A Little Bit of Heaven has taken in four horses with a lot of pain and in need of medical attention. They all came from a Pennsylvania kill pen.
"Our biggest one is a 6-year-old that was in the kill pen," said A Little Bit of Heaven President Anne Woods. "She has what's believed to be a shoulder injury, and she's going to need X-rays and maybe even surgery to correct that. But she's young and she does have a shot."
And the other three horses aren't in much better shape. Gunner had an infected leg wound, which requires antibiotics, and problems with his tendons means X-rays.
Another horse has a degenerative leg disease that requries up to a year for recovery, with new shoes and medications. And a female horse has a contagious and potentially fatal disease called strangles. So she's in quarantine with two other horses.
"We try to rehabilitate them," said A Little Bit of Heaven Board Member David Marrus. "Bring them up to their health, nourishment, any medical needs, and we try to find them loving homes so that they can live our their lives in happiness and give them a purpose."
But A Little Bit of Heaven needs at least $1,500 to cover the medical basics. If any of them need surgery, it will cost even more. The group relies on donations to make ends meet, even pulling money from their own pockets to meet the horses' basic needs. But members hope the community is willing to donate their time, their money, or even supplies to help out the animals.
"Horses have been an important role in society," said A Little Bit of Heaven Vice President Michael Woods. "They brought us to where we are today. We used them for transportation; they fought in wars. They say it's the closest creature to God; it's probably the closest I'm ever going to get."