58 / Sport and Trail Magazine
CONTINUED >
It all started late in 2012, when Oregon Horse Rescue founder Jane Kelly saw four emaciated horses clearly in need of intensive intervention. She and her husband David purchased the horses and arranged for their immediate transfer to safe locations where they could be given veterinary care and the nutrition they needed to recover their health.
Seeing the difference in the horses after just a few short weeks of nurturing prompted the Kellys to commit to a larger purpose: the creation of an official rescue organization, dedicated to providing a haven for severely neglected, permanently disabled, and very old horses.
Jane and David recruited people with a variety of experience to serve on their Board of Directors and worked with an attorney specializing in non-profit law to draft legal Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws for their fledgling organization. On May 21, 2013, the first meeting of the Oregon Horse Rescue Board was held, and the group committed to applying for tax-exempt 501(c)(3) public-benefit charity status with the IRS (OHR was granted this designation later that year, retroactive to the May date of incorporation). Thus, all donations made to O.H.R. are tax-deductible to the full extent of the law.
“Our horses have come from a variety of sources – surrender by owner, auction yard, referrals from Lane County [Oregon] Animal Services, veterinarians or other rescue operations,” President David Kelly explains. Although some are able to be rehabilitated and re-homed, the majority of horses at the Rescue will live out the remainder of their lives there.