A Happy Ending for Rescued Mules -- and Morton County - KXNet - Bismarck/Minot/Williston/Dickinson

  In late January, 150 horses and mules were seized in a vast animal abuse case that discovered 96 other animals dead in Morton and Burleigh Counties.  Most of those surviving horses found homes, with 16 still recovering at the Triple H Miniature Horse Rescue, south of Mandan.  

While many of the horses were adopted, the mules are being auctioned off today.  It didn't take long for all  the mules to be sold.

Those big ears and doggie-like personalities endear them to so many.  "They really like their people.  They'll pick a person and that's their person and they know what person it is and they'll follow that person," says Nedra Vandervorste, Pollock, SD, a mule buyer today.  This pair -- a pulling team -- is required to be sold together.  

A huge crowd showed up to bid on the special creatures.  "We bid on about three-quarters of them and we finally got one. . . .  I think he's going to have a lot of fun with our other horses that we have, because we have five horses and a mule -- and now we're going to have two mules," say Robert and Colby Couch, Mandan, Mule Buyer.

That's a good thing, because mules, like these two, especially like other mules.  "Now they've been taken away from their friends -- their mule friends.  Now they have to make new friends, but they'll be okay," says  Vandervorste.

These survivors more than earned their keep too.  Morton County had hoped to raise around $11,000 to recoup money spent in investigating the abuse and rescuing the animals.  What they got shocked even some auction veterans.  "I was surprised they brought as much money as they did," says George Bitz, Auctioneer, Napoleon.

"We took in $20,450 on the 22 mules.  The highest selling one was $2,800, and so I think we should be able to recoup most, if not the majority of our costs, we had into this whole horse rescue operation," says Dawn Rhone, Morton County Auditor.

 

For all the mules at Triple H Miniature Horse Rescue, there's a happy ending -- especially for these two friends who get to go to their forever home together.

Sixteen  horses will remain at the Triple H Horse Rescue until they are healthy enough to be adopted.