Washoe County Regional Animal Services Receives Complaint Related to Treatment of Horses at Northern Nevada’s Courage Worldwide Location
As part of our ongoing investigations into what is happening exactly at the northern Nevada based Courage Worldwide, which promotes itself as helping trafficked girls in our region and Tanzania, one local who says they were paid for equine therapy lessons there recently wanted to share their concerns as well.
As part of these new concerns, the horse whistleblower said they made a report with Washoe County Regional Animal Services but have not yet heard back. The most recent allegations we’ve received range from the nonprofit not knowing how to take care properly of horses they’ve had for equine therapy to a dangerous situation during the Bug Fire.
Robert Wooster, the field manager with Washoe County Regional Animal Services, confirmed their offices received a call and that there is a case number for this complaint. “I would again encourage any witnesses that has concerns to report directly to us so we can review and determine if any violations are occurring that we can investigate,” he added in an email to Our Town Reno.
We started looking into numerous concerns earlier this year about Courage Worldwide, which moved from a base in northern California following newspaper exposes against it ten years ago, after receiving messages from several former workers and one family. Previous allegations centered around questionable working conditions for staff and the type of help the girls are actually receiving at the 40-acre property, with one family saying their girl has never been trafficked but was placed there by the county.
“I am terrified of retaliation but am broken for all the people who actually wanted to see a new home for girls open in Nevada,” the mother wrote.
“Washoe County Human Services Agency collaborates with a variety of service providers that support children and families with differing needs, Courage Worldwide being one of them. Placement decisions are based on a comprehensive assessment of each child's unique circumstances, safety, and best interests – not on a single circumstance or label,” Bethany Drysdale, the Washoe County communications manager, previously wrote back to Our Town Reno.
A previous article we wrote as part of this series was followed by Richard Jay no longer being on the Courage Worldwide board, but him refusing to answer why he left despite commenting on many Our Town Reno social media posts. We have written through several channels to Courage Worldwide but we haven’t seen any response to our messages.
“I started there in March of 2026. I was just volunteering to teach the equine therapy sessions 2 x a week,” the whistleblower wrote to Our Town Reno concerning the latest allegations.
“This was presented to me as a Christian based program for young women rescued from horrific sex traffickers and the worst situations which Andrew W. very graphically described to me,” they added referring to Andrew Wilderlove, who lists himself on LinkedIn as the Courage Worldwide Staff and Facilities Director.
“It was 100 percent obvious to me that no one knew a thing about horses and the[y] were being fed all wrong,” the whistleblower alleges. Several former workers who have written to Our Town Reno anonymously also echoed similar concerns of dirty water and stalls, insufficient initial veterinary care and poor quality hay.
One blog entry on the Courage Worldwide website is called “The Healing Power of Horses.”
A Facebook post with photos of a horse in December 2025 indicated “Meet Raven, the newest member of our Courage family! She’s already bringing so much calm + comfort to Courage House Northern Nevada. We can’t wait to watch Raven make a difference.”
Our previous reporting indicates there was a long setup to the new Courage Worldwide location with a handful of girls only arriving in the Spring of 2026 to be helped.
“I took this on to teach the staff and residents how to care for the horses, got them vet care, supplements and tried to get a schedule for care and cleaning,” the whistleblower writes of their own experience.
“I was fought about everything I asked for which was just the basics. I was told that the animal care was a big part of the rehabilitation of the residents teaching them responsibility etc. in caring for the animals which they had many plans to get a lot more animals including cats, goats, chickens, pigs etc. I did convince them to wait on additional animals.
I ended up going there nearly every day trying to get staff and residents to do chores and work with the animals… Also they said they had no budget for the hay feed and supplies so I started buying them myself with the promise of repayment the following month. I asked every week and there was always an issue,” they allege.
This contrasts with the glowing reporting Courage Worldwide has been getting from local television stations, with their stories reposted on the Courage Worldwide Facebook page, while asking for new donations.
“A few weeks before the fire the CFO Mallory came by the house and said she didn’t know I was going to be there so didn’t bring my check and I told her I was not happy and needed it mailed right away. The same day the CEO Jenny [Williamson] came up and I told her I needed help from the staff and residents to care and clean for the animals and I wasn’t getting any support on that with the manager Andrew W. The next day I was called into the office and was written up and was told I was not allowed to talk to Jenny or Mallory again. At this time I was owed over 1800$,” the whistleblower alleges.
As part of documents they shared with us before leaving their position, there’s a handwritten letter where they say they saved Raven from dying in the Bug Fire which threatened the compound’s area.
In an email forwarded to Our Town Reno sent on August 22nd to Jenny Williamson, the founder and CEO, and Mallory whose last name was not given to us, it indicates it had been explained what to do in case of a fire, but that “as usual the office ignored my concerns.”
In the email it says that during the fire the whistleblower “walked the 5 horses to the huge wet cow pasture about a quarter mile away.” They say for five nights they slept in jeans and boots, while keeping the horses happy and fed, “ready to run at a moment’s notice,” and help the animals escape.
“I will not regress to what my experiences were at courage begging for everything from hay and basic care to training of the staff and residents. I had no support and would rather buy it myself than suffer begging in the office for the basic needs and daily care of the horses,” they wrote in that email.
They say that prior to the fire they would check on the horses and get whatever was broken in the barn area fixed but that “there was no one there to help. Often there would be no water, dirty stall and horses left out in 100 degree heat with no shade just to name a few things.”
“I have all texts and emails saved along with daily documentation of the weekly begging for everything for the care of the horses,” they wrote in a message to Our Town Reno.
“Also they were very appreciative of all I did in the first half of a lot of the emails which proves how hard I worked and then the second half saying I was abandoning the residents, etc.”
The organization’s Northern California home closed in 2020 “due to residents transitioning out of the program and the COVID pandemic occurring,” according to the Courage Worldwide website.
“No Turkey trot. Donors slip away from sex trafficking nonprofit,” ‘Spiritual warfare,’ ‘demonic attacks.’ The role religion played in home for sex-trafficking victims,” headlines indicated in the Sacramento Bee a decade ago with a different timeline and explanation.
The articles pointed out that in 2016, the nonprofit started in 2005 with a “vision” from God, saw Williamson close a six-bed facility for girls under 18 due to being cited for state violations including inadequate staffing levels and no current administrator working at the home.
A former employee told the Bee the nonprofit had been cited over a dozen times in the first half of 2016, with breaching privacy included in the violations. Previously the reports indicated the nonprofit had been cited for not respecting residents’ freedom of religion and forcing them to attend church services every week.
Other former employees pointed to a volatile environment with high turnover among staff, unexpected firings and micromanaging, as well as recurring complaints on the use of identifiable images of girls staying at the home being posted on social media.
One licensed therapist was quoted as saying the situation was “abusive.” The article indicated previous clients were enrolled by social workers or probation officers netting the facility about $9,000 a month per girl in government support.
In the articles then, Williamson called the citations and accusations baseless, absurd and unfair.
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