BLACK BEAUTY RANCH
By Tumbleweed Smith
Special to the Herald
Black Beauty ranch, just outside of Murchison near Athens, is one of the most unique places in Texas. The 1,400-acre facility is a refuge for 40 different species of neglected and abused animals including reptiles, lions, tigers, bears, monkeys, antelope, deer, buffalo and farm livestock like goats, sheep, cows and chickens. You won’t find any penguins or polar bears there because of the climate. The 800 animals on the ranch come from all over the country. Black Beauty has an animal hospital, 2 veterinarians, a staff of 15 and several volunteers. It is non-profit and funded by donations, grants and its affiliation with the Humane Society of the United States.
It was founded in 1979 by nationally known writer Cleveland Amory, who had concerns about animals in crisis. “He picked this area because it was good horse pasture land and it was cheap,” says Noelle Almrud of Black Beauty Ranch. “Some of the animals have to get used to being treated with kindness and care, but that’s our goal, to give them respect and dignity for whatever time they have left. It takes dedication and passion for what we do. This is not a typical 9 to 5 job.”
When Amory, author of the book RANCH OF DREAMS, learned that donkeys in the Grand Canyon were facing grave danger he decided to do something about it. “He heard that in the 1990s the Bureau of Land Management was set to exterminate donkeys in the Grand Canyon because they were over-breeding and there weren’t enough resources to handle them and there was no way to remove them from the canyon. He said that’s not true and so he organized a rescue over two years and had them airlifted one by one with a helicopter, 577 of them, without a single injury or loss. He adopted as many as he could and those that couldn’t be adopted came to Black Beauty on the original 80 acres.”
The ranch is named Black Beauty because when Cleveland Amory was a child he read the book BLACK BEAUTY, published in 1877 by English author Anna Sewell, about an abused horse that was turned out to pasture after it could no longer be of use to its owners. “It always stuck with him,” says Noelle. “The last line of the book says something like ‘my troubles are over and I am at home.’ That’s kind of our motto and really sets the tone for what we’re about and what we do.”
During normal times, the ranch is open to visitors a couple of times each month. “We are closed now just for the safety of our staff and the animals. We have small pre-scheduled guided tours on a bus for groups no larger than 24. We drive them around with a tour guide not only showing them the animals but we’re explaining how they came to be here.”
Amory’s ashes are on the ranch. “We took the urn with his ashes and put it around the neck of his favorite burro named Friendly, the youngest of the original donkeys that were rescued. As she wandered about, his ashes were scattered on the property.” The website is blackbeutyranch.org