‘These animals are essentially family:’ Horses, sheep and ducks not forgotten in California wildfires amid rescue efforts
People in Southern California are risking their own safety to rescue animals, both big and small, from the wildfires that have killed 27 people and displaced even more after thousands of structures were destroyed.
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(CNN) — People in Southern California have risked their own safety to rescue animals, both big and small, from the wildfires that have killed 27 people and displaced many more after thousands of structures were destroyed.
The Palisades and Eaton fires have become two of the most destructive wildfires in Southern California’s history, according to Cal Fire, after having burned an area of land larger than Paris.
Not everyone was near their homes when evacuations were announced, forcing some to leave their beloved pets and livestock behind. The Pasadena Humane Society has worked to feed pets left trapped inside homes and has taken in at least 610 animals since the fires broke out on January 7, the organization said.
“We are logging every report of animals left behind and dispatching search and rescue teams as quickly as possible in areas that are safe to enter,” Kevin McManus, the Pasadena Humane Society’s spokesperson, said last week.
Approximately 33,000 people remained under evacuation orders and another 8,000 were under evacuation warnings as of Saturday, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
Officials have set up evacuation centers across the Los Angeles area for people to bring pets and livestock. Hundreds of horses, along with some cows, pigs, sheep and donkeys were evacuated from the fire zones and brought to safety at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center.
A group rescues horses during the Eaton Fire in Altadena, California, on January 8. (Michael Nigro/Bloomberg/Getty Images via CNN Newsource)
But not all animals could be saved, with several reportedly killed by the Eaton Fire, according to the Los Angeles County Department of Animal Care and Control.
As officials work to respond to reports of animals needing help, some individuals and independent groups in the area have sprung into action to assist.
‘We will be there for you’
Vera Valdivia-Abdallah and her 18-year-old daughter, Tamarah Valdivia, live about 60 miles north of Altadena, California, where the Eaton Fire had burned more than 14,000 acres by Sunday.
When they saw the fires in the distance, the horse-loving duo prepared their trailers and got ready to help.
“It doesn’t matter if you know the person or not. If there is a fire in Southern California, people come with trucks and trailers,” Valdivia-Abdallah told CNN. “You help other equestrians, because when it’s your turn to have a fire, we will be there for you.”
The equine industry contributes billions to California’s tourism industry and economy, according to the California Horse Power Coalition.
Valdivia-Abdallah runs Love This Horse, a horse rescue that specializes in “taking in forgotten, neglected and abused Arabian horses from law enforcement seizures, local animal shelters, distressed owners, and from low-end horse auctions.”
Valdivia-Abdallah is part of a volunteer group that rescues horses from fires and transports them to safety. Their efforts began a few years ago as a group chat. They’ve since advanced to “walkie-talkie”-like communications over an app where members exchange details about rescue opportunities, according to Valdivia-Abdallah.
“It’s basically like you’re the fire department and you’re being dispatched,” she said.
A veterinarian checks a miniature horse after it was evacuated from the Eaton Fire in Burbank, California, on January 10, 2025. (Agustin Paullier/AFP/Getty Images via CNN Newsource)
The group’s dispatcher receives distress calls about endangered horses and deploys whomever is available and closest.
With the dispatcher’s guidance, Valdivia-Abdallah and her daughter loaded up horses on January 7 and drove them to different stables, keeping at it for 21 hours and squeezing in naps where and when they could.
“Driving through Altadena was surreal, because the electricity was out and the roads looked like somebody had taken a chainsaw and chopped up all the trees and thrown them in the road,” Valdivia-Abdallah said.
She said horses are intelligent animals that can pick up on environmental and human stress, which can make rescue situations more precarious.
But she said her daughterhas a way with the horses. Valdivia-Abdallah described it as a special kind of “magic,” which keeps the horses calm.
People have donated money to Love this Horse over the past week, and as a way to give back, Valdivia-Abdallah said she gave the funds out as grants. As of Friday afternoon, she said she has given $500 each to 27 horse owners impacted by the fires.
Social media post sparks team rescue effort
Cole Bush, a livestock owner who runs a grazing business more than an hour north of the Palisades and Eaton fires, told CNN a social media post by a fellow equestrian lover and community leader sparked her desire to help animals evacuate.
“I was like, ‘oh my gosh, that’s what I have to offer!’” Bush said.
Bush lives in Ojai, California, about 84 miles northwest of the Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles ravaged by wildfire. She said she’s experienced firsthand the devastation of natural disasters, including the Thomas Fire that threatened her small city in 2017.
“I have a livestock business with very unique trailers,” she added. Bush’s business involves letting goats and sheep graze to reduce the amount of grass and other highly flammable vegetation, which can decrease the likelihood of a wildfire.
“I have double-deck small ruminant trailers, and I can fit 100 sheep and goats in each one, and I have trucks,” she said.
She asked her own social media community how she could help. Her online post was shared widely within 24 hours, according to Bush.
“I was inundated with people just dropping me addresses and (which) animals were where,” she said.
Bush mass text messaged people she knew had horses and livestock and coordinated a group equipped with trailers, trucks and helping hands.
A dog looks on at the Pasadena Humane Society after owners were evacuated due to the Eaton Fire in Pasadena, California. (Zaydee Sanchez/Reuters via CNN Newsource)
After heading to the Los Angeles Equestrian Center to discover “there really wasn’t any centralized dispatch area” in place to bring animals, according to Bush, her team regrouped.
“We realized that we just really had to … be on call and make connections and review social media posts of like, what’s going on, where there were pockets of animals (that) needed support,” she said.
A woman on a small farm in Old Agoura Hills in Los Angeles County contacted Bush seeking help evacuating her sheep, horses, ducks and chickens. Bush and her crew drove deep into the community, which the business owner described as “a terrifying place to be” as a nearby wildfire unfolded.
“The roads are small, (a) ton of tree cover, it’s like one way in, one way out,” Bush said, adding power and cell phone outages stopped them from getting notifications of the fire’s proximity.
Bush’s team arrived to find others had shown up to help and had left behind sheep and goats. The animals can be hard to handle, but Bush says working with small ruminants is her speciality.
“You have to have skill to understand the behavior (of the animals),” Bush said. “It’s very different (from) rescuing horses.”
‘These animals are essentially family’
While Bush and her group coordinated getting animals to safety, she said she realized the need to shift focus beyond the current situation and into the future for these animals as firefighters make progress containing the blazes.
“This is a long-game effort. Animals are going to be displaced from these temporary (evacuation) places,” Bush said. “If they can’t go home, they’re going to need new homes, permanent new homes, until there’s a rebuild to where they go,” Bush said.
Thus, they launched the Ojai Horse and Herd Network.
The network, only about a week old and already growing with support from people wanting to help, operates as a directory for livestock handlers by connecting those in need with those who can offer assistance, according to Bush.
People who have livestock and other herd animals and want to lend a hand, either during the ongoing disasters or in the future, can fill out a form describing how they can help in an emergency.
If a 200-pound pig needs to be evacuated, for example, there might be someone nearby who has a ramp a pig can use to walk into a trailer, Bush says.
“In Ojai right now, we have flyers going on every feed shop in town so when horse people or animal people see that flyer, they use the QR code and they sign up and say, ‘this is what I have to offer,’” Bush said.
A fundraiser for the network has so far raised more than $28,000, which Bush says will go toward feeding and sheltering the animals and people affected by the wildfires.
“These animals are essentially family,” Bush said. “My world revolves around the care of them… So to leave behind these creatures that rely on us to live is essentially losing a part of our meaning and connection to how we’ve chosen to live our lives.”
She added: “I believe that animals help us to be better humans. I believe that animals help us to understand our part in the natural world.”
CNN’s Michelle Watson and Artemis Moshtaghian contributed to this report.
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