HAMERSVILLE, Ohio – A year later, volunteers with Fighting Chance Rescue are determined to rescue horses in need and get justice for those they can’t.
That's why Kim Kinder started a rescue and why she was in Clermont County Municipal Court Wednesday.
Kinder, a trainer, went to a farm last year to pick up three horses. She said they were already sick, starving and dying.
Kinder said she and her friends were able to take them back to her rescue and nurse one back to health. But the others died. One was Chance, a young 2-year-old. The other was Chance's mother.
"There was no chance for Chance,” Kinder said Wednesday. “We gave him the best two weeks we could. We loved him.”
That’s when Kinder named her rescue after Chance.
She says she hopes to never find any more horses in similar or worse condition and to save the ones that need to be saved.
"We make it to where when people surrender their horse there's no questions, no judgment,” Kinder said. “We just take them and do the right thing for the horse."
Within the last year, the rescue has taken in close to 40 other horses and found them homes, Kinder said.
The two people originally responsible for taking care of Chance were in court Wednesday to face animal cruelty charges. Before being sentenced, both Tanya Crisp and Marshall Wells told the judge they did the best they could.
And their friends agreed.
"She was at the barn more than she was with her own family,” said Duane Henson, a friend of Crisp. “She mourned so hard when that colt passed."
Nonetheless, the judge handed down the full punishment - 180 days in jail.
"I would hope that we could have some sense of closure that these horses did not suffer in vain and the law recognizes the severity of the abuse they suffered," said Suz Croutwater, a volunteer with Fighting Chance Rescue.
Fighting Chance Rescue will hold a benefit March 25 at Bethel Community Center to raise operating funds. Get more details here.
