Project Hope Horse Welfare Victoria Inc.

Initial Response (08 February to 28 February)

PHHWV provided owners with feed, contacts for temporary agistment transport and facilitated the collection of donated goods and feed from the general public. The response to the calls for help was overwhelming, with homes for over 1600 horses being offered in just five weeks. We have put many horse owners directly in touch with these kind offers of homes and transport.

As soon as access became available our trained PHHWV Representatives were out in the affected areas assisting vets with treatment of horses, transporting horses in need of intensive care to vet hospitals, and undertaking feed deliveries and drops to affected areas.

PHHWV has also had representatives at the main control point in Whittlesea and set up a Lost and Found Register for the horses that had become displaced during the fires. We are pleased to say we reunited six horses with their owners via this register.

Victorian Horse Council (VHC) formed a CRISIS committee made up of key groups and individuals, including PHHWV, wanting to assist with bushfire horses. This committee was organised to try and form some sort of central co-ordination point during the initial phases of the crisis and whilst the concept was good, it had limited success.

Changing Response (07 March to 28 March)

Like most welfare agencies the supply of donated goods was exceeding demand and long term storage became a major issue. As a result, Week Four saw PHHWV cease to accepting donations of feed and goods and closed it offer of help register.

Many clubs and individuals turned their efforts to raising much needed funds while PHHWV continued to distribute feed and goods directly from our storage depot.

At present we have been able to provide owners with enough feed to last a month and have helped over 190 horses; either supplying feed and goods or agistment contacts.

PHHWV set up an Appeals account for accepting monetary donations for bushfires victims. Monies received for this purpose are treated and accounted for separately to PHHWV funds. At this stage we have not had a need to spend large amounts of these funds due to the supply of donated feed meeting demand. However, once the supply of donated feed has been exhausted we will look at using these funds to purchase more feed.

As of the end of the PHHWV financial year, 28 February 2009, a total of $23,832 has been received. To keep in line with the Red Cross announcement, the PHHWV Bushfire Appeal Fund will also close on Friday 17 April 2009.

People that are planning a fundraising activity/event with the intention of proceeds going to the PHHWV Bushfire Appeal should have completed an application form from our Extra Little Bit of HOPE (ELBOH) program that can be downloaded at www.phhwv.org.au/hope.html. If you have already conducted your event but believe the proceeds will come to PHHWV after 17 April, please contact PHHWV on 1300 881 606.

Any funds received after Friday 17 April will go into PHHWV revenue to enable us to continue our every day work in assisting neglected equines within Victoria.

Continuing Response (April and beyond)

As we head into winter the calls from people wanting to turn horses out over the colder months where pasture is available, so they can focus of rebuilding, are starting to increase.

We will continue to put people in touch with offers of agistment and care, and will continue to distribute goods and feed that have been donated.

It should be noted that our help is limited to immediate welfare needs e.g. feed and hay. PHHWV is not in a position to assist with fencing, pasture management and shed construction. We can offer limited assistance with items of tack that has been donated, but it’s important to note that the majority of suitable goods have already been distributed.

Owners requesting assistance are asked to contact PHHWV on 1300 881 606.

RSPCA has advised that they are extending their offer of assistance to cover vet bills. For more information regarding this please visit: www.rspcavic.org/campaigns_news/news_bushfires.htm or call 03 9224 2222.

Over the coming weeks PHHWV will be putting a thank you page up on our website acknowledging all the communities and businesses that have supported us in our efforts during the bushfire response.

As with any large scale response or case that gets media attention there will always be rumours, complaints and criticism. PHHWV has not been spared from this during the bushfire crisis.

The biggest problem we faced was the unfortunate misconception that PHHWV was the main distribution point for donated goods that had come from interstate. This caused an awful lot of grief for the organisation, and confusion for the public, as people would call wanting to know about a certain load of goods that was being delivered to their areas and how PHHWV was going to distribute it! The reality was that many donors and individuals chose to direct their goods to other organisations and individuals within the effected areas. PHHWV was happy with this as we believe that it is the Australian way to pull together in times of need and help where we can.

This confusion led to questions of accountability and who is responsible for ensuring the distribution of donations is done fairly and equitably. To address this PHHWV assesses all requests for donated goods and we complete a form that provides us with the necessary information on each individual situation. All items that are supplied are recorded as a way of checking where all donated items have been distributed – right down to the last salt lick or lead rope. This also helps determine what ongoing assistance is needed, as well as provides the ability to cross check with other agencies to ensure aid is being distributed fairly.

With the donations of feed and goods we did receive we initially tried using drop off points in affected areas. This was another problem as without a PHHWV volunteer actually being on hand during collection, people were turning up to get their goods only to find someone else had taken them! We overcame this problem by delivering directly to owners. Once offers from people to assist with deliveries had dried up we elected to distribute solely from our depot. This has worked a lot better for owners as they have been supplied with a months worth of feed and have been able to go through other donated items to replace those items they have lost.

Another problem we faced was well meaning friends calling on behalf of someone who had been affected by the bushfires. This caused some upset to people who where unaware of their friend’s good intentions and received a call from PHHWV to see how we could help! We overcame this by requesting via our website that owners call in themselves and register their need for help.

We also received numerous calls from people wanting to donate a horse or pony to someone who had lost theirs during the fire. Unfortunately this is not an area that PHHWV can become involved in due to liability issues, resource issues as well as finding a fair and equitable way for all to apply for any horse on offer.

The most surprising rumour we have heard is that PHHWV has paid full-time staff! This is totally untrue. PHHWV has one person paid on a part-time basis to ensure our accountability in our day to day processing and administration. This position by no means covers the actual hours spent on our day to day administration, let alone during the bushfire response.

Yes it has been an interesting couple of months and we are continuing to plough our way through. The committee are very appreciative of all the support we have received from right across Australia and even overseas.

Finally, please bare with us as we attend to the day to day work involved with people seeking assistance and reports of neglected horses. If you feel there is an area that is being overlooked and requires help please contact us and let us know 1300 881 606 or info@phhwv.org.au