y'all help me brainstorm. I have a big idea and if anyone wants to steal it go for it :)I was thinking of asking you guys how we can do this! My husband won an awrd last year for raising more money than anyone else to help throw a local rodea for the sheriffs posse we belong to. To throw a rodeo! How stupid and useless is that??!? And all the extra money goes for is the next years rodeo and he is going around raising money again! for nothing! Then I was at the vet, an old farmer came in,a decent old man, he stood at the counter and said "will you ask the vet can I have a tube of bute" and she said "for what?" and he said "my good ol horse is foundered" and she said "you need to see the vet" and he said "I aint got the money, I just want to see if I can help him all I can afford" and she brought the bute and said "the vet said ok, but would really like to see the horse" and the old man said how much and she said 20 for the bute and his face fell and he said "can I get a half a tube" and man, I almost cried! Like a complete dummy I just stood there thinking "i wish I had money to buy his bute for him" but i was facing a huge bill for nasi's cut eye, an unexpected 200 bucks so I left and all the way home, i told my husband, I felt so sad, so bad. A good person who loves his horse and cannot afford a vet! I thought, if I win the lotto, I am gonna send a thousand bucks a month to my vet and say for him to use it to help people who cannot afford to pay for vet care, good people who would pay if they could. and then I got to thinking, hey, I could start a foundation, like the ASPCA or something and go on websites and tv and get donations and start a fund for vets... and my mind was just swimming with all the details, how to prevent corruption etc and then it just seemed overwhelming... what do you think???? it could be for horses, needing surgery whatever. If they dont spend the money one month they could carry it over to the next and then if a horse with a real problem comes in... a horse needing a c-section or something... what do you think??!?!? but how could it be done so as to prevent abuses. Like how would I know the vet would select really needy people, people who can afford to keep a horse ok but not for a sudden health emergency. And how would I know people who have money wouldnt try and use it! So much to consider. I have a lawyer friend who is willing to do all the legal work free to start it, to get the tax exempt and charitable org stuff done pro bono for me. She has set up these type things before for dogs and cats stuff.
Can you offer suggestions, warnings, criticisms, pitfalls etc? I would start on a small local level. But would like for it actually to be a national thing, a fund, a bank for needy people who can afford feed and forage and decent wellcare, but not emergency stuff. Like for instance, did you know it cost me almost 600 bucks to have my horse Stali put down and buried when he was dying of rabies? and I had no choice at all in the matter! Two vets had to come out with power tools in my field at 9 PM and remove his brain to send to the lab. Then I had to pay to bury him. And you might say well, he was gonna die anyway and you would be right, but lemme tell you, at 10 AM I was out there with his head in my lap begging god to let him die and wondering if I could shoot him and finish him or if I would botch it and he would suffer more... it took him all day long before he finally lost consciousness (and stopped a terrible suffering) and he was still breathing when they put him down. It was a terrible terrible thing and I paid it etc, but what about the old farmer with the foundered horse?? Is the horse out there suffering because the old man cant afford to even have it put down?? Could the fund be used to give to vet schools etc too? Anyway. what do you guys think... Janice -- yipie tie yie yo
