Helping Horses...
Is what we do & you can too!
Horse Plus Humane Society rescues, shelters, and protects horses across the United States from slaughter, abuse, neglect, or worse. Horse Plus Humane Society has helped over 10,000 horses since 2003 and is the world's largest animal welfare organization for horses.
— 1661 Rescued, Sheltered & Protected in 2021
Thousands of horses are exported out of the United States and slaughtered every year. Horses have no voice, they need you because horses in jeopardy have no hope. Join us with your support and become a Horse Rescue Hero, together we will make a difference, together we can save horses from a horrific fate!
Thousands of horses are exported out of the United States and slaughtered every year. Horses have no voice, they need you because horses in jeopardy have no hope. Join us with your support and become a Horse Rescue Hero, together we will make a difference, together we can save horses from a horrific fate!
Tawnee grew up around horses, and when she was just four years old her family moved next to a kill buyer in the mountains of California. She didn’t understand what a kill buyer was at that young of an age, all she knew was that the kill buyer always had horses coming and going. She would go down and see the kill pen horses, feeding them treats and loving on them.
But one day everything changed for Tawnee. As she was on a swing in a horse pasture, she accidentally swung into the back of a horse and was kicked in the head. Immediately she fell to the ground and everything went black, she couldn’t move or talk. She was rushed to the hospital, her parents knew a kick to the head can be fatal. The hospital did a CT scan and told Tawnee’s parents that she had a concussion.
The following day they sent her home, and Tawnee spent weeks at home lying in bed. Thankfully, by the grace of God, Tawnee was able to recover but after that she had difficulties in school and struggled with dyslexia. Reading became almost impossible, and math seemed to be just a bunch of random numbers on a page. Growing up with that disability was extremely hard for Tawnee, but she found comfort in being with horses, and spent many happy hours with her critter friends.
When she was nine years old Tawnee met her future husband, Jason. From the first day she met him, she knew she would spend the rest of her life with him. Nine years later she was walking down the aisle and they were married.
Tawnee didn’t have a horse after they were married, so she went to an auction and bought an unhandled four-year-old registered Quarter Horse who she named Skip. She spent hours training Skip, and within two weeks they were going on trail rides together.
This amazing horse that she rescued from the auction made things sink in for Tawnee as she remembered seeing horses come and go with the kill buyer (Tawnee’s neighbor when she was a child) who was taking them to slaughter. She realized that if she hadn’t purchased this beautiful horse at the auction, Skip would have gone to slaughter just like all those other horses.
She thought of all the innocent horses being shipped to slaughter with no chance for escape, it broke her heart, and she knew she had to help.
After much thought, Tawnee gave up her precious horse, Skip, and used the money to rescue more horses from slaughter. Little did she know, this one selfless act of kindness would grow to become an international organization and help thousands of precious lives! Jason and Tawnee still lived in northern California so they decided to call their small horse rescue Norcal Equine Rescue.
After going to more auctions, Tawnee started seeing how awful the horses were being treated, and she witnessed many horrendous things.
When people would load their horses in the trailer, they would hit and kick them, and slam the trailer door into the horse’s legs to get them in the trailer. When she spoke up for the horses, the auction owners would kick her and Jason out of the auction and threaten them with the police if they ever came back.
She thought of all the innocent horses being shipped to slaughter with no chance for escape, it broke her heart, and she knew she had to help.
She thought of all the innocent horses being shipped to slaughter with no chance for escape, it broke her heart, and she knew she had to help.
When Tawnee and Jason would rescue at auctions they would pick and choose which ones they would rescue and find homes for. They could only afford to take care of so many horses, and did not want to fill up with unadoptable horses and let all the other horses at auctions go to slaughter. That all changed one fateful auction. That one auction experience changed Tawnee’s whole perspective on rescuing horses.
At that auction there were two sweet, old horses who both had medical problems. Tawnee knew she couldn’t adopt them out in their condition, and decided not to rescue them, hoping someone else would give them a home. Right after the auction she saw those same two horses load up onto a slaughter trailer. Right then, Tawnee knew that how they were rescuing horses must change.
She knew those two horses needed help just as much as the healthy, young horses needed it. Even if she could just give them a safe place to nurture and love them, they needed to be saved from slaughter.
Many people criticized and looked down on Tawnee and Jason for rescuing horses and ultimately having to say goodbye to them.
“Why would you save a horse just to kill it?” they would ask.
Most people understood the significance of the Last Act of Kindness, and how it truly was the only humane option for horses dumped at auction that have no other options.
Tawnee and Jason were the ones being responsible with their feet on the ground, rescuing horses out of the slaughter pipeline that were dumped by irresponsible and uncaring owners.
Yes, they had to give the Last Act of Kindness to the ones who needed it, the ones who were suffering, the ones in immense pain. It was never not an easy decision, but they knew it was the kindest option for those suffering.
After some time of rescuing horses in California, Tawnee and Jason discovered that many states in the US didn’t have animal control services, and shipping horses to slaughter wasn’t illegal (unlike California). In 2015, they decided to move their rescue to middle Tennessee in a small town called Hohenwald, where there were no animal control services.
Since the name Norcal Equine Rescue didn’t fit the rescue anymore, being in Tennessee, Tawnee and Jason changed the rescue’s name to Horse Plus Humane Society.
Since the move to Tennessee, they have grown tremendously and have helped rescue, shelter, and protect thousands of horses not only in Tennessee, but across the world in places such as Indonesia!
As a Full Circle of Life Horse Shelter, Horse Plus Humane Society’s goal is to rescue, shelter, and protect as many horses as possible, no matter the stage of life they are in.
You can also be a Horse Hero and help us rescue, shelter, and protect horses by supporting our organization.
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Horse Plus Humane Society is a 501(c)(3) non-profit animal welfare organization, sheltering horses since 2003. Tax ID #20-1156396. All donations are non refundable, except the rare instance of accidental duplicate donations, and are given with no goods or services in return. Please consult your tax preparer for deductibility
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