LAKE COUNTY >> Mary Quinn and her four beloved special needs horses moved to Lake County on Sept. 9, 2015, to get away from the increasing urban sprawl into their once-rural Sonoma County neighborhood.
Her timing could not have been more unfortunate. Three days later, the Valley Fire erupted, destroying her Middletown house along with everything she owned, including fencing and shelter for her horses.
Although she was able to save her horses from the fire, she was not able to save all of them from the aftermath of the inferno.
Without fencing, the horses were able to wander on and off their property but were not able to find shelter from the driving rain and near or below freezing temperatures of December and early January. Although her horses were fed and watered, the weather proved to be a roadblock that Quinn could not get around.
Several weeks ago, one of her horses, Ritz, died, probably from stress, exposure to the elements and colic, according to Corie DuPree of Clearlake Oaks, director of the Lake County Animal Coalition.
When Ritz died, the horses were in three feet of cold water, DuPree said, and despite Quinn’s efforts to get help, she was unable to. Being new to the area, she did not have a network of friends and family in place to help her.
“We have been told that this is happening to a lot of these animals that are victims of the fire and are apparently dropping like flies” because their owners can’t get help with obtaining and putting up fencing, DuPree said.
Today, Quinn’s three remaining horses have shelter thanks to donations of time and materials from local citizens and businesses. However, as of Thursday, the horses still did not have fencing, although a local Good Samaritan has donated fencing materials.
Quinn is currently living in a five-wheeler on her property and is unable to pickup the fencing without help.
DuPree said she and her husband own a local contracting company and that they hope to have to Quinn’s fencing up by the end of this week, depending on their workload and the weather.
In an ironic twist of events, there was money specifically set aside for Quinn to use for fencing replacement by the Lake County Farm Bureau (LCFB) but that money did not make it to Quinn due to several missed messages.
The money, in the form of a $1,000 Visa cash card, is still waiting for Quinn as of Wednesday night and DuPree said she will try to work with the LCFB to get the card to Quinn. One problem is that since it’s a cash card, it can’t be mailed to Quinn but must be picked up at the farm bureau’s Lakeport office.
Quinn’s money is part of a $100,000 grant the LCFB received from donations collected through the Redwood Credit Union, the office of State Sen. Mike McGuire (D-Healdsburg) and the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat.
The money was divided into 100 segments of $1,000 and is for pasture fencing for farm animals, including cows, horses, goats, chickens, llamas and emus, according to Brenna Sullivan, executive director of the LCFB.
So far, 77 of the $1,000 grants have been given to local ranchers for fencing lost in the Rocky, Jerusalem or Valley fires this summer, Sullivan said. Another 10 applications have been submitted and if approved will leave 13 $1,000 grants available.
Although the grants were originally in the form of Visa cash cards, the LCFB has now switched to checks, which can be mailed. The deadline for submitting applications is Feb. 15. Also, money not allocated following the deadline will be lost so Sullivan encouraged anyone who feels they qualify for a grant to apply. Grant applications are available online at www.lakecofb.com and are two-pages long.
Most of the grants already approved have gone to residents with medium-sized lots in Middletown, where there was a higher concentration of farm animals, Sullivan said. “In general, the grants have gone to people with smaller parcels, not big ranchers” she added.
These small ranches were each home to a few horses, a couple of cows, a flock or chickens or a herd of goats. “There are not a lot of large ranches in Middletown,” Sullivan said.
She added that even though the grants are relatively small, for ranchers with only a handful of animals, “They can make the most difference.”
The approval time for the grants is one to two weeks from the day the application is received until the $1,000 checks are dispersed, Sullivan said.
Also, the Farm Service Agency (FSA), part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), has assistance available to help ranchers recover from wildfires. Its Web address is www.rd.usda.gov and programs are listed under fire recovery assistance.
The FSA can assist farmers and ranchers who lost livestock, grazing land, fences or eligible trees, bushes and vines as a result of the Summer of Fire in Lake County.
The federal agency administers a suite of safety-net programs to help ranchers recover from eligible fire losses, including the Livestock Indemnity Program, the Livestock Forage Disaster Program, the Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honeybees, and Farm-Raised Fish Program, and the Tree Assistance Program.
