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.
story by Jessica Gresko as printed in Newsvine It took 37 days and a group of determined animal lovers, but a donkey from Iraq is now a U.S. resident. Smoke The Donkey, who became a friend and mascot to a group of U.S. Marines living in Iraq’s Anbar […]
Reno, Nev. —The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is offering public tours of its Indian Lakes Road Short-Term Holding Facility in Fallon, Nev., Friday, June 3, and Friday, July 15, from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. The tours can each accommodate up to 30 people and will be provided on a first-come, first-served basis. The public can sign up to attend and get driving directions to the facility by calling the BLM at (775) 475-2222.
Chicago (EWA) – Equine Welfare Alliance (EWA) joins its Canadian partner, Canadian Horse Defence Coalition (CHDC) in calling for the withdrawal of an episode scheduled to air Monday, May 16 on the Food Network’s program Top Chef Canada.
It all started last winter with a self appointed committee the “The Feral Horse Committee of the Nevada Wildlife Commission” which consists of only a handful of “welfare ranchers” who want the wild horses & burros off their leased lands in Nevada. A handful of us were there and when we asked how can you guys feel so darn threatened by the handful of horses, how come you don’t feel so threatened by the deer, or elk or bunnies for that matter? Mike Stremler’s answer was:
“Well you wear nice clothes, how would you like it if my wife came and stole all your clothes out of your closet.”
HOUSTON, (Horseback) – A grass roots movement is gaining momentum on a state tourism site on the social media network Facebook. There, wild horse lovers are urging tourists to boycott the state as the legislature considers a bill that would deny water to wild horses.
We are asking all available wild horse advocates to attend this hearing. DON’T LET OUR LEGISLATORS DO THIS TO THE HORSES. AB 329 will be heard on Friday May 13 . The Senate committee on Natural Resources meets in room 2144 in the legislative building. NOTE: The normal meeting time for this committee is 3:30. However, this meeting is to begin upon adjournment of a different committee meeting, but no later than 3:30. We suggest we arrive at the legislative building no later than 2:00. You need time to park and get to the hearing room. The address and parking instructions are at the bottom of this message.
Save for the wolf, few animals living wild on what’s left of the West’s ‘wide open’ spaces engender as much contention as wild equines. To some, they are iconic, tough and unfettered living anchors to our past, worthy of respect and preservation. To others, they are competitors for scarce rangeland resources, to be stringently controlled through mandates and policies and inevitably, removals. Procedural documents outline reasons for proposed removals of Wild Equines from a home range; most allude to the lack of available forage or limited water resources. Nearly all cite the absence of predators and the vast proclivity toward over-breeding of these long-lived species as compelling cause for removals.
On Sunday, Mother’s Day, Delp set off on a 5,000-mile horseback ride across the United States in honor of her own late mother Millie Delp and others — including animals — who have succumbed to cancer, as well as those still fighting it.
Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-KY) and Sen. Tom Udall (D-NM) have introduced H.R. 1733/S.B. 886, the Interstate Horse Racing Improvement Act of 2011 which amends the Interstate Horse Racing Act of 1978,15 U.S.C. 3001 et seq.) .
A few years back I wrote an article about the threat to America’s wild horses in general and the small herd of Mustangs on the Blackjack Mountain preserve in Oklahoma in particular. At that time I laid the blame for the mismanagement of one of America’s greatest natural resources at the feet of the Bureau Of Land Management (BLM) and their close ties to corporations buying leases on public land to run livestock. The BLM is supposedly responsible for the stewardship of all wild lands not currently national parks owned by the federal government in trust for the people of the United States. The acts which govern the terms of their stewardship spell out they are supposed to treat them in manner sensitive to the existing ecosystems. One of the pieces of legislation which applies to these territories is the Wild Free-Roaming Horse And Burro Actpassed in 1971 that was designed to preserve existing populations of wild horses and burros on all government owned lands.
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