R.T. Fitch’s life has been anything but ordinary. Straight out of high school, he joined the U.S. Air Force Band during the Vietnam era, and while stationed in Hawaii, he spent weekends at Sea Life Park training penguins, sea lions, and whales. His path through life has taken many unexpected turns—including more than a few lessons in love—until meeting his wife, Terry, brought a lasting partnership and a shared passion for animals.
Over the course of his adult career, R.T. worked internationally in multiple countries, gaining a broad, global perspective that colors both his worldview and his writing. Now rooted in Texas, he and Terry live on a small farm surrounded by four-legged companions with paws, claws, and hooves. Together, they have devoted years to equine rescue and wild horse protection.
An ordained volunteer chaplain and professional Santa Claus for a local historical society—with Terry by his side as Mrs. Claus—R.T. brings warmth, wisdom, and joy to every season. His work reflects a life of service, wonder, and connection to both people and animals.
He is the author of Straight from the Horse’s Heart, a moving collection of true rescue stories and spiritual reflections, and Fangs of Light, a supernatural tale steeped in symbolic and metaphorical storytelling. The first in a planned trilogy, Fangs of Light blends myth and mystery to explore themes of identity, redemption, and the power of empathy—offering readers not only suspense and intrigue but a deeper look at the light and shadow within us all.
The Bureau of Land Management is claiming an emergency drought and plans to capture 12 horses near the Summit Springs on the Surprise Valley High Rock Complex – 615,946 acres of federally protected herd management area (HMA) in N.W. Nevada.
CHICAGO — Equine Welfare Alliance (EWA) – Despite dozens of articles about the imminent opening of a horse slaughter plant in Rockville, Missouri, EWA has learned that the plant is not opening anytime in the foreseeable future.
When outgoing Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) announced last month that he was pushing to reduce America’s national deficit by reducing “welfare ranching” in America’s heartland, so quiet was the political response in Washington that you could practically hear the crickets chirping along the Potomac. Undaunted, Sen. Nelson last Wednesday went one step further, announcing that he has introduced an eminently level-headed “Fair Grazing Fee” bill, designed to require the various agencies of the executive branch to charge market-level grazing fees for private ranchers who are running livestock on public land.
by Vickery Eckhoff as appearing in the Huffington Post Sue Wallis is Full of Hot Air The proposed slaughterhouse brought hope to the struggling rural town of Rockville, MO. Widely publicized as the first U.S. facility to slaughter horses after a five-year ban on inspections ended last year, […]
This article has been a major collaborative effort. Within these pages you will find absolute, scientific proof that horse meat from the US is deadly. To dispute these facts is to deny any role that science plays in research of the effects of chemicals on the human body. For those in the US, this tells of why a Federal system once concerned about food safety decided to bend the rules to benefit a few foreign companies. For those in the horse meat eating countries, read closely, for this will tell you why you are not feeling well at all. While long and detailed, this knowledge is vital to those wanting to know the truth about horsemeat and drugs.
A great big THANKS to our readers for your patience as Terry and I have been trekking across Mongolia on horseback with nary a word or warning. We have said goodbye to our trusty Mongol steeds and thanked our nomadic horsemen for their brave efforts in tolerating not only my size and weight but the continual stream of questions that we have thrown at them over our week long adventure. The insights we have garnered are more precious than physical riches and we will be happy to share.
First, please note that I am not an ANIMAL RIGHTS RADICAL. I fully support the meat industry and work closely with any number of ranchers on equine welfare issues. While my organization is committed to the humane treatment of equine, the subject before this committee is about money, the dollars made from selling horses for slaughter – nothing more, nothing less.
The federal roundup of wild horses from Nevada’s Jackson Mountain herd area is over, with the Bureau of Land Management at odds with well-known horse advocate Laura Leigh over the need to take even more horses.
As Wyoming swelters under the summer heat, as the ash and dust from its forest fires spread out across the Western states, as a sustained drought deepens the fissures in its barren expanses of scrub and rock, the battle over the fate of thousands of its wild horses has just exploded anew in court. Here is a nasty bit of litigation worth watching for many different reasons, not the least of which is that may help more people better understand the magnitude of the economic and political forces which are currently arrayed against the federally-protected American mustang.
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