201903.01
0

A thoroughbred horse, found roaming the streets of Watts, finds a new home in Trabuco Canyon

by in News

A thoroughbred horse, Lou Dillon, was all smiles on Thursday, Feb. 28, playing in the hay with his stall mate, Sweet Pea, at their new stable in Trabuco Canyon.

“He’s had a really bad time,” said Kathi Kruse, a board member of the horse rescue group Hanaeleh, which took in Dillon and Sweet Pea. “But he’s very sweet and very forgiving.”

  • Elizabeth Zarkos, President of Hanaeleh Horse Rescue in Trabuco Canyon, brushes Lou Dillon on Friday, March 1, 2019, a horse the group accepted for rehabilitation after it was found by the Los Angeles Police Department wondering the streets of Watts, CA. (Photo By Jeff Antenore, Contributing Photographer)

  • Elizabeth Zarkos, President of Hanaeleh Horse Rescue in Trabuco Canyon, feeds a carrot to Sweet Pea, a horse the group recently rescued, on Friday, March 1, 2019. (Photo By Jeff Antenore, Contributing Photographer)

  • Sound
    The gallery will resume inseconds
  • Elizabeth Zarkos, President of Hanaeleh Horse Rescue in Trabuco Canyon, feeds a carrot to Lou Dillon, a horse the group recently rescued, on Friday, March 1, 2019. (Photo By Jeff Antenore, Contributing Photographer)

  • Elizabeth Zarkos, President of Hanaeleh Horse Rescue in Trabuco Canyon, feeds a carrot to Lou Dillon, a horse the group recently rescued, on Friday, March 1, 2019. (Photo By Jeff Antenore, Contributing Photographer)

  • Lou Dillon, a 25-year-old horse, several hundred pounds underweight, who was found by the Los Angeles Police Department wandering the streets of Watts, CA, stands in a pen at his new home at the Hanaeleh Horse Rescue in Trabuco Canyon, CA on Friday, March 1, 2019. (Photo By Jeff Antenore, Contributing Photographer)

  • Elizabeth Zarkos, President of Hanaeleh Horse Rescue in Trabuco Canyon, feeds a carrot to Lou Dillon, a horse the group recently rescued, on Friday, March 1, 2019. (Photo By Jeff Antenore, Contributing Photographer)

  • Elizabeth Zarkos, President of Hanaeleh Horse Rescue in Trabuco Canyon, brushes Lou Dillon on Friday, March 1, 2019, a horse the group accepted for rehabilitation after it was found by the Los Angeles Police Department wondering the streets of Watts, CA. (Photo By Jeff Antenore, Contributing Photographer)

of

Expand

Just a month ago, on a cold, rainy day, Dillon was lost on the streets of Watts. People were taunting him and throwing trash, a police officer said. Cars dodged the large animal.

A good Samaritan got Dillon safely into a back yard and the Los Angeles Police Department was called. Officers arrived to find a soaking wet and extremely thin horse – hundreds of pounds underweight.

No one knows how Dillon came to be wandering the streets of Watts, but Hanaeleh board president Elizabeth Zarkos said she knew something had to have gone very wrong the moment she saw a photo of the emaciated thoroughbred.

“Someone has literally been starving this horse for months,” she said.

Dillon, thought to be 25 to 30 years old, was taken to an animal shelter in Baldwin Park. There, he met Sweet Pea, a mare who had been living at the shelter for months after suffering abuses herself.

“Horses are attuned to the energy of each other,” Kruse said. “When there’s trauma, they tend to bond with each other.”

Meanwhile, Sonia Dibell, a patrol police officer with the LAPD’s Southeast Division, began trying to find a more permanent home for Dillon. The department had no way to track down an owner.

She had contacted three rescue groups, but none of them could take Dillon.

“I was running out of options,” she said. Hanaeleh was the last group she knew to try.

The group said yes.

“You want to rescue a horse that we can really help,” Kruse said. “We think we can really help him.”

And there was another request: Can Sweet Pea follow Dillon?

It was another yes from Hanaeleh.

“She’s super sweet and super cute,” Kruse said. “He’s been through such trauma, that it’s important to have him be with her.”

The pair arrived Thursday, Feb. 28, joining the rescue groups 12 residents.

This isn’t a happy ending just yet, the rescuers warn. It’s going to take months for Dillon to recover physically and emotionally, Zarkos said.

“He eats very quickly, as if someone’s going to take his food away,” she said.

The group is accepting donations to help pay for Dillon’s ongoing care.

Perhaps in a few months, Kruse said, Dillon may have recovered enough he can find someone to adopt him.

But, Kruse doesn’t have a problem if that never happens: “Now they can stay in the canyon and listen for the birds.”