Lifesavers President Jill Starr says she and other shelter operators are witnessing an equine crisis.

“People have lost their homes, their jobs, their hope,” she said. “And they are giving up their animals.”

“We’ve had horses come onto the property in a horse trailer, unannounced, and just offloaded and [owners] ask us, beg us, if we could take these skinny horses,” she said.