Northern California horse sanctuary in desperate straits because of its name

Her predicament underlines the precarious finances of animal sanctuaries that live and die on the donations of others. Some of Clarke's animals were taken from sanctuaries that could no longer afford to care for them.

As a feed store owner familiar with the case put it, "Who is going to rescue the horses from the horse rescuers?"

It's a question that haunts Clarke, 60, a woman with short gray hair and a compact build, the lone manager of the 1,200-acre spread about 120 miles northwest of Reno and five miles east of the nearest electric power lines.

"There's no money coming in. Zero," she said. "I notified county animal control about the situation in case we have to decide which horses are adoptable and which ones are not."

Those that can't be adopted will be euthanized.

Clarke's nonprofit with an unwieldy name -- Dream Catcher/a.k.a. Equus Sanctuary -- was meant to be a secure last stand for 200 mustangs and domestic horses and some burros abandoned by their owners. For four years, Clarke's most pressing concerns had been hauling hay and rounding up strays.

Not anymore. A raid on an Antelope Valley horse sanctuary with a similar name and its recent closure by Los Angeles County animal control authorities has had a devastating effect on her operation.

"People think our place and the one in Antelope Valley are one and the same," said Clarke, making a high desert squint that comes with the territory. "It's a real mess. Distrust and anger are thick as mosquitoes."

Lassen County animal control authorities agreed. "I've gotten calls at my office from people confusing the two sanctuaries," said local animal control officer Judy Walesch. "I tell them I can guarantee that Barbara's sanctuary is a good one."

A review of the operation's financial records showed that its total monthly donations have dropped from roughly $10,000 to $500. Clarke has removed "a.k.a. Equus Sanctuary" from her title. She got $15,000 worth of hay on credit from a local feed store until its owners said, "No more, Barbara."

The trouble started June 15 after the Los Angeles County Department of Animal Care and Control raided Equus Sanctuary in the Antelope Valley community of Pearblossom and arrested its manager, Janis Damiani, on charges of animal abuse. Fifteen of the 100 horses at that facility were so emaciated they had to be euthanized.

"It was very sad," recalled Michelle Roache, deputy director of outreach and enforcement for the agency. "We found horses with open wounds and sores on their legs."

Damiani was sentenced in June to two years and eight months in state prison after pleading no contest to animal abuse charges.

Clarke's troubles had only just begun.

An e-mail shared among supporters of the Pearblossom facility alleged that animal control authorities had held a grudge against Linda Moss, sanctuary owner. The e-mail encouraged people to call certain telephone numbers to express their outrage against the animal control department.

But the e-mail started circulating among other horse sanctuary networks, and people zeroed in on the phone number for Clarke's operation.

"It was like a knife in the gut," she said. "We started getting threats on the telephone from people accusing us of animal cruelty."

Clarke plans to "sit down and write a letter to clear up the confusion." The letter will go out to the roughly 3,000 donors nationwide whom she had relied on to sustain an annual budget of about $175,000.