Jessie
Rescue Date
15th December 2011
Story
Jesse James, the infamous American outlaw, rode into town in the 1800′s robbing banks and trains and causing much mayhem. But it was little Jessie pony who trotted to our attention here at Edgar’s Mission recently and stole our hearts.
In a world where equines can fetch prices of several millions of dollars, a horse’s worth is largely determined by what it can contribute to the lives of those who claim ‘ownership’ of them. And miniature ponies like little Jessie can command a huge price tag. Yet making good her escape from her breeder into parklands, Jessie’s ‘owners’ considered her unworthy of their efforts to catch her. And eluding capture she did for quite some time, which earned her great notoriety.
The passage of time and her associations with humans had told Jessie we were not a species to be trusted and it took the dart gun and a posse of good hearted people headed by a veterinarian to rein Jessie in. The heavily sedated pony was carried to a float and transported to the local pound to be auctioned off as unclaimed livestock. Things were looking grim for Jessie as almost no one wanted the wayward pony.
While considered worthless by many, we here at Edgar’s Mission believe Jessie to be priceless. She is adorable and she rightly stands to protect her life just as we would if faced with such formidable foes. Over and over, situations such as this remind us of the commonality we have with non human animals, we all share the same need for food and water, safety and comfort and a place to call home.
Although it took all our horse wrangling skills to safely transport Jessie to our sanctuary it will be the test of time whether we can regain her trust. Despite standing only 8.3 hands tall (that’s 89 cm in human terms), Jessie believes her life fighting for, and so do we. Her recovery is somewhat compromised by the fact an abscess had broken out at the site of the dart gun and required daily treatment, yet another challenge for us to overcome. But if saving animals is about climbing mountains we see no Everest we cannot scale….
