DAVID
CRUISE & ALLISON GRIFFITHS
Synopsis
from Goodreads: In
1950, Velma Johnston was a thirty-eight-year-old secretary en route
to work near Reno, Nevada, when she came upon a truck of battered
wild horses that had been rounded up and were to be slaughtered for
pet food. Shocked and angered by this gruesome discovery, she vowed
to find a way to stop the cruel round-ups, a resolution that led to a
life-long battle that would pit her against ranchers and powerful
politicians—but eventually win her support and admiration around
the world. This is the first biography to tell her courageous true
story. Like Dian Fossey, Jane Goodall, or Temple Grandin, Velma
Johnston dedicated her life to public awareness and protection of
animals. Wild
Horse Annie and the Last of the Mustangs follows
Velma from her childhood, in which she was disfigured by polio, to
her dangerous vigilante-style missions to free captured horses and
document round-ups, through the innovative and exhaustive grassroots
campaign which earned her the nickname “Wild Horse Annie” and led
to Congress passing the “Wild Horse Annie Bill,” to her
friendship with renowned children’s author and horse-lover
Marguerite Henry.
A
powerful combination of adventure, history, and biography,Wild
Horse Annie and the Last of the Mustangs beautifully
captures the romance and magic of wild horses and the character of
the strong-willed woman who made their survival her legacy.
Stats
for my copy:
Hardback, published by Scribner, A Division of Simon & Schuster,
Inc., 2010; borrowed from the public library.
First
line:
Bundles of dried sagebrush clung to the fencing of the corral behind
Joe and Trudy Bronn's small clapboard house.
My
thoughts:
At the library with my daughter recently, I was browsing up and down
the shelves when the title of this book caught my eye. I didn't think
I'd ever heard of Wild Horse Annie, but when I read the chapters
about Velma's friendship with Marguerite Henry, who wrote a book
about her, I realized I probably read said book many many years ago.
That whole section of this book actually made me want to go back and
reread all of Henry's books.
One
day in 1950, Velma Johnston, a secretary, was driving on the roads of
Reno, Nevada, when she came up behind a livestock trailer, and
noticed there seemed to be blood dripping out of it. That drip of
blood turned into a small stream, and dismayed, Velma followed the
trailer until it stopped, intent on warning the driver that he needed
to check his cargo. I can only imagine the horror she felt when she
looked inside that trailer, because just reading the description of
the damaged and mangled live horses it contained made my stomach feel
queasy.
The
book traces Velma's early childhood to her death in 1977. Along the
way she contracts polio as a child, which permanently disfigures her,
and meets and marries Charlie Johnston, who would be her staunch
supporter and helper in her campaign to save the horses. In the early
days of the fight she and Charlie snuck around at night, freeing wild
horses from corrals or pens where they were being held while awaiting
transport to a slaughterhouse. But she soon became involved in
politics and pushing through new legislation to protect the horses.
Besides trying to keep wild horses from being slaughtered for pet
food, she particularly wanted it to be illegal for the horses to be
rounded up by airplane or helicopter, which was a terrifying
experience for the horses that resulted in physical injuries as they
were forced to run at panicked speeds over rough terrain. It was a
long battle with many ups and downs, and Velma was fighting for
protection and humane treatment to the very end of her life.
Detailed
and articulate without being dry, the authors' respect for their
subject shines through in this well written account of the life of a
truly incredible woman.
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