Archive for the ‘Horse Slaughter’ Category

More than three weeks have passed, and Hogan has yet to hear anything from Waldrop or his staff, even after she followed up with a phone message to the NTRA chief.|

The lack of response begs the question: Is anyone home at the NTRA?

Following is the complete text of Hogan’s letter, reprinted here with her permission. — Ray Paulick

January 16, 2010

Mr. Alex Waldrop
NTRA
2525 Harrodsburg Road
Suite 400
Lexington, KY 40504

Today, as we celebrate the final leg of the American Triple Crown, horseman and anti-slaughter activist Alex Brown(click here to visit his web site) takes us on a visit to a different kind of venue, where the horses are not revered for their speed or heart or personalities but mostly for how much meat they carry on their bones. All of the regulated horse slaughterhouses in the United States have been closed, though Congress has yet to act on federal legislation banning horse slaughter. It remains a viable industry in Canada, where Brown currently is based. — Ray Paulick

By Alex Brown
A visit to a kill auction. I arrived at about 11:45 am, as usual.  It is a one-hour drive from the Woodbine racetrack near Toronto, Canada, where I work in the mornings galloping horses for trainer Steve Asmussen.  I parked in the back, among the stock trailers.  I entered the drafty building and walked along the overhead walkway with all the horses in pens beneath me.  There were about 75 horses today.  Some were in large pens that hold 10 or 12.  Some were in smaller pens.  Some with halters.  Some without.  All standing there, a little perplexed no doubt, regarding their new circumstances.

I wanted to take a quick look through to see if I could see any Thoroughbreds.  I went down below, which meant climbing down and over a few gates.  I then walked along the outside of the pens.  I flipped a couple of lips to check for the identifying tattoo that all racing Thoroughbreds have.  I did not find any Thoroughbreds.  

I then went into the auction area and settled in.  A small crowd started gathering.  Lots of chatter.  The most active kill buyer was present.  He always is.  And he is surrounded by the usual assortment of "hangers on".  At about 12:25 p.m., the auctioneer took his position, along with his clerk.  His clerk was the only young female in the room barring a small child who was bouncing on her woolly toy horse on the front row.  The crowd had thickened considerably.  The room was essentially filled with old guys.  A couple of older women.  Amish, local farmers, horse traders and just those out for their weekly catch-up on gossip.

The first horse came in.  Loose and herded in by a couple of handlers as is most common here. And within less than 30 seconds he was sold for 37 cents / pound.  A Quarter horse/Paint.  It was not the main kill buyer who made the purchase.   It was buyer number 120.  The main kill buyer was the underbidder.  I was relieved, but the relief was very short lived.  It soon became apparent that buyer 120 was simply another kill buyer, just not one of the regular kill buyers that attends this auction.  He bought the most horses and was bidding on the same horses as the main kill buyer.  He bought a horse with a broken jaw that was labeled as "meat only" by the auctioneer.

Another horse, labeled "meat only," was also advertised as "drug free" by the auctioneer.  It puzzled me why the auctioneer singled this horse out for this additional piece of information, and not the other horses selling for meat.  While the majority of horses are sold by the pound, a few are sold by the dollar.  They are more likely to sell privately.  Even for these horses, the auctioneer is quick to point out that the weight of the horse is available on the board display above his booth.  Just in case.  

The auctioneer is in his element.  He is good at what he does, carries a light banter through the quick sales, and relishes the competition between the two kill buyers.

Buyer 120 bought 31 horses.  His top price was 46 cents / pound for a nice buckskin mare.  He went as low as 18 cents / pound for a pretty poor looking horse.  The main kill buyer bought 23 horses.  His high price was 40 cents / pound.  He went as low as 23 cents / pound, twice.  Both were bidding against each other on the majority of horses that went through the sale.  Between the two buyers they bought two-thirds of the horses available.  A few horses went to private buyers.  And a few went to horse traders who will look to see if they can turn them around quickly for profit.  And if not, they will likely be back.

A skinny albino horse went through the ring.  Neither of the kill buyers bid.  A weedy-looking 2-year-old Standardbred filly.  The same.  The latter was sold for 16 cents / pound as the auctioneer rattled on about how she might be good enough to race.  They did not fit the criteria sought by the kill buyers.  Not qualified for slaughter.  They weren’t meaty enough or big enough.

As the auction ends –  "that’s all she wrote" from the auctioneer —  the remaining crowd filters out.  The two main buyers hang around, surrounded by those who surround kill buyers.  Arrangements regarding shipping take place.  I walk back through the "overpass" with the pens underneath.  Horses are getting moved and sorted.  The sad, brutal last leg of their journey through life awaiting.  And for them, it cannot go quickly enough.

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By Ray Paulick
Something is rotten in the state of New York, and it involves the licensing of Thoroughbred owners.

Back in July of 2005, the New York State Racing and Wagering Board, which oversees licensing and the rules and regulations of pari-mutuel racing in the Empire State, revoked the owner’s license of Ernie Paragallo for financial irresponsibility. The wealthy New Yorker who in 1996 raced the Kentucky Derby favorite and now leading stallion Unbridled’s Song owed money (reportedly $18,000) to the University of Pennsylvania’s New Bolton equine hospital, apparently for veterinary work done on one or more of his Thoroughbreds.

But that ruling didn’t appear to slow Paragallo down, whose horses race in the name of Paraneck Stable. Paragallo’s daughters, Jennifer and Kristen, are licensed in New York as the “owners” of Paraneck Stable, which is among the leading owners in New York. Ernie Paragallo is licensed by the SRWB as an “authorized agent.” When I spoke with Paragallo last week about the mares from his Center Brook Farm that were found in a lice infested and malnourished condition at a New York livestock auction’s kill pen, he said he “runs” the stable as an employee of his daughters.

Why, then, does the New York Racing Association’s media guide list Ernie Paragallo’s biography as the owner of Paraneck Stable and everyone associate Ernie as the voice and face of Paraneck? Is this one of those wink-wink nod-nod things where the rules are made to be broken, or least overlooked?

“If I wanted to be licensed I’d have to prove to the board that I’ve satisfied the bill,” Paragallo said.

The University of Pennsylvania isn’t the only business that had to go to extremes to collect money owed by Paragallo. When the SRWB revoked his license, he reportedly owed $500,000 to the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co. That bill was said to be paid.

I can say from personal experience that Paragallo (or a business entity he controlled) wasn’t quick to pay for advertising invoices to at least one Thoroughbred trade magazine , either. On at least one occasion, a publication I was affiliated with was forced to hire an attorney and threaten to take legal action to collect money owed on advertising for Paragallo’s stallions.

I wonder if other businesses have had similar problems.

Five years ago, in July 2004, Paragallo announced he was going to sell all of his racing and breeding stock by the end of that year because of unspecified health problems. It’s a shame he didn’t.

Now I know that I’m going to be castigated for that statement by some people in the industry who will be quick to point out all the good things Ernie Paragallo has done: the $1 million given to the NTRA Charities New York Heroes Fund in 2001, the seasons to Unbridled’s Song and other stallions he has donated to charities, and the money he spends in the industry.

Racing does need Thoroughbred owners, and it needs more owners than it currently has. But it needs owners who act responsibly regarding the care and treatment of their horses. Based on what I’ve learned about the horses under Paragallo’s care, at least those at his Center Brook Farm, I don’t believe he fits into that category.

Of course, Paragallo isn’t even licensed as an owner, is he?

Copyright © 2009, The Paulick Report 

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By Ray Paulick

“How do you corral 30,000 horses, having taken them off the range where they lived, and just say ‘night night’?” asked Madeleine Pickens, the animal-loving wife of billionaire T. Boone Pickens and better known in Thoroughbred racing circles as the former Madeleine Paulson, who with her late husband, Allen Paulson, developed one of the most successful Thoroughbred breeding and racing operations of the 1980s and ‘90s. Allen Paulson died in 2000, and she remarried in 2005.

In recent years, Madeleine Pickens has spent sleepless nights agonizing over the plight of the American West’s wild mustangs, which have been rounded up and held in pens in increasing numbers over the last eight years by cowboys hired by the federal government’s Bureau of Land Management after complaints from cattlemen that the horses were depleting grazing areas. As federal funding for the wild horses was squeezed and the number of people interested in adopting them declined, BLM officials were faced with an unpleasant option: allow the horses to be sent to slaughterhouses or perform mass euthanasia.

The story of these wild horses – “America’s animal” she calls them – hit Madeleine Pickens’ radar screen at a time when she was putting considerable personal resources of time and money into efforts to end the slaughter of all horses. She studied the issue, then hired a polling company to gauge public opinion on the slaughter of horses for human consumption, finding out that seven in 10 Americans oppose the practice. She then paid for anti-slaughter advertisements in the New York Times, lobbied members of Congress and worked with other groups and individuals. Ultimately, however, those efforts ended in frustration because, she said, the pro-slaughter lobby, assisted by the cattle industry, was simply too entrenched with Washington, D.C., powerbrokers. Anti-slaughter bills passed by the U.S House of Representatives were stopped in the Senate. And she was outraged that so many Thoroughbred industry leaders failed to help.

“I would lay in bed, crying, and say, ‘How can we stop this? What can I do?” she told the Paulick Report. “I’m not a religious person, but a spiritual one, and I swear to God that I prayed for an answer.”

One night, she said, the answer came to her. “Why not buy a ranch and give every horse a home?”

Pickens’ plan for a horse sanctuary would be similar to how cattlemen got access to millions of acres of federal land, she said. “This is how the cattlemen got going,” she said. “They got the BLM land attached to their ranches with sweetheart deals. They pay a very low lease for it, and most aren’t even using the land now.”

Pickens has a private foundation in the formative stages, a key to which will be tax credits for donors, she told the Washington Post. She met with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, where half of the wild horses are held. Pickens isn’t prepared to say how much she needs to raise for an endowment to make the plan work, but she is confident she will be able to make it happen. She envisions corporate sponsors, campgrounds and cabins for tourists to come and observe the horses. “There is so much support for this right now,” she said. “It’s amazing the number of calls and emails I’ve received from people who want to help or go to work there.” (Click here to see the official Madeleine Pickens Web site.)

She estimated that she will need upwards of a million acres, and is currently in negotiations on three different properties. She took her plan to BLM officials, who leaked the story to the Washington Post, prematurely, in her opinion. “The story got out way too early while I’m working on the land deal,” she said. “The land people may suddenly say, ‘Ohhh, deep pockets,’ and become unreasonable. I’m trying to  be responsible and do the right thing here. I’m very confident that next year this whole thing will be in place.”

Pickens said she felt like someone who’s been trying to walk through quicksand the last couple of years and can’t seem to get out of it. “Nothing was happening, and you can’t believe the idiocy of it all,” she said. “Why do people not get it?”

She grew weary of trying to work for a solution in Congress. “The people in the racehorse industry weren’t on board and we had all those cattlemen against us,” Pickens said. “We really couldn’t win. I give the people who have been fighting this for so long a lot of credit.

“I think this will work because I came up with a private-sector solution rather than trying to put a bill through Washington where politicians could have their way and destroy it. When the bureaucrats do it, it costs too much and doesn’t work. With private individuals, you’re not indebted to every group or compromised by lobbyists.”

Her proposal has been widely applauded, within the BLM and the general public. While her husband, a well-known corporate raider, oilman and philanthropist, has been a highly visible proponent for a plan to make America energy independent, Madeleine Pickens became an overnight celebrity because of her desire to save the horses. The week her plan went public, ABC’s World News Tonight named her “Person of the Week.” Some outside of the horse business remembered her as the heroine (pictured, left) who rescued hundreds of abandoned cats and dogs in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina.

“I knew people cared, but I was somewhat stunned at the way this story took off like a wildfire,” she said. “It surprised me, but it really shouldn’t have."

A PLACE FOR EX-RACEHORSES, TOO
Pickens said the ranch will not just be a refuge for wild horses. She wants it to be all inclusive for different breeds, and especially ex-Thoroughbred racehorses that often end up unwanted or sold to killer-buyers who send them off for slaughter in Canada or Mexico. There are no remaining horse slaughterhouses in the United States.

“We’re going to have enough land where I don’t know how we can say no to anything,” she said. “It won’t happen overnight. But I want to give the Thoroughbred industry an opportunity to do something here, and to make people feel that they are being responsible for the animals in their sport. I’m going to ask the industry for their support. It’s going to be difficult for the racing industry to change their way of thinking. With this, I hope they can say they have an exit strategy for their horses.”

Pickens is still angry over the National Thoroughbred Racing Association’s refusal to support recent anti-slaughter legislation in Congress. She was one of a large number of major industry participants to sign a letter written by owner-breeder Josephine Abercrombie to members of Congress stating their support of anti-slaughter legislation and their disapproval of the NTRA’s position. “The NTRA had to compromise themselves with Goodlatte (Virginia Rep. Bob Goodlatte, former chairman of the House Agriculture Committee and now ranking member), who has helped them with gambling legislation but has close ties to the cattle industry,” she said. “By getting behind my proposal, they won’t have to worry about the threat of someone like Goodlatte.”

The Jockey Club is another group that has disappointed Pickens. “They register 35,000 horses a year and they say those horses are worth millions and millions of dollars,” she said. “And they come up with some plan where people can give a few dollars when they register a foal and the Jockey Club says they’ll match up to $200,000 a year. This is the same old b.s. — $200,000 is a peanut. How dare they say this is all they’re going to put into a retirement fund for all the horses who don’t make it. It’s all part of what makes the system not work.

“In every business it’s leadership, and we’ve had horrible leadership in racing. Will Farish (vice chairman of the Jockey Club and owner of Lane’s End Farm, where Pickens retired Grade I winner Rock Hard Ten to stud) can be a good guy. He’s head of this and head of that, and people look up to him. But here’s a man who won’t go against slaughter. Why? Is it because he’s from Houston, where so many of the cattlemen are from?”

Pickens, who said she has withdrawn from the racing business largely because of its inaction on this issue, said she thinks the Thoroughbred industry can learn a great deal from how her proposal has been embraced by the public.

“Racing people can learn that they have a chance to endear the public to them,” she said. “They get a few gamblers here and there, but they are in trouble because they seem to have lost sight of the animal who is the athlete. They have too many fatalities and too many injuries that happen in public on national television. When that happens, it exposes the fact they have no exit strategy for the horses.

“Again, there is no leadership. Those who have been in it for a long time have done nothing to endear people to the business. Now they have an opportunity like the BLM has to try and resolve one of their problems.”

I asked Pickens why she is doing all this, what is driving her to take on a project so big?

She told me of how she emigrated to the United States from Iraq in 1969 because she wanted “to come to a new world and do something with my new country.”

But then she confessed to another reason, something that haunted her when she first learned about the horrors of slaughter: “Maybe it’s because I’m ashamed that I was in the industry for years and never knew there was a slaughterhouse for so many horses at the end of the day. I’m so ashamed I never knew. And people who know about it and aren’t doing anything, they should be ashamed, too.”

Copyright © 2008, The Paulick Report

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By Ray Paulick

Long before most Americans knew that ex-racehorses could end up on someone’s dinner plate in Europe, the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation was doing what it could to provide an alternative to the slaughterhouse or a life of neglect and abuse. Founded in 1982, the TRF is the oldest, largest and best known operation dedicated to helping Thoroughbreds no longer able to race or serve as breeding animals.

The founder of TRF was Monique S. Koehler, who had a unique vision to have these horses serve as part of a vocational training program at the Walkill Correctional Facility in New York. In short, the TRF would provide the horses and Walkill would supply land and inmates who would be taught how to care for the horses as part of their own rehabilitation. The program has been a success, for both horses and the humans who have cared for them. Many former inmates have been quick to credit the TRF program for their own personal turnaround, as the therapeutic value of working with horses has been well documented. Click here to see a video about the TRF produced by HRTV.

This unique prison program has been replicated in five states that have TRF farms at correctional institutions and since the spring of 2004 the organization has operated a rehabilitation and retraining facility – the Maker’s Mark Secretariat Center – at the Kentucky Horse Park near Lexington. The Secretariat Center is now open for public visitors from 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Monday through Saturday, with interactive demonstrations on Saturday mornings from 10-11 a.m. Horses from the Secretariat Center have been adopted out for second careers to horse owners around the country.

Like all welfare organizations, the TRF depends on donations to fulfill a mission that hopes to eventually rescue all ex-racehorses from slaughter, neglect or abuse. Breeders who produce the horses were recently given an option by the Jockey Club to contribute to the TRF through a checkoff program at the time a Thoroughbred is registered. Click here for details. But there are many ways to make a gift, sponsor a horse or adopt a horse.

Beginning today and running through Dec. 20, the TRF has launched an online fundraising auction of items ranging from racing memorabilia to exclusive vacation getaways. To see the list of auction items and begin bidding, click here.

Throughout the past week of the Thanksgiving holiday, the Paulick Report has focused on a variety of equine charities or individuals in the Thoroughbred industry who have dedicated a part of their lives to helping others less fortunate. These are only a small number of the many extremely worthy organizations and people who are making a difference to make this a better industry.

Here are links to the organizations featured in the past week: Belmont Child Care Association/Anna House; the Exceller Fund; ReRun; the Salvation Army fund-raising page started by my former colleague Ron Mitchell; Thoroughbred Charities of America; Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation; and Tranquility Farm.

There are others, too numerous to mention, and I would invite readers to list their favorite equine charities in the comment section below. I sincerely hope each of you will consider a gift, no matter how large or small, to an organization that is making a difference in our lives and in our industry.