COLORADO (KRQE) — A New Mexico nonprofit is turning to the public for help after a car crash left them without a way to transport rescue animals for medical care.
“We are kind of at a standstill,” said Shanda Melendrez, founder of Misfits of Oz Farm Sanctuary.
A car crash put operations on pause for the Edgewood-based animal sanctuary. Their van was totaled on I-25 in Colorado last Tuesday morning.
“The vehicle came out of nowhere. He was going so fast that I didn’t even see him until it was too late,” said Melendrez.
Founder and executive director of Misfits of Oz Farm Sanctuary Shanda Melendrez was driving one of the group’s pigs up north for emergency care when, she claimed, another car hit them about 25 miles north of the Colorado-New Mexico state line. The pig passed away this weekend.
“There was no way to control anything, and we went over a guard rail. Luckily, our vehicle stopped us from going completely over, but it did tear the bottom of our vehicle,” said Melendrez.
The group’s van was donated about 2 and a half years ago and has become a lifeline for transporting animals and food.
“Without that, we have no way to transport animals. We have no way to pull our trailers. It’s how we move our big animals, and we are stuck at this point,” said Melendrez.
The group hopes the community can help get them back on their feet through donations.
“We are at this point asking for help from our community to try to replace that van because it’s such a vital piece of what we do,” said Melendrez.
Until then the organization said they’ll use personal vehicles, but that also limits the help they can offer.
“Any of the bigger animals, if anything goes wrong, I’m scared of that not having that tool,” she said.
The van is also what they use to be able to set community fundraisers; Melendrez is worried about the upcoming fundraiser in a couple of weeks.
Colorado State Patrol said it’s still investigating the cause of the crash.
