The HSUS was founded more than 50 years ago as an organization focused on national cruelties, such as dogfighting, inhumane transport and slaughter of farm animals, and pet theft for research and testing. A group operating on that scale was needed because local humane societies, consumed with animal care responsibilities within their communities, did not have the resources or the reach to challenge these national industries.

This strategic focus is more important now than ever, except that our reach must today be global, since most of the industries that cause harm to animals operate on that scale. We attack the root causes of problems for animals, and we bring to the battle not just our enormous membership, but professional campaigners, lawyers, lobbyists, veterinarians, subject experts, communications specialists, undercover investigators, field staff, and others. This nation needs a powerful, mainstream voice to take on institutionalized cruelty, and to advocate for a better way in dealing with the animals of the world.

While our advocacy work has expanded dramatically during the last five-plus decades, so have our animal care operations. The HSUS is focused on preventing cruelty and tackling the root problems, but we also rescue and care for animals in need of our help. And this week, I am pleased to announce the creation of our fourth animal care facility—The HSUS's Duchess Sanctuary in southern Oregon.



© The Ark Watch Foundation

These rescued horses will soon find a new home at The Duchess

Sanctuary.

The Duchess Sanctuary, which will be a sanctuary and rescue facility for horses located near Roseburg, Ore., is an 1,120-acre ranch and will serve as a sister facility to the Cleveland Amory Black Beauty Ranch, which is located in east Texas and operated by The HSUS and The Fund for Animals.

The creation of this new animal care facility comes at an opportune time, given that the slaughter industry and its allies are making outlandish claims about unwanted horses in response to our successful efforts to shut down all of the U.S.-based horse slaughter plants. We will now have two 1,000-plus-acre operations to care for abandoned or abused horses. The new horse sanctuary also provides The HSUS with greater geographic diversity of our hands-on services for animals—with Black Beauty Ranch in the South, the Cape Wildlife Center in the Northeast, The Fund for Animals Wildlife Center in southern California, and now The Duchess Sanctuary in the Pacific Northwest. (The HSUS and The Fund for Animals are sister organizations, and our operations are fully integrated.)

The purchase of the Duchess Sanctuary property and some operational support is made possible thanks to a $3.5 million donation from the Roberts Foundation, the Ark Watch Foundation and its founder Celine Myers. The sanctuary is named in honor of the first horse owned by Celine Myers’ family and after Black Beauty’s mother in Anna Sewell’s famous novel.

With our network of sanctuaries and shelters, we are providing care for individual animals in need of a helping hand. And at the same time, through our advocacy programs, we are fighting to reform institutional practices and behaviors that cause animals to be in distress or in danger in the first place.

If you'd like to make a donation to support The Duchess Sanctuary and other programs of The Fund for Animals, please do so here.