Guest Commentary: Hearts & Hands needs help — ASAP

By PENELOPE FOX

We may not agree about politics, or pot shops, or exactly what to do with that old Town Hall, but one thing we do know, we are all in agreement about ANIMALS!

If there is one thing that defines Ramona as a community, it’s our love of horses, raptors, turtles, camels, llamas, pot-bellied pigs, and oh, yes, our turkeys. It’s not by chance that a horse and hawk welcome visitors with our beautiful Highway 67 sign.

Not only do we love them, but we rescue, reward, feature, celebrate and build our reputation on their continuing wild and domestic compatibility with our little piece of San Diego County.

We sleep to their distant howls and wake to their songs and nickers and nuzzles. Many have chosen Ramona for the joy of seeing an eagle, or stopping for a street-crossing of turkeys, or passing horses in pastures on the way to work. This close association with both the wild and domestic tells a lot about who we are as a community.

But here’s a surprise. In a quiet, flagged lot on Old Julian Highway, just outside the Country Estates, is the largest animal sanctuary in San Diego County. Hearts & Hands Animal Rescue received nonprofit 501(c)3 status in 2010 after operating for 10 years as a private rescue facility, and now operates under USDA licensing with USDA inspections.

Nancy Nunke, the director, guide, trainer and overall visionary oversees 25 to 30 endangered zebras and Przewalski’s horses and numerous other wild and domestic animals. She also manages the Education and Therapy Center for adults and children.

But she is not alone. Volunteers from Ramona and as far away as Los Angeles are drawn to this magical place simply for the love of animals, sometimes driving for hours to spend a day feeding, cleaning, working in the center. Nancy, and several of her animals have been featured on television, in events (our own Tractor Store opening), and in books by Dr. Robert Miller, DVM who includes Nancy’s unique methods and her celebrity as the pre-eminent wild equid trainer in the U.S. She’s a real “zebra whisperer.”

Quite unexpectedly, the most important funding source for Hearts and Hands Rescue disappeared and Nancy is sending out the alarm. She had only one month before the ranch would be lost if funding didn’t arrive. And where will all those animals go?

Nancy learned this week that she has a reprieve until Nov. 10, but if the bank sees that we have recurring monthly donations coming in, and corporate monthly donations, it will give us another reprieve until we can build our donations up again to what they were before. We just have to prove to the bank that our community is backing us and is working to help us get the mortgage caught up and then paid monthly after that with our new donors backing.

Now we Ramonans can’t let Hearts & Hands fold. We understand why rescuing animals is important and why so many of us are very good at it. It’s our nature to choose lives shared with those who nicker, screech, howl, gobble, twitter, bark, meow and bleat. We get it!

If we lose Hearts & Hands, we lose character, we lose heritage, we lose community. Let’s not do that. Go online to donate: https://www.hhar.info/donate or https://www.gofundme.com/rallyforrescueanimals to sponsor or adopt or hnhrescue@aol.com — love those pictures!

Or call Nancy — 760-898-3927. Notify your friends, too. We can make this one go virile.

Penelope Fox is a Ramona resident and author.