Saturday, January 24, 2015

Kid Heroes For Animals: Amazing Young Girl Uses Horses to Help kids with Disabilities


Kid Heroes For Animals Series

I know this story is not recent, but I thought I'd share it anyway because it is so inspiring and makes you smile!  It is so very kind of Pandora to be brightening the lives of kids who have disabilities.  I love reading stories about kids helping other kids through animals, it is inspiring! ~Declan


The sick little girl saving horses to brighten lives of kids with disabilities



Pandora with a horse she helped rescue.
Pandora Humphries suffers a mysterious and debilitating disease that causes her red blood cells to attack each other and not regenerate. As her mother Amber Hendry and her step-father Anthony Swords explain, Pandora's love affair with a pony named Bella has helped save unwanted racehorses from the knackery and brought joy to dozens of children with disabilities.

AMBER HENDRY: 
My daughter Pandora is a beautiful girl. She's nine and weighs just 19 kilograms but she has a heart as big as the world. 

In 2006, when she was two, Pandora had a bone marrow transplant. She was immune-compromised when she was a baby with haemolytic anaemia, which caused her red blood cells to attack and destroy each other. 

She spent her first two years of life in hospital with cardiac and respiratory problems and needed a blood transfusion almost every day. 

Doctors don't know why this is happening and so she remains undiagnosed. I call it Pandora's Box Syndrome. 

When Pandora was six, she had the bone age of a two-year-old. Today she is a totally different child. Now she has the bone age of an eight-year-old, so she's only one year behind. 

She is still small and doesn't gain weight like other nine-year-olds but she's a bright, bubbly kid. We love people who give blood because without them, I wouldn't have my daughter. 

For Pandora's eighth birthday, we bought her a white Welsh pony named Bella. She loves horses. 

Pandora with her mother Amber, stepfather Anthony and stepbrother.

Pandora, her pony Bella and some We Were Champions volunteers.

Soon after she got a place in the local Riding for the Disabled program. 
Pandora decided to give her place to another child. She said: "Mum, I can walk and I can talk. I want someone who really needs it to have my place".

ANTHONY SWORDS: 
Pandora also wanted to share her pony with the other kids she had met at the hospital. That touched me. 

I'm her stepdad and I wasn't around when she spent all her time in hospital but what she's been through breaks my heart. 

We noticed that having a pony was having a positive effect on Pandora. She seemed to grow and catch up with the other kids when she was around horses. She has a horse whisperer personality around them. 

At the same time we heard about how racehorses were often sold off at the end of their careers. A lot of times they end up being bought for the slaughterhouse. 

By this time, because of Pandora, I was a real horse lover and I thought maybe we could save some of them. 

I called up some family and friends and we decided that we could do something that might help both the racehorses and the disabled and sick kids that we knew. We started We Were Champions. 

I went along to a horse sale. I intended to buy a horse. I came back with three. We invited the kids from the hospital out to our property. 

You can't imagine the joy they get from being on a horse for the first time. I'm a pretty big fella and I work in the debt collection business. But I don't care how tough you are, you can't see those smiles and not shed a tear. 

We have kids with Tourette's Syndrome, autism and all kinds of conditions. And they are all different people when they are in a paddock with a horse. 

Today, we have 19 racehorses, a couple of ponies as well as Pandora's pony Bella and Amber's horse. When we started We Were Champions, it was just our family and friends. 

Today, we have more than 10,000 members and we're waiting for approval as a registered charity. 
Every weekend we have car loads of kids out here, all with smiles because they're on the back of horse. And none of it would have happened if it hadn't been for Pandora and that big heart of hers. 


Friday, January 2, 2015

Kid Heroes for Animals: Kind Teens Save Shelter Animals







Kid Heroes for Animals:  Kind Teens Save Shelter Animals

Here is my next story for my growing series, "Kid Heroes for Animals" on my Children 4 Horses Facebook page.  In this story from December 2012, 3 compassionate teens are featured doing what they love, helping animals. I really hope you enjoy this story! 

I will be posting a bunch of amazing stories of kids helping or saving animals from all over the world! You can also help me by submitting or suggesting your own stories by sending me a message on my Facebook page.  I am hoping the stories I find inspire people, especially kids to be compassionate and caring towards animals and even to be brave and strong! ~ Declan



Animal Rescue Started By Teenager Has Helped Save 20,000 Animals




December 3, 2012 Posted by ADMIN in Dog News
As Posted on Life With Dogs

He may not be old enough to vote, but he’s making a difference. Lou Wegner is the person behind one of the fastest-growing animal rescues in the country. His Kids Against Animal Cruelty uses social networking to encourage adoptions at high-kill animal shelters. In the past two years it has helped 20,000 pets escape euthanasia.

A few years ago Wegner believed shelters were safe havens. After he volunteered at one he learned that in fact many dogs and cats have to be put down at shelters. “It was heartbreaking. All these dogs crying in their cages. Knowing they would be put down broke my heart,” he said. Lou started Kids Against Animal Cruelty when he was only 14 years old with some of his friends. His Facebook page started out with just 47 friends and now two years later boasts over 15,000 likes on Facebook.

Wegner, who is an actor, uses his public appearances to bring awareness to his cause. If he’s attending an event where photographers and paparazzi are likely to attend he’ll try to wear a Kids Against Animal Cruelty t-shirt. His goal is to get more people to adopt from shelters, to spay and neuter pets and to educate them about pet responsibility.

Wegner efforts have saved dogs like Tommy Joe, an 11-month-old black lab. When Tommy Joe’s photo was posted on the group’s Facebook page it didn’t get much attention, with no likes or comments. “I thought he was doomed,” said Wegner.  Tommy Joe was on death row in a rural shelter in South Carolina. Wegner started writing on Tommy Joe’s post and spreading the word about him. Wegner’s extra effort paid off when a group called For the Love of Dogs in Chester, South Carolina  saved Tommy Joe.

Since Wegner’s starting of Kids Against Animal Cruelty, other teens have set up chapters of the group around the country. Wegner hopes to have a chapter in every state eventually and make a bigger difference. “They euthanize just as many animals every day as we have saved. It’s like throwing a Band-Aid in a river,” Wegner said. In addition to trying to save as many animals as he can, Wegner hopes to educate children who commit cruelty to animals. Lou would like to make the children who commit  cruelty to animals have to witness what happens in the euthanasia room at a shelter.