I have popcorn toppings over here!! :yes:
Trollin, trollin, trollin . . .
Hello āCastleton Ranchā
Can you tell us more about your rescue? I know people that are highly active in rescue in California, and yet I have never heard of your group.
All I can find online is your own website, and people complaining about your mailers.
How many horses in all? I see that your website and people say that the mailers refer to ā82 horsesā but surely it canāt be a stagnate number.
What auctions do you attend?
Do you have another fundraising mechanism besides your mailers? The groups I work with hold fundraising dinners and events, tack sales, open houses etc.
I see per GuideStar that revenues for 2013 came in at $1,615,591 - impressive! Over a $117,000 more than your expenses for that year.
The rescue I work with has close to 80 horses at a time (but most are up for adoption, so the numbers fluctuate - as horses come in as well), works with the local authorities, getting abusers convicted etc. Is your group active in the community as well?
They also have wonderful before and after pictures of their re-habs, do you have before and after stories?
And lastly, the non profit I know is able to take care of these 80+ horses at an expense of around $135,000 per year - just over the amount the non profit takes in (so yes, the founders etc reach into their own pockets etc).
Do you really spend $20,000+ per horse per year that are in your rescue?
Okay edited to add:
A $150,000 was spent on a āfund raising strategiesā in both 2011 and 2012? $96,000+ in 2013? Oh, and āfront end premiumā (had to look at that up) runs $56,000 to $82,000 per yearā¦
Front-End Premium
A premium that is sent with a mailing that includes a product or service offer, or that is requesting a donation. Generally intended to be an incentive to respond to the offer or donation request.
Around $45,000 a year for ādata processingā - what ādataā are you processing for that cost?
And yet veterinary expenses for the same years are $12,000 to $27,000 per year.
That is a WHOLE bunch of revenue, with a WHOLE BUNCH of over head for 80 rescue horses.
Oh, and of course Lisa gets $75,000 a year of that (the rescue I work with does not pay themselves out of the rescue funds).
So at least $340,000 a YEAR goes to āfundraisingā, presidents salary, and "data processing"
2 Likes
And please do include a link to your Facebook page - I canāt seem to find it . . .
[QUOTE=Kwill;8125693]
She called me stupid today, actually.[/QUOTE]
I know, right! Took her 4 years to figure out her webcrawler!
Beer?
Hereās the address from here http://www.castletonranchhorserescue.com/#!horse-sponsorship
The image on street view is May 2012. The vegetation is very new, I canāt recall how fast the stuff grows in the high desert down there, itād be three years older. Size wise - 5 acres? 500 feet by 750 feet?
It is not Lisa who is communicating with you and you still have not answered the original question. You stated that we probably did not even have any horses and that we are a complete money making scam. Why not speak with ASPCA HQ in New York. We played host to a delegation they sent to our San Diego Ranch fairly recently. They were very impressed with the work we had done and continue to do. You and the rest of your posse are way off the mark about our company and all you are doing is trying to damage our good reputation and ultimately cause harm to the horses that we care for. Give me an address and I will forward to you the info requested. I will be happy to do so.We operate two rescue/retirement ranches in Southern California. Despite your very negative attitude to our organization you are most welcome to visit either of our ranches at anytime to see at first hand what we have achieved since our beginning in 2004. This is the problem with people. They find it so easy to hide behind a computer and talk absolute rubbish without even trying to qualify what they are saying. If you have a genuine interest in our organization I will be happy to tell you whatever you want to know. However you are not dealing with Lisa you are dealing with Alex. And yes, Lisa is very much a classy lady who left her well paying job in Hollywood to dedicate her life to helping horses. You people who criticize no nothing about what went into getting this company off the ground and into the large company it is today. If you really care give details of where I can send you whatever info you require. We have absolutely nothing to hide and please do contact ASPCA Jacque Schultz in the Equine Division. She was one of the delegation who visited. Please also speak with Helen Meredith who runs United Pegasus. We have helped each other regularly over the past 12 years and she knows our organization and myself very well. Best Alex
Popcorn sounds good! I have homemade spice cookies and homemade sea-salt dark chocolate toffee. My rhubarb is growing like mad and I was thinking of making some sort of rhubarb bar/pie/cake, too.
Kim
A ālarge companyā - why yes, it certainly is, with a huge amount of revenue, a large portion of which is spent on more funding raising slicksā¦
I know first hand operations that are able to help an equal number of horses, on one tenth of the budget.
Personally - if I am going to donate my hard earned money to a rescue - I want it to go to the HORSES - their vet care etc, not to more āmarketingā.
Per your filed tax returns, Castleton Ranch spends exponentially more on begging for money, and ādata processingā than it does on vet bills etc - I personally have an issue with that.
And United Pegasus? Yes, I am familiar with that operationā¦ I am aware of many horses they assist.
United Pegasus has an operating budget that is around 1/4 of Castleton Ranchāsā¦ and yet have more horsesā¦
3 Likes
[QUOTE=tikihorse2;8125898]
Popcorn sounds good! I have homemade spice cookies and homemade sea-salt dark chocolate toffee. My rhubarb is growing like mad and I was thinking of making some sort of rhubarb bar/pie/cake, too.
Kim[/QUOTE]
Yes, rhubarb!
Havenāt had any in ages!
[QUOTE=happynow;8125872]
It is not Lisa who is communicating with you and you still have not answered the original question. You stated that we probably did not even have any horses and that we are a complete money making scam. Why not speak with ASPCA HQ in New York. We played host to a delegation they sent to our San Diego Ranch fairly recently. They were very impressed with the work we had done and continue to do. You and the rest of your posse are way off the mark about our company and all you are doing is trying to damage our good reputation and ultimately cause harm to the horses that we care for. Give me an address and I will forward to you the info requested. I will be happy to do so.We operate two rescue/retirement ranches in Southern California. Despite your very negative attitude to our organization you are most welcome to visit either of our ranches at anytime to see at first hand what we have achieved since our beginning in 2004. This is the problem with people. They find it so easy to hide behind a computer and talk absolute rubbish without even trying to qualify what they are saying. If you have a genuine interest in our organization I will be happy to tell you whatever you want to know. However you are not dealing with Lisa you are dealing with Alex. And yes, Lisa is very much a classy lady who left her well paying job in Hollywood to dedicate her life to helping horses. You people who criticize no nothing about what went into getting this company off the ground and into the large company it is today. If you really care give details of where I can send you whatever info you require. We have absolutely nothing to hide and please do contact ASPCA Jacque Schultz in the Equine Division. She was one of the delegation who visited. Please also speak with Helen Meredith who runs United Pegasus. We have helped each other regularly over the past 12 years and she knows our organization and myself very well. Best Alex[/QUOTE]
You know the drill, ALWAYS preserve for posterity! :yes: 
I realize that the lack of paragraphs is annoying, but thatās how HN wrote it.
1 Like
[QUOTE=Altag;8125959]
You know the drill, ALWAYS preserve for posterity! :yes:
I realize that the lack of paragraphs is annoying, but thatās how HN wrote it.[/QUOTE]
Good thinking!
I myself am impressed that after this thread laying dormant for three years, happynow managed to respond to it a mere 20 minutes after kwill revived it!
:lol:
1 Like
Hey guys, donāt be so hard on them. I count sixteen horses here. Maybe the other 66 are in the barn.
1 Like
[QUOTE=PeteyPie;8125974]
https://www.google.com/maps/place/12103+E+Ave+H,+Lancaster,+CA+93535/@34.7203911,-117.9145333,205m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x80c3acd7bde2809f:0xb81c84a0081e422d
Hey guys, donāt be so hard on them. I count sixteen horses here. Maybe the other 66 are in the barn.[/QUOTE]
You are all very funny about a very serious matter. Why donāt you just come and visit one of our ranches and perhaps then you may just zip it. Better still why not call our veterinarians for both ranches. Lancaster is Dr Wayne Marteney office no 661 947 6068 Valley Center ranch Dr Matt Mathews office no 760 749 8147. Maybe after you speak with them we can have some peace to get on with our work.
[QUOTE=happynow;8126051]
You are all very funny about a very serious matter. Why donāt you just come and visit one of our ranches and perhaps then you may just zip it. Better still why not call our veterinarians for both ranches. Lancaster is Dr Wayne Marteney office no 661 947 6068 Valley Center ranch Dr Matt Mathews office no 760 749 8147. Maybe after you speak with them we can have some peace to get on with our work.[/QUOTE]
Just zip it?
Maybe you could be a little bit more professional and state, in a matter-of-fact voice, with proper punctuation, spelling, and appropriate use of paragraphs, some facts addressing the concerns voiced here. Why are you being secretive? You expect the public at large to donate to your organization, yet you are requiring that individuals email you with their home addresses in order to get this information which should be public? Do you really think it is appropriate for tens or hundreds of potential donors to call your vet? Seriously?
Where is your San Diego facility? Is it a secret? Will a cursory overhead view on Google Maps show it to be another five-acre tract with ten horses on it?
Your basic budget, a link to photos of your facilities, a quick statement about the number of horses you have, and a summary of what you do with them (rehab? sanctuary? adoption? resale for slaughter?) could have been made in the space and time you just wasted. Your communication sounds secretive, defensive, unprofessional, and moreover, makes your organization sound even more shady than initial impressions.
And no, I will not be calling Dr. Marteney since I am convinced that the millions you bring in should be adequate to care for the ten+ horses on your Lancaster, CA property. I would love to know the name of your accountant, however.
5 Likes
No, I am still bothered by tax returns that show $12,000 in vet bills, but at the same time $75,000 in salary, and over $200,000 in solicitation expenses.
2 Likes
Priority mail is $5.75 minimum, well maybe less with some of the combase pricing discounts, so weāll call it $4.
Thatās still an awful lot of money to spend per piece on DMM fundraising.
Putting out the vetās name and number to answer questions that should be out on the website is BAD FORM. First off the vet really shouldnāt be answering the questions, they arenāt going to have a list of all the animals at your ranches nor are they your secretary plus itās not really ethical - but the rescue should have all this available for inquiries and relatively easily.
If you are rehoming and retraining TBās off the track, Iām not sure itās a rescue. Itās a good thing but they arenāt helpless rescued cripples, not by far.
This seems more like a subsidized retraining facility than anything else - I want to meet your accountant too, itās a heck of a gig.
2 Likes
[QUOTE=happynow;8126051]
You are all very funny about a very serious matter. Why donāt you just come and visit one of our ranches and perhaps then you may just zip it. Better still why not call our veterinarians for both ranches. Lancaster is Dr Wayne Marteney office no 661 947 6068 Valley Center ranch Dr Matt Mathews office no 760 749 8147. Maybe after you speak with them we can have some peace to get on with our work.[/QUOTE]
Oh , Deary, this is the quickest way to get on the manure list of the old biddies hereā¦
Keep at it!
:lol:
(In other words, you should have left well enough alone, this was - after all - a thread 4 years old.)
1 Like
Gotta love the internet. Zombie thread comes alive and look at all the new information that gets dug up.
I wouldnāt be any more likely to donate to them today than I would have been in 2011!!!
2 Likes
[QUOTE=PeteyPie;8125974]
https://www.google.com/maps/place/12103+E+Ave+H,+Lancaster,+CA+93535/@34.7203911,-117.9145333,205m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x80c3acd7bde2809f:0xb81c84a0081e422d
Hey guys, donāt be so hard on them. I count sixteen horses here. Maybe the other 66 are in the barn.[/QUOTE]
Itās pretty obvious from the photos that they do have a second facility which is not in the high desert. Somewhere in San Diego county makes sense (I grew up there and know what it looks like.)
ETA: the Valley Center area is very horse-y and if the facility is there, itās a good location. Itās in the mountainous north central part of the county and probably a little wetter, but hot.
This has nothing to do, however, with the finances or how the rescue is run in general.
