For the week of January 9 - 15, 2002

Rescue Ranch will 
help animals, people

Animal sanctuary idea 
brews for two years

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By PETER BOLTZ
Express Staff Writer

The interested don’t need to have four dogs, seven cats and seven horses like Cheryl Welsh does, but they need to be able to pet and coo and love them.

Cheryl Welsh shows off a few of her pets at her home south of Bellevue. Knight Stalker is a 30-year-old horse she rescued. She also rescued her sheep dog, Bailey. Sitting next to her is Chamie. Express photo by David N. Seelig

Welsh is the founder and president of the Rescue Ranch, at present a dream, but soon to become a reality.

An investment adviser and 20-year resident of the Wood River Valley, Welsh came up with the idea of the Rescue Ranch along with several others in February 2000.

The ranch is modeled somewhat after an animal sanctuary in Kanab, Utah, called Best Friends.

Best Friends is located on 350 acres of a 33,000 acre ranch near Zion National Park, the Grand Canyon’s North Rim and Bryce Canyon National Park.

It had its start in the ’70s, and about 1,800 cats, dogs, horses, burros, wild birds, geese, rabbits, goats, pigs and other assorted creatures live there.

Welsh’s vision is similar, but different.

Not only does she want to make a place for animals—whether pets, domesticated farm animals or exotic animals—to have a home while waiting for adoption, but she wants to use the animals to help people enrich their lives.

Welsh already does work with the Blaine Manor Extended Care Facility in Hailey.

Believe it or not, she takes her miniature horse inside the Manor to deliver Christmas gifts to residents. Needless to say, her visits cause a stir.

She also wants to use animals from the future Rescue Ranch to help kids at risk in the valley.

"Two years ago, 90 kids were listed as ‘at risk,’" she said. "People who are in need benefit from connections with animals."

One of the great needs of the Rescue Ranch, besides land to put it on, is two people to serve on the ranch’s board of directors, especially people who have a background in fund raising.

Welsh has a proposal with all the details of starting and maintaining the ranch available for those who wish to help.

For more information, call Welsh at 788-9167.

 

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