Woodland Hills site can house up to 200 horses
Escaping your home in the middle of the night during a fast-moving brush fire is hard enough for humans, but whenhorses and other large animals need to be evacuated, it creates an extra challenging situation. That’s what many Malibu equestrians face during our frequent wildfires and many rely on our good neighbor Pierce College Equestrian Center to keep our beloved large animals safe.
By Wednesday morning of the Franklin Fire, Dec. 11, the Woodland Hills facility had accepted 19 horses from displaced Malibu residents. However, later as the fire was reported at zero percent containment, that number grew to just over 50 equines. The facility, just over the hills of Malibu, can accept 200 horses. But the students and volunteers at the center will house other animals as well in an emergency.
According to Donna Mae Villanueva, a dean at Pierce College, the center accepted some miniature cows, miniature goats, at least one pig, and even chickens from Malibu residents who were forced to evacuate. Evacuees typically bring food for their animals that are cared for by county animal husbandry volunteers and students.
Villanueva said the college is proud to be of assistance. “We’re here to help out you know. I mean we’ve been used as an evacuation center for live animals whenever there’s been fires in our surrounding areas and we’ve always been very open and willing to help the community,” she said. “We’re open 24-7. There’s always somebody here. The county has officers here who watch 24-7, and the college is always happy to assist.”
As Malibu is home to other animal rescue facilities, those in the fire’s path quickly scrambled to find shelter for those creatures in their care.
Big Heart Ranch is a farm animal rescue and sanctuary. Its CEO, Michelle Gerlis, explained volunteers with her group started moving 45 large animals off the property near Trancas Canyon well before the fire was approaching the sanctuary as a precautionary measure. “It’s a fine line between being paranoid and being preemptive,” said Gerlis, noting that moving 2,000-pound draft horses is difficult. “I didn’t want to wait until we were full to move the animals to safer locations.”
Some of the animals are difficult to move because “they come from traumatic situations and didn’t have experience from the Woolsey Fire of being evacuated,” she added. Other animals, such as donkeys, are not used to being confined, according to Gerlis, and other smaller animals are susceptible to smoke inhalation or otherwise could get lost in the mix so they were moved out before danger could reach them.
“Everyone’s usually focusing on bigger animals,” according to Gerlis. So, another Big Heart Ranch employee and volunteer Erin Wu coordinated all the bunnies and guinea pigs to be picked up and relocated to a safe spot. “I’m not going to let them be exposed to fumes and they’re not going to get left behind,” Wu stated. In addition to some“humongous” horses, miniature horses, and small animals, Big Heart Ranch safely moved other animals, including two alpacas that were famously photographed on the beach at Zuma under an apocalyptic sky during the Woolsey Fire.
Both Gerlis and Wu took their preemptive measures of evacuating because, “You never know,” Gerlis said. “Anything can change at any time and we’re not the only animal rescue facility in the area. We also have some pigs, small pigs, and medium-size pigs. We have 16 goats, eight sheep, and more than a dozen chickens.” About a dozen employees and volunteers worked around the clock to safely relocate the menagerie.
As for Wu, who specializes in bunny and guinea pig rescues, she drove Big Heart’s smaller animals to BunnyLuvRabbit Resource Center in North Hollywood. She was able to evacuate through Kanan Road.
The dedicated volunteer animal rescuers would like to be contacted by Malibu residents in the future to receive animals for temporary housing in emergencies. They are also accepting trailers, crates, and blankets for future evacuations and would love more volunteers and donations. Contact howdy@bigheartranch.org or erinwu.la@gmail.com.
