09/09/2024
WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT US IS FINALLY TRUEâŚ
Shortly after the pen live I told Cody that I didnât think weâd be coming back. I, and I can only speak for myself, was going to cave to public pressure.
Ally spent every night crying thinking about the horses inside that wonât ever be saved.
As much as Ally and I love what we do, social media comes with a price, and weâve been paying it for the last three or so weeks.
And I was watching my kindhearted, compassionate wife take hit after hit with untruths about her, when all she wants to do is help horses.
Rescue is weird in a way.
Itâs the only place where unsuccessful people are very loud about telling you the proper way to do things.
Theyâll tell you theyâre biting and scratching for donations and then tell us weâre the ones fundraising wrong.
Theyâll tell you they owe $12,000 to their veterinarian, have no way to pay it, and then try to acquire more horses the next day, but weâre the âmass bailingâ scammer.
They have the nerve to talk about CCR being a massive scam while never stepping foot on one of our properties or speaking to those involved, and having zero idea about how we actually work.
When someone does the same to them, they are indignant and accuse people of bullying and meanness because these random detractors on the internet donât know them or how they workâŚthey even bring up the high rate of su***de for social media bullying.
Itâs wild.
Hereâs the truth about Colbyâs Crew.
Call any of our vets. Our bills are paid.
Call any of our feed, hay, or grain suppliers â call our trainers.
Call our quarantine providers.
Our bills are paid.
Weâve rescued 601 horses so far in 2024.
Our immediate euthanasia rate is minimal relative to the number we rescue. At 21 days it remains only about 8%, and at 45 days it raises to 25%. With the median age of horse we rescue as 25+ years old with at least one soundness or behavioral issue, this is impressive.
We maintain about 255 horses in quarantine and/or training status who have not yet been deemed appropriate for sanctuary or adoption.
Weâve adopted out 306 horses this year (and climbing) because our horses are phenomenal.
Call our adopters. They and their horses are happy and healthy.
Knowing we keep most horses for 4-6 months in rehab and training, a 50% or greater progression in adoption rate in equine rescue isnât just impressive, itâs unheard of.
Weâve put over 3000+ individual updates on horses so far in 2024.
Consider the fact that the median age that we rescue is 25 years old. Most horses we rescue have 1-2 major medical issues that we can rehab. These horses arenât dying immediately and weâre pocketing the money as some people have wrongfully stated. Many get 6 months or even a yearâs worthof restful time in our sanctuary for hospice careâisnât that worth it?
We are actively working to give them quality of life for as long as we possibly can.
Weâve spent over $1,500,000 in veterinary care alone in 2024 with our vet bills averaging around $140,000 per month at 7 separate clinics.
We sanctuary, quarantine, and keep over 100+ horses across 1900 acres in 3 states.
We employ 12 employees directly, and hundreds indirectly.
We work hard to do what we do. We are an entire ecosystem. And we help hundreds of horses a year.
Our original 2021 and 2022 990s didnât accurately reflect our early years, so we had our books and tax returns audited and updated by our new bookkeepers and accountants. Our corrected 2021 and 2022 financials are now public. Look us up on GuideStar.
We also hired a company that specializes in Charitable Solicitation Licensing to make sure we are licensed in every state that requires one. They are working diligently to make that happen. And, right now, weâre in the middle of an independent forensic audit that we requested so we can be licensed in the states that require them and to post for you for transparency purposes.
And itâs STILL not enough.
I was thinking of a way to tell you guys this might be the end of Colbyâs Crew as you know it then I received a phone call from Cody about an injured horse in the pen.
The horse died before we could even get off the phone, but he told me straight out, âI told my dad you guys might be done so heâs shipped a load every single week youâve been gone. This month he will do two loads until the end of the year. With CCR gone, weâre gonna ship 200+ horses out of here a month.â
My ears were buzzing.
My breath caught.
How in the hell am I supposed to process that?
100 horses shipped to their death. 25-30 more leaving early next week.
The USDA is happy because the organization going inside blowing the whistle to horrific cruelty inside the slaughter industry is silenced. Now they donât have to field calls on why itâs legal to treat livestock this way, nor deal with calls for the passing of the SAFE act or harsher animal rights laws.
Perfect for them.
Bruce is happy because weâre silenced. He can ship horses to horrific deaths and no one will know. No one is going to be there making sure these horses get medical attention or a chance to be saved. Rescues are finally ALL gone from the slaughter holding facility. For 40+ years, theyâve been going inside.
Today, thanks to the efforts of self-important people, there are none.
Just how Bruce wants it.
âCompetingâ rescues are happy because, according to them, if weâre gone there will be more donations for everyone else now that CCR donors will be looking for a new place to put their money. âTake out the mass bailers and money will just flow into local rescues doing rescue RIGHT.â
Girl, Iâm going to hold your hand while I tell you this. Itâs hard for us too. We just donât blame other rescues for our lack of success.
Because any lack of success we experience? Well, itâs our own. If we arenât having success fundraising, itâs because our message isnât clear or interesting or provoking enough. Itâs OUR problem.
Read that again.
Itâs the best advice Iâll ever give you. A platform tearing others down is building the blueprint for your own demise.
Read that again.
Animals Angels is happy because now CCR isnât âmaking money for Rotzâ per their delusional view that weâve âteamed up with Rotzâ when in reality, he must be making more money now than he ever did off us.
Bruce never wanted or needed CCR. We were a nuisance to him at best. We were always negotiating to save the horses with the son, not the father.
Telling Ally and the staff about all those horses being shipped was brutal. We sat in stunned silence as we realized what the true cost of us leaving the pen would be. Hundreds, or possibly even thousands of lives lost. Brutally murdered in Canada or Mexico.
But because youâre not hearing about it anymore⌠itâs not happening, right?
Humans have a funny way of dealing with tragedy.
Out of sight, out of mind.
I know what going back would mean. Videos attacking us, untruths and a massive disinformation campaign continuing to be wielded against us. Ally continuing to receiving death threats, accounts being made telling Ally to unalive herself, and people showing up at public events and screaming, âscammer, go k*** yourself.â
My wife almost took her life over this intense campaign of hate in early August. Thankfully because of Sterling, she is still here. She does plan use our platform to do a series on anti bullying and speaking on her experience with cyber bullying but sheâs not ready yet so please keep your comments below kind and with that in mind.
When you write cruel and vicious things on the internet about someone, especially if you are not one hundred percent sure of the validity, you can hurt someone very badly who is actually innocent of all the rumors and speculation youâre using to justify the fact that youâre just a bully.
I know because it happened to me. It happened to my wife. And it happened to our rescue.
Our entire platform used to be about spreading kindness, anti bullying and glorifying patience, compassion and love.
I plan to bring at least some of that back. The equestrian world needs it desperately. We are teaching our younger generation to spread the ugliness inside instead of reaching out to help them heal it.
A PR person reached out to me and said, âIâve never seen such a violent disinformation campaign thrown at such a transparent organization where the answers to every question are online and ready for you.â
Ha. (Internal screaming.)
So, whatâs it worth?
Do we go back?
Do we quit?
Can we even go back?
I know I canât take another month of reading weâre in multiple lawsuits, our financials arenât public, we donât know where our horses are because weâve advanced beyond an excel spreadsheet, we use donor money for our own show careers (lol), and on and on and on with the lies.
Itâs all, excuse my French, bu****it. Completely made up lies. And if you ask them for proof, theyâll haughtily say, âcheck TikTok!â Which is known for being such a hotbed of peer-reviewed, fact-checked, high-level journalism. Nobody can simply take a camera, sit in front of it, and create opportunistic propaganda at ALL⌠(sarcasm)
Itâs stopped being about the horses and started being totally about random people wanting to get in front of CCRâs viewership.
And horses have died because of it.
Their blood is on the hands of those churning out this misinformation and those consuming and perpetuating it.
I used to think this was on Colbyâs Crew. For not being brave enough to risk the bonfire of going backâŚ
It isnât.
I called Cody.
âWhat will it take to come back?â
He sighed.
âDo you even have the people behind you to come back?â
That stung because I didnât know.
Do I?
Ally and I would like to go back. 60-70 horses are inside right now waiting to ship to slaughter. They are imprisoned, tagged, weighed and paperwork done.
I just donât know if you guys want to go back.
Will you be there when we call?
These horses didnât do a damn thing to anyone. They just exist. And they will be shipped in groups of 20-30 to their deaths again and again. It wonât stop simply because Colbyâs Crew doesnât show up anymore.
It wonât stop until itâs made illegal.
Theyâre dying. Quietly. Behind a closed door shrouded in disinformation. And some people are okay with that.
Are you?
200+ horses a month, actively dying and suffering on the way out.
We can save at least SOME of them. Every horse we save is one less dying brutally on a slaughter house floor. We can be inside forcing better conditions, giving medical attention, and ensuring these horses at least know a kind hand.
But we wonât do it if you donât want to anymore.
Let us hear your voice, CCR. Do we go back?
Do we save them?
Are you with us?
Being a hero isnât easy. Itâs standing up when no one else will. Itâs fighting when people tell you thereâs a better way by letting that one person or that one horse die, but *you* know itâs the only way to save those inside.
Itâs running into the burning building while people tell you that one person, or that one horse doesnât matter.
They do.
They matter.
And Iâm the type of person who will try to save them. And Iâve surrounded myself with people who are the same way.
Are you one of us?
