Over the Labor Day weekend, the killer buyer brought in 5 more horses. Apparently the slaughter pipeline never takes a holiday.
The 5 horses came in from the staging area somewhere in CA. The horses that are left at the staging areas are unloaded off the double decker rigs, about 45 horses per trailer. The ones that are too weak to continue the trip of death to Mexico are left to linger and slowly die at the staging areas. With our current arrangement with the kb, on his way back north he is willing to pick up the horses left for dead at the staging area and transport them to the rescue for $100 each. Most of these horses are older horses that have given their all serving humans, but are then thrown away like trash in their older days. Many of these horses had a caring owner’s at one time, but due to the horses age, the thought of “Let’s find someone that wants a horse to put out to pasture to spend his last days” comes about. Instead of taking responsibility for their senior horse, they find someone who is willing to take the horse, but unfortunately, typically the horse ends up in the slaughter pipeline instead of retiring on green pastures. Please, if you have a senior horse, do the right thing and keep that horse until its last days, don’t send him on to an unknown future. If you cannot keep your older horse, be responsible, humane euthanasia is far kinder than sending your senior on to a terrible fate, such as this poor mare Kitty.
Kitty was emaciated and was down in the KB’s trailer when he came. She was badly foundered and her pleas for help and soft knickers when Tawnee approached was heart wrenching.
Her body was so thin, it was just hide stretched over a skeleton. Mexico takes emaciated horses for their hides and bones to make such items as buttons and other trinkets to sell. That is why poor emaciated horses like this end up in the slaughter pipeline. Just fill up the truck, get weighed and get paid.
This mare had a story to tell from what could be pieced together. Someone had given her a bridle path not long ago, a few months. Somebody cared about her, it was somebody who probably thought “I’ll find my older mare a nice home somewhere where she can spend her days eating yummy food and being with other horses.” This mare was probably given to one of those “nice people” who would give this older mare a wonderful home to spend her days. Instead, she was probably put in a pen with other horses. Unable to fight her way to the limited food, she became weaker and weaker until she was thrown in the slaughter pipeline before she died and they would have to deal with a body. In the double decker, she found herself unable to stand and was soon thrown away like trash at one of the staging areas. They knew she would be dead by the time she made it to Mexico.
There was so little life left in Kitty. She sat up for a little bit, but then went back down on Tawnee’s lap as she gently stroked her forehead. It is so hard seeing horses that have given their whole life in serving humans, when they need their owners the most, their owners reject them.
Sadly there was nothing that could be done but to let her know love and simply fall asleep on Tawnee’s lap. Please please please, be responsible with your elderly horse, your horse could easily end up just like Kitty. If owners would be responsible, horse rescues would not be needed. Over breeding and lack of responsibility are what create this situation, we just do what we can to give the horses love so their last thoughts are ones of love and compassion, not torture and slaughter.
Meet Abbot, an older gelding who is in desperate need of groceries. He was thrown away at the staging area like Kitty. He is suffering from extremely poor health and is occasionally bleeding from the nostrils. He probably wonders how he ended up in this situation…
…why was he not given even enough food to sustain his body? Why in his last days he had to feel hunger pains every moment.
Farley is another older gelding who was so sore he could barely move his legs. He had a terrible infection through most of his body, the infection sites were bulging with puss. He had a terrible case of strangles that went systemic. Systemic strangles in generally fatal in the long run, and due to his poor body condition, Farley was humanely euthanised to relieve his constant suffering.
Raedan is also an older gelding. He has severe arthritis in both front knees. No doubt, his owner decided that since he couldn’t be ridden, there was no room at their house for him anymore. Who wants the expense of a horse you can’t ride? So they found him what they thought would be a good home. Instead, he entered the slaughter pipeline, and only because his body was too weak to make it to Mexico, he has not been slaughtered. Instead he is safe. It’s sad that with being emaciated comes safety.
Radella is the youngest of the group that was brought in over the weekend. She appears to be fairly healthy and she may have just refused to get back in the double decker when it was time to go. Perhaps she put up such a strong fight for her life that they decided to get her on the next go-around. It’s hard to say why she was not sent to Mexico, but she is safe now. She such a lucky little horse!
Last month we purchased about 30 horses from the killer buyer. He said he could have made it 50 horses easily. He also gave us a proposition that we could purchase horses from him that he buys at livestock auctions instead of them heading down to Mexico on his next route. We can still get the horses from the staging area from him, but we would be able to get more adoptable horses from him that would be heading to slaughter as well. He doesn’t care, money is money to him. We are asking for your help to make this possible. No horse deserves to be slaughtered, and if we can get these precious lives out, and let them know that somebody cared for them, it will be worth every penny.
The most horses we ever purchased from livestock auctions in 1 month was 40 horses. We did this with $10,000 that was donated that month for livestock auction rescues. That was in July of 2009. Our goal is to raise $6,500 to rescue and care for slaughter bound horses as soon as possible so we can start saving horses heading to the pipeline. Many of these horses should be able to find homes, many of them will only have the last blessing of knowing that someone cared and loved them at the end. Every life is precious, every life deserves to be treated with dignity and love.
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