The goal of the Animal Health Foundation (AHF) is to find the cause and way to prevent laminitis-founder complex in horses. The foundation donates funds to major researchers in the field of laminitis. AHF also offers information to help horse owners prevent their horses from becoming victims of the painful, crippling disease.
The all-volunteer, not-for-profit organization, located in the St. Louis, Missouri area, has no paid employees. Because the organization’s board of directors personally pays all administrative costs, all other donations received from the public go directly to fund work on laminitis.
The foundation feels it is very important for the public to recognize that contributors are truly making a difference by helping to directly fund the important work currently taking place in laminitis research today. Previous recipients of grants from the Animal Health Foundation include:
The Animal Health Foundation needs contributions today to fund the fight against one of the most painful equine diseases. It claims the lives of thousands of horses and ponies, and does not discriminate by age, sex or breed. Progress is steadily being made in understanding laminitis-that is why it is so important to continue the work and to try to make a difference. Donate to the Animal Health Foundation.
The Animal Health Foundation produced a video to introduce you to our mission and some of the researchers we currently support. We hope you learn a little about laminitis too.
If you'd like to have a copy, we ask you send us $5.00 for shipping and handling. For details, please e-mail us at info@ahf-laminitis.org.
Animal Health Foundation Promotes Laminitis Research
How Dr. Donald Walsh and the Animal Health Foundation have helped to promote and underwrite vital research on causes, and possible cures, for equine laminitis. More...
Equine Welfare Organizations
From the Mustang protection issue to slaughter bills, equine welfare concerns are getting plenty of attention in the mainstream media. Behind these issues are equine welfare organizations working hard to make a change in horses' lives. Some of the organizations are well known, while others are more obscure. All, no matter how large or small, tackle issues that are huge and complex. The Horse checked in with a few of the charities to see what they are about and what issues they are working on. More...
Dr. Donald Walsh was raised on a horse farm off Melrose Road on the border of St. Louis and Franklin Counties in Missouri. He spent his summers showing American Saddlebreds at country fairs.
He graduated from the veterinary school of the University of Missouri - Columbia in 1969 and began practicing medicine in St. Louis and shortly thereafter at the Creve Coeur Animal Hospital. A year later he opened the Ellisville Animal Clinic, treating small and large animals out of a building on Clarkson Road. In 1985, an associate took over the small animal practice, and Walsh moved the horse practice to its current site in Pacific, MO, naming it Homestead. He focused on horses about 10 years then expanded again to small animals.
Don and Diana Walsh have two adult children. The Walsh's four-legged entourage include 9 dogs, and several horses including Dakota Sundance (pictured above).
Donors receive a special edition print of Secretariat, who was humanely destroyed to release him from suffering of Laminitis.