Hank the Percheron needs help.
The massive, good-natured gray spent the past six months in an abusive situation before being rescued by Renee Paxton of Stop Shipping Horses to Slaughter. She received a call in July from Florida Draft Horse Rescue about a neglect case in the Tampa area. Once Paxton heard the story, she decided to take the horse in. Hank is Paxton's first abuse case. His condition shocked the lifelong horsewoman.
"I was so nervous and then I started crying," Paxton said of her first glimpse of Hank. "It just kills me that people did this to him. If the woman had done what was right and handed him over quicker, we would've been able to take care of him more easily."
Paxton thinks Hank was in a carriage accident. Instead of seeking out care, his previous owner simply left him in the barn.
"I think he got rear-ended and tangled in the cart," said Paxton, a Juno Beach resident. "His owner tied him in his stall for two solid weeks. She whipped him because he was chewing on himself. She had medical supplies on site, but she never used them. She really did a number on him. If she would have figured something out instead of waiting, it wouldn't have been so costly and he wouldn't have had to go through this."
Hank is at least 300 pounds underweight. He has sores all over his body. His feet need work. His teeth are in terrible shape. Yet somehow, he still loves people.
"He's a really good boy," Paxton said.
Paxton goes to a farm in Palm Beach Gardens every day to clean and wrap his wounds. Her nonprofit started in January and the cost of taking care of Hank is quickly getting to be too much.
"I have him on Purina Healthy Strategy and a bale of hay a day," Paxton said. "He has to be cleaned with Betadine scrub and wrapped once a day. Everything is so expensive. The list of meds he's on is ridiculous. Just his gauze and pads cost $25 a day."
Paxton estimates that Hank's medical and grocery bills will end up costing her about $1,000 a month. She's hoping the public will donate on organization's website. She also hopes to get Hank a few horse toys to keep him occupied while he's on stall rest and some volunteers to help care for him. Paxton is exhausted, but she refuses to give up on the big flea-bitten grey that has charmed everyone at the barn.
"It's scary because it's so much responsibility," she said. "I've never had to deal with such serious injuries, but he's such a sweetheart."
The good news is that Paxton's vet thinks Hank will eventually be fine.
"He's going to recover and be OK," she said, "But if the public could help us get him to where he needs to be, that would be awesome.
For details on Stop Shipping Horses to Slaughter, go online to www.stop
slaughteringhorses.org.
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