I had quite the bittersweet day yesterday. This blog is called Down The Stretch because of the newspaper of the same name that I edit and distribute freely (and for free) at Woodbine and out of the trunk of my car. In the last issue, we published a story on horse rescuer Alex Brown. I recommend you read it yourself – we’re on-line at www.downthestretchnewspaper.com and I can send a hard copy to anyone who bothers to e-mail me…but to sum it up, Alex Brown gave up a number of lucrative positions to apply himself fulltime to the battle against horse slaughter. He gallops horses for Steve Asmussen in the mornings at Woodbine, using his backstretch status to determine the ways and means that horses work their way down the racing ladder to the point that they end up getting sold by the pound as meat for human consumption..
Listen to Horse rescuer Alex Brown on THE FAN 590′s Director’s Chair with Doug Farraway: [audio:http://qml.quiettouch.com/files/radio/blog/horse-dc-20080829.mp3]
I accepted Alex’ invitation to join him yesterday as he dropped in on an auction of livestock in Kitchener. The point was to see if there were any thoroughbreds whose lives had become so worthless to their owners, that they were being offered up for sale for whatever the market would offer.
With associate editor Eleanor LeBlanc doing the driving, we arrived at the Ontario Livestock premises, a huge and dreary building outside Kitchener. Alex walked from stall to stall, looking for horses that once ran in pari-mutuel races. There were several standardbred horses and Alex did find at least two thoroughbreds. Entering their pens with not the slightest gram of fear, Alex pulled the horse’s head towards him and forced the upper lip open to record the tattoo. He told me if the tattoo is clear enough, it’s relatively easy to determine who the horse is. One of two thoroughbreds had a readable mark, the other’s was too blurred to figure out.
We went and sat in the small arena, which was pretty well full – about 100 people, many of whom were Amish, looking for a horse to help with the work on the farm ( or at least, that was the merry story I was telling myself).
The auctioner kept things going at a near-furious clip. A horse would enter the arena, the bidding would begin and usually, within :45, the horse was sold. Based apparently on the auctioneer’s discretion, the bidding would be either in dollars or in cents. Alex told me that when the bidding was in cents, it was about how much a pound the horse would be sold for. After awhile, one of the horses that Alex had identified as a thoroughbred was led into the arena. Like all the others, he was fractious, frightened, disoriented. In thirty seconds, his fate was sealed. 29 cents a pound.
“He’s going to a kill pen,” said Alex, his voice devoid of emotion.
Both of the thoroughbreds suffered the same fate. Eleanor was close to distraught. She owns and rides horses of her own and has difficulty understanding why anyone could have a horse, take care of it, run it in races, then let it go for a few hundred dollars, especially when the final act is almost certainly a tragic and pathetic one.
It was certainly an interesting and eye-opening experience. Alex Brown is the guy to talk to about the horse slaughter industry in Canada. At his site – http://alexbrownracing.com/wiki/index.php/Project_Sage – you can see the remarkable responses from horse lovers around the world. Because of the relentless work by people like him, there is legislation moving forward in the United States that will make horse slaughter illegal as well as criminalizing the transportation of horses out of the US for the purpose of slaughter elsewhere.
It is still legal in Canada to slaughter horses.
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Thank you so much for further exposing and highlighting the ugly practice of slaughtering horses for human consumption. Selling one’s horse for slaughter is the most heartless and souless thing a human can do to these magestic, beautiful creatures who can have a second wothwhile career.
- Patty in DallasThank you for writing a very poignant article regarding the travesty of horse slaughter here in Canada. The image of the poor horse led into the ring frightened and disorientated and gone in 30 seconds will be with me for a long time.
This terrible practice of slaughtering these beautiful creatures has to be stopped.
Thank you for stepping up to the plate to write about your experience and further exposing this issue.
Judy in Ontario
- Judy ScottThank you for exposing this tragic and disgusting practice! It must have been very heartbreaking to all concerned to witness this firsthand???
Horse lovers all over the world look forward to the day
when this inhumane act will be abolished!!
Bravo to Alex Brown and his website for the dedicated work he has been doing to save ALL horses from a fate worse than
death!
Canada should follow the U.S. and ban this gruesome practice forever!
- Maribel Sarnia OntarioYou can find the feature article on Alex Brown and his ongoing efforts to stop the slaughter of race horses in the August 9 issue of Down The Stretch at http://www.downthestretchnewspaper.com
- peter grossThank you for helping to expose the dirty business of horse dealers and kill buyers at the OLEX auction in St. Jacobs near Waterloo.
- Shelley GraingerI work with the Canadian Horse Defense Coalition, a Canadian group working to end horse slaughter in Canada. Please feel free to contact us through the website at http://www.defendhorsescanada.org.
Thank you.
Shelley Grainger
Director, Eastern Region, CHDC
the words are hard to find when it comes to the slaughter of these horses. i accidently watch what goes on in a slaughter house and its not a nice thing. i pray to god someone will help them. please do what you can for them.
- BONNIE ASKEYI have to disagree with all of the above. I find horse meat to be very tasty and I believe that once a horse can no longer race what good is it? except to be slaughtered and processed for the food industry. Horses are a dime a dozen, we should be actually breeding them for food.
- SharkyHi there
I am a New Zealander reading this – somehow I found a link to here! As a horse lover, I oten ask the same questions you have here, but I also see the flip side of it. Here in New Zealand, horses are slaughtered for “dog meat”. While I used to think this awful (and still do) I have been exposed to the flip side of this. Ex-racehorses that are sacked and literally dumped in a paddock. Horses like this live over the fence from me, and while I feed them hay often, their feet curl up from neglect, they are so skinny, and I often think they would be better off dead. And these horses are owned by my area’s so called top horse trainer. How many more neglected horses are out there, and is it kinder for them to be put out of their misery than be neglected? I believe the racing industry simply breed too many horses each year, and that they need to be held accountable.
- Sorayathoroughbred racing
I have been following up on this blog for a while and I find it very impressive. I plan to add it to my rss feeds.
- thoroughbred racingrace horses
I don’t comment often, but I do like your blog.
- race horses