Bonnie Sumner visits the bustling sanctuary for flood-hit Hawkes Bay animals and finds a nationwide effort to save and care for them
Animals have also been made homeless by the devastation from Cyclone Gabrielle, and the equine community has banded together around a central rally point at the Napier Riding for the Disabled centre.
Truck after truck has been arriving from around the country to deliver everything from horse rugs, hay, hard feed and even saddles to non-perishables for families including nappies, canned food and all-important chocolate, which is being sorted by volunteers inside the RDA’s huge indoor arena.
Its group coordinator, Dionne Best, wants to get the word out not just to horse owners but also to farmers that the Napier RDA is the central coordination point for all feed and hay for people in the region.
“A lot of people over this side [Napier] don’t know where to get stuff from. We’ve put up our hand because we’ve got the space and we’ve got volunteers. We want people to know they can come and get what they need, there is lots and there is more coming. We’ve also got water, milk, clothes, pet food.”
Best says a lot of the donations have come up from Wairarapa and the South Island.
“I don’t even know where some of it has come from, people just turn up. We’ve cried so many times.”
Neighbouring Meeanee Speedway has also given its own grounds over for grazing for rescued horses that have nowhere else to go.
Rescuing horses
Champion dressage rider and riding instructor Cindy Wiffin is part of a team that has been out combing stopbanks and other flood affected areas for horses and other animals who still need rescuing.
“We rescued 16 horses from Whirinaki with the police and army and it was so beautifully orchestrated. But the destruction way out there was absolutely heartbreaking. It was apocalyptic. How anything alive came out of there I don’t know. It’s condemned.”
They also picked up some horses from a property on Breckenridge Road, which runs parallel to the Tutaekuri River in Puketapu.
“You can’t even tell someone inhabited that place. Everything is gone, covered in silt.”
She says they’ve seen plenty of animal bodies, but are focused on the live animals. “We did identify some horses for people, and it’s good for them to know.”
They also had to euthanise a foal they found that had broken its leg. “It was heartbreaking. But we walked 12 mares and 11 foals out of there.”
One thing locals are learning is to be prepared for everything to change at any moment - and take much longer than expected.
