18 September

Asher’s New Name Is Paul. Helping To Save An Oklahoma Horse

by Jon Katz
Asher's New Name
Asher Has A New Name

Nancy Gallimore has great news, in one day she has already raised about one third of the money she needs to pay for rescuing a draft  horse named Asher from the slaughterhouse. And now that she owns him, she is changing her name to Big Paul in honor of Paul Moshimer, the co-director of Blue Star Equiculture. A good name for him.

Paul committed suicide several months ago, he was the husband of Pamela Moshimer Rickenbach, friend of many, a great animal lover and champion of the big horses.

Pamela said she was deeply honored that Asher would be getting Paul’s name.

Nancy (her blog is here) has decided to accept some help paying for Asher’s rescue and recovery. She purchased directly out of the feedlot where he was awaiting shipment to slaughter after being sold to a kill buyer.  He was a couple of hours away from being gone. Big Paul is in quarantine for 30 days and will likely have some substantial medical bills after he gets to Nancy’s farm outside of Tulsa in 30 days. Nancy says he will never be in danger again.

Nancy Gallimore is a writer, friend and animal lover, she is seeking about $2,000 to help pay for Asher and his new life.

If there is any extra money left over from the contributions she receives, she will account for the money and turn it over to Blue Star Equiculture. You can contribute to the Asher (Big Paul)  Fund using Nancy’s Paypal account, which is [email protected]. Or you can e-mail her at [email protected] if you would like to ask how to contribute to the Asher fund in a different way. You can also contact her through her blog.

I have been urging Nancy to start an e-magazine about animals and animal love, she is considering it. The animal rescue culture is overwhelming, there are countless animals in need everywhere. In New York City, the animal rights movement has spent millions of dollars trying to ban the New York Carriage Horses, who are, by all accounts, healthy, safe and extremely well cared for. Beautiful and relatively young horses like  Big Paul are slaughter by the tens of thousands while the groups that claim to speak for animals spend their money on salaries, fund-raising, lobbyists and marketers.

They are a disgrace to the notion of animal rights. Nancy Gallimore and Blue Star speak to the future of animals, and to their most elemental right: the right to survive in our world. To save the animals, we must come to a new and wiser understanding of them. They are not piteous and dependent beings to be hidden away from human life, they are our partners in the joys and travails of the world. They cannot lead perfect lives any more than we can, we owe them this:  to do the best for them for as long as we can.

They must never be used as yet another way to hate or harm people, we must not permit them to be sent away from our everyday lives and into slaughter, invisibility or extinction. This is the message of Nancy Gallimore, and of Blue Star, a mythical place that I believe is the future of animals and of their rights.

More than any other entity or place I have seen, Blue Star fights to save animals, keep them in our world, respect their dignity and people, and support the people who wish to live, love and work with them. Through it’s extremism and  hostility, many of the major elements of the animal rights movement have squandered the moral responsibility and opportunity to do this work. They are much more about  removing animals from the world than saving them, they exploit animals ruthlessly to frighten, intimidate and persecute people, many of them innocents.

And this new understanding is also the message of Pope Francis, who speaks of the need to save animals more reasonably and eloquently than any other public figure.

“If we approach nature and the environment without this openness to awe and wonder, if we no longer speak the language of fraternity and beauty in our relationship with the world, our attitude will be that of masters, consumers, ruthless exploiters, unable to set limits on their immediate needs. By contrast, if we feel intimately united with all that exists, then sobriety and care will well up spontaneously.”

Big Paul is our brother, not our ward, our way to unite, we are not his master or exploiter, he is one small step to a bigger idea: saving the world one step at a time, by taking care of animals, taking care of the people who live with them and love them. I hope you can help Nancy Gallimore keep Paul and take care of him. Her paypal account is [email protected]. Five dollars is appreciated just as much as $100. She is well on her way, and thanks. You can also e-mail her at [email protected] if you wish to contribute to Paul’s fund offline. Thanks for thinking about it.

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