February 2025
Brother Bear
Equine Foundation
Our Mission: to pull the sickest, most debilitated horses from the slaughter pipeline, restore them to vibrant health, and re-home them with loving guardians
Horses 5, 6, 7, 8, 9: Ethan, Andreas, Bentley, Tinder, Sophia
Horses 5 and 6: Ethan and Andreas
Andreas
Andreas and Ethan are two elderly emaciated Percheron geldings — a driving team who could no longer work. Unable to work, they were not fed. In their debilitated condition they were sold for the cost of the meat they could provide. When attempts to sell them at auctions failed, they were scheduled to go on the slaughter truck. Brother Bear intervened and paid their fees to keep them safe. A donor suggested they be named Ethan (“strong” in Hebrew) and Andreas (“strong” in German) and so they are called.
Andreas was in the worst condition, at least 200 lbs underweight. The next day he and Ethan were to be hauled to the quarantine and rehab facility, but Andreas went down and could not get up. Staff worked into the night with lifting straps, medications, and veterinary attention but he could not stand. He was too thin and too weak, and it was too late. Andreas was euthanized there in the loving presence of my courageous colleague, Penny Parker, founder of our partner nonprofit Horse Angels.
We grieve for them both —the loss of the magnificent Andreas who earned no retirement for his long service to humans and for Penny who fought for him for hours in the bitterly cold pen until it was clear that his body could not hold him — and then held him as he left. Bearing witness takes a brutal toll.
We hope that Andreas was comforted in his last hours by people doing everything they could to help him…
Andreas in his last hour of life — cast aside as worthless but cherished at the end.
Ethan
Ethan was safety transported and took up in residence at the quarantine facility. He was bewildered. This sensitive intelligent animal who lived with and worked daily with a partner had a predictable routine for most of his life but he had been living in chaos for at least a month — no routine, unfamiliar people, intermittent food, put on trailers and hauled to noisy frightening locations with other frightened horses. At this last location his increasingly frail friend and partner goes down — and that is the end. He surely knew that Andreas was failing rapidly but no one cared enough to intervene.
In quarantine, he was offered peace and safety and reliable meals and kind voices. He was in much better condition than Andreas and did not appear to have anything wrong other than needing weight. He settled in and decompressed and quickly showed himself to be sweet and gentle to handle — a mannered gentleman. There was an outbreak of strangles in the pen at the time he was pulled but he escaped uninfected.
A kind and generous person saw his picture, fell in love with him, and offered to take over his expenses and adopt him.
We are overjoyed at Ethan’s good fortune. When an adopter takes on the expenses of a pulled horse and also reimburses Brother Bear for all costs to-date, that frees up resources to pull more horses.
Which is exactly what we did.
ABOUT THE DONATION SOFTWARE:
The donation software generously pays the processing fees so that 100% of donations goes directly to the Brother Bear bank account. However, once you specify your donation amount, it will ask for a tip.
TIPPING IS OPTIONAL.. If you scroll to Other in the tip window then it will not charge a tip. If you prefer Venmo, then please use @martha-faraday and designate your gift for Brother Bear. If you prefer a paper check, then please make out to Brother Bear and mail to the address at the bottom of this email.
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Horses 7 and 8: Bentley and Tinder
Bentley
Bentley is a standardbred, not yet 3. Just a baby, he is already unwanted and has been thrown away the way you would toss out an empty soda can — except in this case cash was exchanged and his owner left him in the pen, knowing he likely would end up on slaughter truck. As usual, we know nothing about him — where he came from and why he ended up here at such a young age. When he was pulled, he was seriously malnourished. As a baby, he has no emotional resources that come from life experience to process the mess that has become his life. His life is just underfed chaos. You can see by the stunned look in his eyes that he has no idea what he did wrong to cause all of this to happen.
He arrived at the quarantine facility exhausted and demoralized, so accustomed to not being cared for that he struggled to process a clean stall, as much hay as he wanted, and good meals. It also seemed that he has had limited exposure to kind voices and gentle handling as these experiences appeared to be new for him. He has spent the last few weeks eating and resting and putting on weight. He was exposed to strangles but appears to have escaped infection. He will be ready for adoption soon. Below he stands quietly for the farrier.
Tinder
Tinder was an elderly Standardbred dumped because of his age and inability to continue working. He was probably in his early to mid-20s. He earned no retirement.
Shortly after he arrived in the chaos of the pen (see photo below) full of stressed horses that are packed in tight, he colicked. No vetting occurred and no medications were given. It was noted that he was a business “loss” and he was left to survive on his own — or not.
He was down for hours before my colleague found him. She gave him medications that provided him comfort but he could not load in his condition. During the night he was able to get up but he went down again and before we could pick him up the next day he died — probably from a twisted bowel.
There are no words for this grief — an elderly horse dying in pain in a strange place. We hope that having some tending before the end helped him to feel less alone. In his memory, we pulled Sophia (Horse 9).
Bentley and Tinder bracket the equine lifespan and demonstrate the risks of being unwanted — whether you are very young or very old.
Below: Pen chaos with horses packed in tight — a high risk environment for weak, sick, disabled, or elderly horses.
Horse 9: Sophia
For the rest of my life I will remember that first picture of Sophia, taken late at night in the pen. She had a badly broken pelvis, was barely 3 years old, and had been used to pull a buggy until her weak hind end could do it no longer. Dumped for cash, she was weaving through the tightly packed horses, desperate to get out.
Sweet, exhausted, feverish from strangles, and seriously underweight, she took up residence at the quarantine facility. She rested and she ate and she slept deeply — the relief for these horses of arriving at a clean stall with plenty of hay, fresh water, regular meals, kind voices, and peace and safety is profound.
So she rested. She weathered the strangles without major issues. Her vet checked her and her farrier pulled off her road shoes. A wonderful client was captivated by her and offered to adopt her once she cleared quarantine.
But back to that urgency. Suddenly Sophia had a huge belly. Her vet was summoned. She had another reason she needed to get out of that pen. She is 10 months pregnant.
We pulled two lives — not one.
Joy replaced quickly by worry — could she move a baby out through her broken pelvis? Probably not — additional diagnostics revealed that her pelvis was shattered on the right side — she may have been hit by a car while pulling a buggy. She is a high-risk pregnancy and may need a C section. She was transported to the equine hospital’s high-risk pregnancy unit a few days ago and she will stay until delivery.
Among the many miracles operating in her life, she is not in pain from the fracture.. her movements are awkward because of how it healed but her vets note that she is strong and comfortable with no signs of distress.
Sophia… bred (intentionally or unintentionally) at barely 2 and now at 3, a baby mare having a baby… hence the urgency… She is no longer urgent. She is peaceful and matter of fact and knows what to do. Our job is to be her safety net. Simple enough.
The practical implications in the human world of logistics and money? Her adoption is delayed by months to allow foaling, nursing, and weaning — that means 6 to 8 months more of boarding costs. A complicated delivery in the hospital will be costly — but without that support there is a high risk of losing both her and her baby.
So here is the familiar paragraph — we need donations. I will cover everything she and her baby need but that means we stop pulling more desperate horses that are in the pen as I write this without an exit ramp. If others help then we can keep going.
ABOUT THE BROTHER BEAR EQUINE FOUNDATION
The nonprofit Brother Bear Foundation was created in memory of Brother Bear, an aged quarter horse who served humans for three decades — only to be abandoned in a field where he starved to death because no one took care of his teeth. His mouth had not been tended in so many years that he could not open it to eat. Brother Bear came to us for help — a skeleton covered with skin and fur — and we had him for one week before he collapsed from severe heart failure. He died with his head in my hands.
The outrage over what happened to him, the grotesque injustice, and the terrifying lack of compassion that killed him still grieves us.
Bear’s death is a symbol of what goes wrong for helpless, sick, old, and damaged horses everywhere — many of whom end up in the slaughter pipeline and die in the most horrible circumstances imaginable.
We need to do more.
Our mission: to pull horses like Bear — sick, old, starved, damaged — out of the slaughter pipeline.
HOW TO DONATE:
-Through any of the buttons in this newsletter
-By going to the Brother Bear page at https://4oaksequine.com/brother-bear/
-Through Venmo by using @martha-faraday; please designate your payment as for Brother Bear
If you prefer Zelle or paper check, then please use the Contact form on my website and I will send you information regarding how to donate using these methods (https://4oaksequine.com)
How does the Brother Bear mission work?
We have partnered with a sister nonprofit facility that can haul, quarantine, provide access to care, and rehome. The ultimate cost of rehab for a debilitated horse is unknown. Paying the fee to the pen to release them is just the first step. Then there are the costs of quarantine, vetting, medications, farrier, supplements, etc. These expenses, especially veterinary costs for sick animals, can rapidly escalate to thousands of dollars.
How does this work?
I assume personal financial responsibility for any horse pulled in order to protect the facility, the staff, and the veterinarians who have to be paid whether or not the Foundation has enough money.
With just my personal resources, I can pull one or two at a time and cover their costs until they are well enough to go to new homes. Then I can pull another one or two. I may be able to save 5 or 6 during the year depending on how high the costs run
If you help by donating, however, we can do much much more. The Foundation is an IRS-designated 501c3 charity — all contributions are tax deductible and every dollar you contribute goes to horse care (the Foundation has no administrative expenses; it is run for free by volunteers).
I would like to pull at least 50 terrified debilitated animals this year and give them not just hope — but LIFE. I cannot do that on my own. But we can do it together. And maybe we can do more.
Please help. Every dollar counts.
How do we know their names?
We do not. Can you imagine mattering so little that you are dropped off in this environment and no one bothers to reveal your name? Names are identity. Every animal pulled by Brother Bear has a name. We honor who they are. And we remember….
Who is this sweet, exhausted gelding? This is Rafael (Horse 10) — he loaded minutes ago into the trailer that will take him to safety.
His story is unbelievable.
Look for it in the April Newsletter.
ABOUT DR. FARADAY:
Dr. Martha M. Faraday (PhD) is the founder of the Brother Bear Equine Foundation. She is a whole horse health scientist and equine nutritionist who has a national reputation for fixing unfixable horses. She also cares for seriously ill small animals. Her passion is to restore all horses everywhere to vibrant health — no matter what. For more information about her work, please go to https://4oaksequine.com.