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.
Horse trainer Doug O’Neill was said to be “ecstatic” over the wins at the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness by his horse, I’ll Have Another. He is proud of his racing record. The racing world now looks to the remaining Triple Crown race, the Belmont Stakes on June 9. Will there be a Triple Crown winner this year, the first since 1978?
About every 15-20 years, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) rewrites a Resource Management Plan for areas that include not only rural areas, but big cities like Los Angeles.
Then, for the next 15-20 years, every proposed project, plan and Environmental Assessment is based on this Resource Management Plan (RMP).
The abuse of Tennessee walking horses has been in the news since The HSUS released video footage of one of the industry’s top trainers striking a horse in the face with a wooden handle and pouring injurious chemicals onto the feet of a horse. It was four decades ago that Congress passed the Horse Protection Act to prevent and criminalize “soring” and other abuses of horses. Tennessee state representative Janis Sontany wrote in a column in The Tennessean on Sunday: “Soring has been a well-kept dirty secret in this industry and it’s time for this nonsense to end.”
June 5, 2012 (Larkspur, Colorado) – Front Range Equine Rescue (FRER) has discovered that Unified Equine, LLC has applied to the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) to begin the slaughter of thousands of American horses at a plant in Rockville, Missouri. Despite Unified Equine’s extensive efforts to hide the location of the site of their newest effort to begin slaughtering America’s horses, FRER has obtained this information, and will now begin legal and community-based efforts with other groups across the country to prevent the opening of this slaughterhouse. FRER will also continue its parallel efforts to end the slaughter of American horses for human consumption once and for all.
story by Pat Raia as it appears in The Horse Horse Owners should Plan NOW for Emergencies While firefighters work to contain a massive wildfire in New Mexico, the blaze has forced few horse evacuations, according to agricultural authorities in that state. But national authorities believe 2012 could see an […]
A Wyoming company looking to open a horse slaughter facility in Missouri says it has narrowed its search to a handful of sites in the western half of the state.
Yuma, Ariz. – The Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Yuma Field Office plans to begin gathering 350 burros from the Cibola-Trigo Herd Management Area north of Yuma, Arizona, on Wednesday, June 6, 2012. The gather was announced earlier to begin on June 4.
SAN FRANCISCO, Ca. (June 2, 2012)—Protect Mustangs, the Bay Area-based preservation group, has been in negotiation with BLM California and is happy to announce that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has agreed to postpone the California helicopter and motorized use public hearing to a later date. Using helicopters at wild horse and burro roundups is controversial. Americans nationwide call helicopter roundups cruel.
This is the face of horse slaughter. She’s a 4-year-old thoroughbred filly, a New York-bred. She was born on a beautiful farm in Westchester County. Her life on that farm would have been textbook perfect, it’s an outstanding facility, with a staff experienced in raising top-flight racehorses. Eventually, she was in training at Finger Lakes Race Track in Farmington, N.Y., but she never made a start. At the end of last year’s race meet, her owner asked her trainer to find her a home.
As the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) prepares to launch a massive burro roundup next week in the lower Sonora Desert, where temperatures are expected to exceed 100 degrees, the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign (AWHPC), a coalition of more than 50 organizations, is calling on the BLM to postpone the helicopter stampede and capture operation until Fall, when temperatures will be lower. In a letter to the BLM, the AWHPC cited the opinions of leading scientists and humane experts, who stated definitively that wild burros and wild horses should not be rounded up by helicopters in temperatures above 90 degrees.
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