“Horse Council BC has set up an Animal Disaster Relief Fund to help with the horses displaced because of the BC wildfires. All monies donated will be allocated to the fund. We appreciate the phenomenal effort and sacrifice people are making to help and we hope to alleviate the financial strain on those hauling and housing horses. Our aim with this fund is to get the resources to those that need it as quickly as possible.”
Learn more and Donate here -> https://hcbc.online/donate
If you would like to help supply cash, food, supplies, and various needed items to the emergency evacuation centres around BC that are housing displaced horses, livestock, and pets due to the wildfire emergency, please consider donating to the Horse Council BC Animal Disaster Relief Fund.
Funds collected will be used to provide resources like hay, supplies, gas to the emergency evacuation centres and groups assisting with the wildfire relief effort.
Should any donated funds remain following the immediate wildfire emergency, the remaining funds will be spent according to the HCBC Animal Disaster Relief guidelines set out in the HCBC Finance Policy. If there are excess funds, they will be used on education on emergency planning, training emergency coordinators and emergency responders, communications and other linkages that support future emergency response efforts.
Don’t feel comfortable donating online? That’s ok! You can send a cheque payable to “HCBC Animal Disaster” and mail it to:
Horse Council BC
27336 Fraser Highway
Aldergrove, BC V4W 3N5
Marie Bennett writes: PLEASE NOTE BC’s Emergency Livestock Animal Evacuation Group are NOT handling money. https://www.facebook.com/groups/BCs… We are NOT accepting “donations”, so if ANY one asks you for money and claims to be part of this group, please know that we are directing any one who wants to donate money to Horse Council BC. You can donate ONLINE or send a cheque. Your choice! https://hcbc.online/donate THANK YOU Horse Council BC! Our thanks to EVERY one who has volunteered to help or offered any kind of support. Scroll down to read more about how we got started.
~ Marie Bennett
P.S. Before you ask, it’s not just been horses, you’ve all read about those helping with horses also helping with everything from parakeets, to 300 pound pot bellied pigs, llamas and alpacas, and more! Horse Council B.C. has the ability to QUICKLY disperse money to offset the expenses of those helping haul and of horses in need, that’s just one of the reasons we’ve decided to direct those wanting to donate to HCBC.
Marie writes: Our goal when Tina Rowe and I set up this Facebook group in July of 2015, was to educate people and let them know that fire is to be respected, that we should all have an emergency plan in place.
We were a small group of friends, connected by our passion for rescuing horses, and working towards banning the slaughter of horses in Canada.
We are friends who all own horses and know full well that you can not throw a horse in the back seat and drive off in an emergency.
We formed this group to remind ourselves and others to be prepared, and to make sure that we all had a network to call if we were in the line of fire and needed help evacuating our pets, horses, or in some cases livestock.
We were determined that we would help each other evacuate, if possible before an evacuation order was given, because it is very difficult for any one other than CDART to get in to an area that is under evacuation once the RCMP set an evacuation perimeter.
During that summer our small circle of friends, our network of horse lovers grew to over 2,000 and we did the best we could to help those in need connect with those who could offer help via our Facebook Group. People in need in some cases, found someone who volunteered to haul, and because of connections that happened via the Facebook Group some people found a place to house their livestock till they were able to either get back home or in some cases, unfortunately relocate. At any given time during that summer there were 100 to 200 fires burning.
Friends helping friends was the original concept, and remains our concept. Our online version of a good old fashioned telephone chain or tree, neighbours helping neighbours, has definitely grown since then! At last count to over 10,000 Facebook Group members AKA friends. We continue to be impressed with our fellow Canadians and all that they are so willing to do for others. Thank you each and everyone for being you!