The large animals evacuated due to the Gifford Fire are back at home as of Aug. 19.
Starting on Aug. 2, the Horse Emergency Evacuation Team (HEET) of San Luis Obispo County helped facilitate the evacuation of around 50 animals including horses, goats, llamas, donkeys, and pigs.
Animals were evacuated from Huasna, Ranchita, Santa Margarita, and Pozo, HEET board member and dispatcher Susan McElhinney told the Sun.
In some cases, owners brought their animals to the shelter, and in other cases HEET picked the animals up. The Santa Maria Elks Rodeo Grounds served as the main site for the temporary accommodations.
The last of the animals, a small group of pigs, were scheduled to return home on Aug. 19.
“Cal Fire and the Forest Service did such a great job of protecting structures and properties,” McElhinney said.
There was limited property damage, which allowed the animals to return home. If there had been damage to wells or fencing, McElhinney said it could have taken months before the animals could return.
As a dispatcher for HEET, McElhinney helped coordinate the evacuation effort, which was free to animal owners. Volunteers helped with everything from transporting animals in trailers to the maintenance at the rodeo grounds, and companies donated feed.
“The one thing about our shelter is none of this costs anything,” McElhinney said. “There’s no charge for feed, cleaning, and transports.”
At the shelter, the animals had 24-hour care, HEET President Julie Monser said.
She has been on the HEET board since 2003 and said she couldn’t remember an incident of this magnitude.
Spanning more than 130,000 acres across San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties, the geographic area was “huge,” she said, adding that it was rewarding to see the community come together to help.
Privately owned facilities like the Varian Equestrian Center in Arroyo Grande also helped evacuate animals.
Varian took in around 30 horses from the Huasna and Ranchita areas, Ranch Manager Kristy Gillot-Hogue said. The last six returned home on Aug. 18.
Varian staff fed and cared for the horses, incorporating them into cleaning routines. Gillot-Hogue said the community was helpful, offering trailers and assisting with cleaning and feeding.
“I think overall as a horse community it was really heartwarming to have a lot of support all the way around,” Gillot-Hogue said.
Caprice Arkell, who owns and operates Varian with her husband, said they wanted to be a place of refuge for their neighbors’ animals.
“We understand the damage and how scary fires can be, so we wanted to make sure that our neighbors knew that we could take their horses and livestock,” Arkell said.
This article appears in Aug 21-31, 2025.
