Posts Tagged ‘Thoroughbred industry’

By Ray Paulick
The Chapter 11 bankruptcy filed yesterday by Zayat Stables stems from a "tale of two banks," owner Ahmed Zayat contends, both of them named Fifth Third. The first, a "good bank," was the one based in Lexington, Ky., that sought business in the Thoroughbred industry and worked with its clients. The second, the recipient of $3.2 billion in federal funds from the TARP bailout, was the "bad bank," one based in Cincinnati, Ohio, and getting out of the equine lending business.

Do you know an individual or organization who you think we should consider for an upcoming “Good News Friday” feature? Then please e-mail info@paulickreport.com with the name of the individual or organization and a brief description of why you think they should be featured. Additionally, we’d like to thank Rob Whiteley and Liberation Farm for encouraging us to bring to light some of the industry’s positive stories and for sponsoring this exclusive Paulick Report feature.

By Ray Paulick
I attended my first Kentucky Thoroughbred Farm Managers’ Club meeting in 1988, shortly after moving to the Bluegrass State to go to work for the Thoroughbred Times. The club’s monthly meetings typically offered a banquet meal of overcooked chicken or beef, a guest speaker of varying interest, and the latest gossip about horses and the people who work with them. I seldom went home hungry for food or information.

It wasn’t until many years later, however, that I learned the KTFMC is a lot more than a social club offering continuing education for its members. It is, in fact, one of the most charitable of Central Kentucky’s Thoroughbred organizations, spreading its generosity among many horse industry and community groups. In 2008, the KTFMC donated more than $100,000 to 25 different organizations ranging from those that do equine research to one that puts on a high school rodeo.

Foremost among those groups is Central Kentucky Riding for Hope, an organization whose motto is: “Help Unleash the Healing Power of the Horse.” Located at the Kentucky Horse Park, Central Kentucky Riding for Hope uses horses for therapeutic programs to improve the quality of life and the health of children and adults with special physical, cognitive, emotional and social needs. It is a wonderful organization that really makes a difference in the community. (Incidentally, Central Kentucky Riding for Hope’s big fundraiser, the sixth annual Night of the Stars is on June 20. Click here for details.)

A colostrom bank managed by the KTFMC and facilitated by Rood and Riddle and the Hagyard Equine Medical Institute raised $42,000 in 2008, with all of the proceeds going to Riding for Hope in 2008. Another $5,000 was donated to Riding for Hope’s building fund. The colostrom program benefiting Riding for Hope has been in place about a decade and the building fund donations have been ongoing for about five years, said Matthew Koch, the 2009 Kentucky Thoroughbred Farm Managers’ Club president.

“Mark McEntee (Miacomet Farm) has really worked hard to make the colostrom bank a success,” said Koch, the son of longtime Claiborne Farm manager Gus Koch who with his brother, Charles, and Ted Kuster, operates Shawhan Place Farm. “In 2005, the colostrom bank raised $21,000, and we’re up to about $45,000 this year. This is a totally volunteer organization and Mark is like so many of the other board members who steps up and takes responsibility. We all have a piece of the pie to make this work. Our administrator, Renee Wash, deserves a lot of credit, too.”

The second largest beneficiary of charitable giving from the Kentucky Thoroughbred Farm Managers’ Club is the Kentucky Equine Management Internship (KEMI), which offers education and farm management opportunities for college students from around the country by bridging the gap between academics and practical experience. KEMI received $20,000 from the Kentucky Thoroughbred Farm Managers’ Club in 2008.

“By supporting KEMI, we’re getting something back when these kids become part of the industry,” Koch said.

KEMI and the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation have been designated as the primary recipients of the farm managers’ biggest event, the 17^th Annual Challenge Cup Golf Scramble, which is coming up on Monday, June 29 at the University Golf Club near Lexington. Last year’s tournament, its biggest ever, raised over $30,000 through entry fees and sponsorships. Grant Williamson of Vinery and B.G. “Scooter” Hughes are co-chairing the Challenge Cup Committee. Click here for corporate sponsorship information, here for hole sponsorship and here to sign up to play.

There are other events, including the annual Sporting Clays Classic in August, and many other charities that benefit.

The best news I gathered about the Kentucky Thoroughbred Farm Managers’ Club when I attended one of their meetings earlier this year is that the organization is growing by leaps and bounds (its membership is over 800) and that its leadership is a blend of veteran farm managers and a younger generation who bring great enthusiasm and commitment. Combined they are helping the KTFMC fulfill its mission “to foster cooperation and understanding among members; to provide a forum for the discussion of topics critical to our profession, which will enhance and protect our professional interests; to promote fellowship among members; to be good stewards of the land and Thoroughbred industry; and to be good citizens of the community.”

The food has improved over the last 20 years, too. Keeneland’s Phoenix Room and Turf Catering provide a great setting and meal for most of the meetings (Fasig-Tipton is also a host). And it continues to be an event where you can catch up on all the industry gossip—some things haven’t changed.

Previous Good News Friday subjects: Father Chris Clay, The Race for Education, Military Appreciation Day at Keeneland, Kentucky Oaks Pink Out for the Susan G. Komen Foundation, Mary Lee-Butte and the Blue Grass Farms Chaplaincy, Mary Jo Pons and the Radio Reading Network, TV Ratings Are Up, Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund.

Copyright © 2009, The Paulick Report

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By Ray Paulick
So Kentucky’s governor, Democrat Steve Beshear, has called a special session of the state’s legislature, beginning June 15, to deal with what he said was a budget crisis. The news landed with a rather indifferent thud in many regions of Kentucky, in part because David Williams, the Republican Senate president, said Beshear’s reasons for the session weren’t valid.

Beshear  was elected in 2007 largely on the platform of expanding gambling to ease Kentucky’s budget shortfalls and to help the struggling horse industry. Since then, he seems to have spent a majority of his time hiding in an undisclosed location, peering out occasionally to issue proclamations and reassure Kentucky residents that he is still alive and well. He looks to be no match for Williams, who has managed to bully many members of his own party to the point that they cower in a corner of indecision on important issues until hearing from their anointed leader. If Williams says nothing is going to happen in a special session, it’s a pretty safe bet nothing is going to happen—unless someone has the courage to take him on.

The third leg of Kentucky’s political stool is Democratic House leader Greg Stumbo, who has been the point person for carrying out Beshear’s election promise to help Kentucky’s horse industry compete with neighboring states Indiana, West Virginia and Illininois, by proposing legislation permitting slot machines at racetracks. Stumbo hopes the slots issue will be addressed during the special session but painted a bleak picture for the prospects of that happening with these words: “The governor’s leadership is critical.”

Asking Steve Beshear to show leadership at this stage of his governorship is a bit like asking Calvin Borel to send Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird to the early lead in a six-furlong race. I guess anything is possible, but I don’t think it’s going to happen. Sure, he talked a good game when he spoke at the Kentucky Derby Trainers’ Dinner in Louisville during Derby week, saying he didn’t want to be the governor who was presiding over the death of the Thoroughbred industry, but that was like throwing red meat into a pack of starving lions.

The Kentucky Equine Education Project (KEEP) has been quietly laying the groundwork for this special session, sending out hundreds of thousands of brochures to Kentuckians about the fast-declining state of the horse industry and placing radio ads and newspaper op-ed pieces around the state. But KEEP can’t do it on their own. They need help in the state capital of Frankfort.

Meanwhile, other states are having Kentucky’s racing industry for lunch. West Virginia, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Louisiana and other slots-enriched racing programs are attracting horses from the Bluegrass State because higher purses are being offered. Breeding stock is beginning to leave Kentucky, too. The Illinois Senate approved a racetrack slots bill (it’s unclear whether the House will OK the measure), but that state already has riverboat casinos where Kentuckians are spending their gambling dollars.

It’s time Beshear man-up and take on David Williams in this issue that is critical to the horse industry and Kentucky. The governor should ask Williams about his trips to gambling boats in Indiana, and whether or not the Senate president is ever “comped” on those trips or given special treatment by the casino companies who will fight tooth and nail to keep slot machines away from Kentucky tracks. He should ask if Williams has something against the horse business, the signature industry in Kentucky.

I doubt we’ll see that happen, if recent events are any indication. After Eclipse Award-winning writer Billy Reed’s blog post on his web site about Williams’ opposition to the horse industry (Williams is enemy no. 1 to racing in Kentucky) was distributed by a staffer for the Kentucky Horse Racing Racing Commission to all of its members, the Paulick Report learned that Beshear apologized to Williams and castigated the commission staffer for daring to send out anything that was critical of the Senate president.

If that’s the kind of leadership we can expect in the upcoming special session, we can kiss any slots legislation goodbye, Kentucky’s signature industry will continue its downward spiral, and the state’s budget crisis will go unresolved.

Copyright © 2009, The Paulick Report

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By Ray Paulick I was both flattered and humbled to be asked to speak at Wednesday night’s monthly meeting of the Kentucky Thoroughbred Farm Managers’ Club and promised several people who asked that I would make a copy of the outline of my talk available on the Paulick Report web site. Click here to access the presentation.

The subject was “An Industry in Transition,” something that clearly has been true in several ways for more than a few years. The big question is where we are in that transition. My five key points were that we are 1) a cyclical industry currently in a “down” cycle, largely because of the global financial crisis but also because of self-inflicted wounds; 2)  racing must clean up its act on some issues that have been neglected and urgently need attention; 3) all wagering dollars are not created equally, and that it is extremely important that everyone understands how critical it is for horsemen to be vigilant in protecting their rights in negotiations with racetracks and account wagering companies; 4) there are some opportunities to help create a brighter future; and 5) people in the industry have a voice that can make a difference, and it’s important they use it.

By Ray Paulick

Are betting exchanges a possible solution to the problems facing the U.S. Thoroughbred industry, which in 2008 saw its annual pari-mutuel handle fall for the fourth time in six years, dropping over 7% to a 10-year low? The Thoroughbred Owners of California thinks they may be, having recently signed a letter of agreement with betting exchange giant Betfair to have the UK-based company promote California racing abroad while TOC helps BetFair obtain statutory and regulatory approval to operate a betting exchange in California.

Betfair, which has been trying for several years to gain access to the U.S. market, is also believed to be a leading candidate to buy TVG, whose parent company, Macrovision, announced its intention to sell TVG last year. Though there are no confirmed suitors, others rumored to be potential buyers of the racing network and Advance Deposit Wagering platform include Churchill Downs Inc.; Marc Nathanson, a cable TV industry billionaire and father of TVG president David Nathanson; and an industry consortium that could include Keeneland, the New York Racing Association, former Hollywood Park chairman R.D. Hubbard, and Los Alamitos racetrack owner Edward Allred.

Betfair, a privately held company, was founded in June of 2000, using a technologically advanced platform permitting individuals to go online and bet against one another on a wide range of events, including horse racing, sports, politics and even reality television shows. By taking commissions of 2%-5% from winning bets, the company offers extremely low takeout and has built enormous volume: it claims to have over one million customers from 140 countries, with 100,000 or more active players in a given week. (UPDATE: Betfair said in October 2008 that it signed up its two millionth customer; see comments section, below) Its wagering platform handles over five million bets per day. In 2007, Betfair had 42 million English pounds in earnings before interest, depreciation, taxes and amortization on revenue of 240 million pounds. According to its annual report (which can be seen here), Betfair has 110 million pounds cash on hand.

CONCERNS ABOUT BETFAIR

The problem many see with Betfair is that the company pays a small percentage for the rights to races on which it handles wagers. In England, for example, it pays a bit over 10% of gross profits on racing wagers. In some cases, however, it pays no fees at all, as is currently the case with racing from the U.S. Betfair currently accepts bets on American racing, but only from customers outside of the U.S., and it does not have rights to any video signals. Betfair is acutely aware of concerns from racing interests in the U.S. who believe betting exchanges would cannibalize pari-mutuel betting and decrease revenue to tracks and purses. It addresses some of those fears in this pamphlet, which was designed to appease the racing industry in the United Kingdom.

Another concern raised about Betfair centers on wagers it accepts that a specific horse will lose, prompting worries about race-fixing. But Betfair has cooperated in several investigations involving horse racing and sports betting, giving authorities access to detailed betting information as part of its memorandum of understanding. 

Drew Couto, the president of TOC, said the letter of agreement with BetFair was signed last month. He believes wagering will continue to suffer unless the industry distances itself from Albert Einstein’s definition of insanity: doing the same thing time after time and expecting a different result.  “That really describes our industry’s approach to this sport and business over the last decade,” Couto said. 

“Going forward,” he added, “we have to face two very important realities. “First, we have allowed the sport to basically disappear. It’s no longer a sport, but simply a justification to gamble and wager, and as a wagering proposition we know it’s not the most attractive. We have to go back and make it a sport. We have to give the sport some structure to have it make sense for the fans, make some very serious fundamental changes to focus on the sporting aspect of racing. We have left it largely to the tracks to be the stewards of the sport, and they only care about the financial side. 

“Second,” Couto said, “we have to adopt new ways our fans can participate. New wagers, betting exchanges. We have to embrace these new ways of playing as ancillary to the way we currently operate, so it’s new and fresh. That includes tournament-style wagering that was approved by the RCI (Association of Racing Commissioners International) last summer. If we don’t begin to do things differently and find new ways to operate, we are bound to be the definitive example of what Einstein said.”

CAN RACING DEVELOP ITS OWN BETTING EXCHANGE?

Chris Scherf, executive vice president of the Thoroughbred Racing Associations of North America, a racetrack trade organization, for years has advocated that North American tracks consider developing their own betting exchange. He sees the trend in downward handle as a serious crisis. 

“We’ve got to look into pricing (the takeout charge on pari-mutuel bets), the product that’s being provided and the convenience factor for wagering,” Scherf said. “We need to make the same kind of concerted effort on handle that is currently being made to improve the safety and welfare issues. Track by track, you can get swamped in a million problems, but this has to be at the top of the pile. We are losing bettors. What do we have to do to change that aspect of the business, the part that provides us revenue? Of course, the entire debacle of cutting off signals in the last year (due to contractual disagreements between tracks and horsemen over ADW splits) was extremely detrimental to any kind of sustained gambling business. 

“The problem,” Scherf said, “is we’ve got tracks and horsemen both saying they need more money in this economy. But the first thing we need is an engaged gambling public, and they should be at the top of the list.”

Scherf said he is “somewhere in between fear and welcoming” Betfair into the industry. “We had no master plan for how ADW would fit in and now we are trying to retrofit it, which is causing a lot of angst and problems. We need to spend more time developing a strategy (for exchange betting), though it’s difficult to do that when you have a wide disparity throughout the industry in resources and markets.” 

Lonny Powell, an industry consultant based in Lexington, Ky., who previously served in executive positions with racetracks (including head of Santa Anita Park), the ADW company Youbet.com and as president of the Association of Racing Commissioners International, said BetFair has done a good job of “mainstreaming themselves” in recent years by sharing more of its profits with the racing industry in Europe. 

“It’s here to stay,” Powell said of Betfair and exchange betting. “When I was in the ADW world, I wished they would just go away, but I don’t feel that way anymore. We’re like an ice cream store that only sells vanilla, but you can go over to Baskin Robbins and get 33 flavors. We need variety.” 

Powell, who said he is optimistic the industry will find a solution to its present challenges, believes racing interests should look at developing their own betting exchange. “If the industry could somehow take this wagering crisis a little more seriously and rather than find ways to kill something, find ways to make it work, we can grow the gambling dollar,” he said. “A Betfair type of platform can be operated by U.S. racing interests. The economic model that Betfair offers is flawed, but we all agree our current model is flawed, too. I’ve got to believe a Betfair type of platform would work. Our product is stale, and our wagering levels are stale.”

INTEGRITY ISSUES REMAIN A CONCERN

The reason for declines in handle go beyond a limited product line, said Mike Maloney, a professional gambler in Kentucky who has become an outspoken advocate for horseplayers at industry conferences and who served as an ad hoc member of a Kentucky Horse Racing Commission Task Force. “We are at a very significant crossroads in racing,” Maloney said, “probably the biggest one in my lifetime. The financial crisis is magnifying our problems, but the problems have to be dealt with before racing can recover. The economy may improve, but racing’s problems will still be there.

“Our customer base is aging, and they’ve lost a lot of their faith in the integrity of racing,” he said. “As they age, they aren’t being replaced. The second problem is the takeout is too high. We can’t attract new players and are having a hard time holding on to existing ones. It’s exacerbated because the takeout keeps going up. With competition from other gambling opportunities, you can’t get away with that any more. It’s roughly 5% in other forms of gambling – sports, table games, trading options – but it’s 20% for us. New York just raised takeouts; trifectas are 26% now, and I just refuse to play it. Kentucky wants to raise takeout. What other business in this economic climate would consider racing prices? 

“Third,” Maloney said, “racing integrity problems are real, and they are not exaggerated. If anything, they probably are underplayed. Trainers who use drugs to cheat; unsecured wagering pools with outdated technology; unregulated participants allowed access into those pools. People are just beginning to learn about some of the problems in these areas. In the last couple of years the light is being shined on them. These are serious problems that need to be dealt with. Big players realize they can’t trust the pools they are playing money into.”

Finally, Maloney said, the corporate mentality of many racetracks has hurt the game. “There is a disconnect with customers with some of these racetrack holding companies. They don’t really understand their business, and there’s too much short-term bottom line thinking; cutting costs, worrying about the next quarterly report, and too little thought about long-term improvement of the product.”

Maloney, who called betting exchanges a “two-edged sword” because of how they would cannibalize pari-mutuel betting, said the industry has had a wake-up call after being “rocked by betting and drug scandals and threatened” by the federal government. “This crossroad we’re at, what we do from here, will determine the fate of racing.”  

(Do you have an opinion on how the industry reverses the trend in declining handle? We’re interested in your comments below and in your thoughts about betting exchanges, the subject of the Daily Paulick Poll, which can be found on the left-hand column of the Paulick Report home page.)

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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