out stables, falling ceilings, nothingness where stalls and equipment once dwelled, but I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

Jim himself, toured the burnt out carnage with me and tearfully described what I will always remember as the most devastating scene of lost beauty and life that I have ever experienced. (As a side note, I’ve been an E.M.T. in Milwaukee for almost 8 years, some of that spent in an E.R.)

The heroism of Cindy and Jim is obvious; they risked their very lives for their 4-legged creatures of God that so many of us take for granted. Cindy spent her Thanksgiving dragging out dead horse carcasses through the back door to place in a pile of the same. (Upon my arrival, the victims of the blaze were loaded onto a truck, currently pulling out of the driveway). They received help from a relative and a friend, while Jim was hospitalized, begging to be released to go back to the farm and help his wife and their horses. In my world, the word ‘selfless’ doesn’t even begin to describe the Bondowskis!

Bottom line #1: The Bondowskis are focusing on relocating their rescue and are currently searching for a new farm to lease to buy. They’d like to stay in WI but told me even if the property was on the border of WI/IL that it would be okay. A phone number and website will be furnished at the end of this article. They desperately need our help NOW!

Bottom line #2: There are 11 horses (survivors) that are up for immediate adoption/fostering. They range in years and breeds, male and female, trained to ride and untrained, under a vet’s care and healthy. I took pictures and brief histories of each survivor. These horses were amazingly calm, friendly and seemingly unaffected by the devastating tragedy that has befallen them.

I am forever changed by my little excursion out to this unfortunate horse rescue farm that, for some unknown reason, has suffered one of the greatest tragedies that can befall this planet. The sad, senseless, horrific loss of some of God’s most beautiful creatures… His horses.

If you do nothing more this holiday season, please remember these poor, unfortunate people that are truly doing God’s work. They need supplies, food and caring foster and/or adoptive ‘parents’ for the surviving horses. Lastly, they need a new place to continue the amazing work they do…. Save horses!

Please contact animalfairycharities.org to make a donation or inquire as to how you can help.

Written and photographed by Kim Couse, Freelance writer and Volunteer for AFC. Contact Kim: icanrite4u@gmail.com