Without a doubt, the common bond we all share in this industry is the love of horses. But, in addition to horses, dogs are usually part of a horse show family, and many exhibitors and trainers bring their faithful companions to the shows.
Along with our mutual love of horses and dogs, many competitors are passionately involved with rescue shelters and helping homeless pets in need. The desire to help abandoned and abused animals is illustrated often on Facebook by many of our horse show friends sharing posts for dogs, cats, and horses that need homes.
Non-Pro exhibitor, AQHA breeder and animal lover, Sarah Rosciti of North Scituate, Rhode Island saw one of those posts and decided she had to make a difference. Rosciti saw a post from Richard Couto, who is the founder of the Animal Recovery Mission (ARM) which is based in southern Florida. During an undercover investigation involving illegal slaughterhouses, ARM came across 11 caged dogs that were being kept and cared for by a homeless man.
According to a local news article written by Local 10 News in Hialeah, Florida, the homeless man was caring for the dogs which had been abandoned and discarded. After some negotiating, Couto and his team convinced the man to give up the dogs on the condition that they would go to happy homes and not kill shelters.
That’s where Rosciti, who has her own graphic design business and whose family is known for breeding such top horses as NSBA World Champion, Machine Made, and Reserve Congress Champion, Hot Couture, came into the picture. On Couto’s Facebook page, Sarah saw a picture of a two year-old mixed breed male that melted her heart. His name was Leprechaun and by everyone’s best guesstimate he is a Pug, Beagle, and Pit Bull mix. Sarah knew immediately that he had to be a part of her family.
“We had been toying with the idea to get another dog for my Heeler to play with since my Pomeranian doesn’t play as much now and when I saw this story, it just really tugged at my heart!” says Sarah, who became Facebook friends with the founder, Richard Couto through a mutual family friend. “I called and talked with some of the people with ARM and I told them about our lifestyle and that we travel for horse shows and about our dogs’ personalities. Then, we talked about which dogs might work– they had a canine behavior specialist test them first. We finally decided on Leprechaun, whose name we changed to Murphy. It was a little stressful flying him with all the storms and cold weather, but he finally made it! He is doing great so far and fits right in.”
Rosciti adds, “ARM still has some other dogs that need to be adopted and while this organization is not a dog rescue and mainly specializes in trying to stop illegal slaughterhouses–they have a common goal of trying to help animals. I admire their work because one of their main focuses is trying to save horses.”
As we all know, horses are majestic animals and amazing companions. However, according to ARM, a lucrative black market for horse meat exists in the United States. With it comes illegal backyard slaughters involving terrible suffering.
Established in 2010, The Animal Recovery Mission (ARM) is a non profit investigative organization that has been featured on CNN and National Geographic. It is dedicated to eliminating severe animal cruelty operations worldwide. According to the group, “Our mission is to be an uncompromising defending force for the welfare of animals in addition to putting an end to and preventing pain, suffering and torture inflicted as a result of inhumane practices.”
If you would like to find out more information about ARM or the dogs still available for adoption, please click here.
Photos © ARM and SR Images
