Rescue Group Seeking Homes For 75 Abandoned Horses

CHICAGO (CBS) -- A horse rescue operation in Barrington has begun searching for homes for 75 quarter horses that were essentially abandoned, and might be slaughtered.

WBBM Newsradio's Mike Krauser reports there's a long story behind how the horses came to a farm in Hampshire – including deaths in the breeder's family, a foreclosure, and now a deadline of less than a month to get them off the farm, which doesn't have enough room to keep them all.

"For the past two years, 30 horses have been confined to their stalls with little or no turn-out, while the remaining horses were left outside in four small paddocks with insufficient shelters, excess manure, and very limited human handling," the Hooved Animal Rescue & Protection Society (HARPS) wrote about the horses on its website.

HARPS president Donna Ewing said they are trying to find homes for the horses.

"We're trying to keep them from all just going to slaughter; and trying to find people who will open their hearts, and their barn doors, and help us find homes for them," she said.

Ewing said the horses were not trained to ride, but as show horses.

She called them beautiful works of art that were shown and judged on beauty, so they're not for beginning handlers. However, they could be trained.

Ewing welcomed inquiries about the horses, as well as donations to HARPS.