FreeDigitalPhotos.net photo by Tina Phillips: Race horses
I read an article in Wednesday's paper that left me shaking my head. While we are concerned about the fate of factory raised cows and pigs and chickens, many don't realize that innocent Thoroughbred racing horses, who for one reason or another can't race anymore, as well as other horses, can end up auctioned off by the pound, trucked to Canada or Mexico for slaughter, and sold for meat. (Although the U.S. shut down horse slaughterhouses in 2007, they are still legal in Canada and Mexico.)
Some racetracks have set up funds for retraining and placing retired racehorses in new homes, but that's not what happened to four-year-old Bucky B. Lucky. He ended up at the Enumclaw Sales Pavilion, auctioned by the pound and destined for a slaughterhouse. He was truly lucky, recognized and purchased by a horse lover, who gave him to a horse rescue farm. You can read Bucky's story here. Thoroughbreds may be four or five years old when they are retired from racing, but could easily live another 20 or 30 years. And what about all the other horses slaughtered every year for food, those not lucky enough to be "worth" rescuing.
The attitude of the man whose business involves disposing of horses, was very upsetting to me. I leave you with this disturbing quote from the Seattle Times:
"... Ron Mariotti, the owner and auctioneer of the Enumclaw Sales Pavilion, makes no secret that he is running a business. He sells horses, including Thoroughbreds, to the highest bidder. If the bid is below what he can get selling the horse for meat, he’ll sell to a meat buyer or truck the horses himself to a Stanwood feed lot, where they are hauled to legal slaughter houses in Canada.
'Some go to slaughter, some go to new homes,' Mariotti says about the horses he auctions off on the first Sunday of each month. 'A horse is a product, just like a cow or a steer. The bleeding hearts who’ve got it in mind that they’re going to save every one, they’re idiots.'"
