Karen Tosh and Tracey Maclin founded Auction Rescues, Inc., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, in 2015 in order to rescue ponies and miniature horses at auctions where they would otherwise be destined for the “kill pen,” where the next stop is the slaughterhouse.
Dr. Sadie Hutchings, a veterinarian and great friend to all animals, is on our Board of Directors.
The Humane Society of the U.S. has this to say about horse slaughter:
Slaughter is a brutal and terrifying end for horses, and it is not humane. Horses are shipped for more than 24 hours at a time without food, water or rest in crowded trucks. They are often seriously injured or killed in transit.
Horses are skittish by nature (owing to their heightened fight-‐or-‐flight response), which makes accurate pre-‐slaughter stunning difficult. As a result, horses often endure repeated blows and sometimes remain conscious during dismemberment—this is rarely a quick, painless death. Before the last domestic plant closed in 2007, the USDA documented in the slaughter pipeline rampant cruelty violations and severe injuries to horses, including broken bones protruding from their bodies, eyeballs hanging by a thread of skin, and gaping wounds.
The following is from a fact sheet prepared by
www.horsefund.org:
Horses of virtually all ages and breeds are slaughtered, from draft types to miniatures, ponies and pregnant mares, even foals. Horses mostly commonly slaughtered are ones taken to livestock auctions where they also suffer in horrific conditions. They are homeless horses, unsuccessful racehorses, horses who are lame or require expensive veterinary care to return them to fitness for work or competition, mares who produce below par breeding industry standards, and foals cast off by the Pregnant Mare Urine (PMU) industry, which produces the estrogen-‐replacement drug Premarin®.
The majority of U.S. horses going to slaughter are Quarter Horses, as many as 7 out of 10. The remainder are mostly Thoroughbreds. In other countries, the majority of horses going to slaughter are cast offs from the racing and sporting industries, 80% of which are Thoroughbreds.
Several years ago, we learned of a weekly horse auction in New Jersey where people would drop off horses for sale. We subsequently learned that there are similar auctions all over the country, and that buyers from certain auctions go to other auctions, picking up horses cheaply. Folly was one such pony. His journey began at a livestock auction in Kentucky. The buyers from the sales stable in Cranbury, New Jersey purchased him and offered him at their weekly auction. Horses who are not purchased by individuals, or saved by rescue groups ultimately find themselves in what’s called the kill pen, or the “feedlot pen.” This is where the kill buyers take the horses who are left, purchasing them for pennies on the pound. At the New Holland sale in Pennsylvania, kill buyers load eighteen wheelers with horses for the long journey to Mexico or Canada (though horse slaughter has not been banned in the U.S. no slaughterhouses are currently licensed by the U.S.D.A.; thus there is no horse slaughter in the U.S). The trip is a nightmare, with horses crowded into the trailers. The small or sick ones are especially terrified. In some instances, a trailer may arrive in Canada, only to have paperwork rejected as inadequate, resulting in the horses being transported back to the original slaughter auction.
In an investigative report by a Maryland animal advocacy group, the barn in Kentucky where Folly was first auctioned was found to be hot, dusty, at least 90 degrees, holding 300 horses, 15 donkeys and mules and 10 minis. No food or water was provided. All the horses were scared; many were emaciated or injured, and some had foals by their sides.
People sell or consign horses at auction for various reasons. Miniatures often arrive from dismantled petting zoos. Nice riding horses come from summer camps that close for the winter because the owners do not want to incur the cost of care when the camps are closed. Sometimes owners are simply no longer interested in horse ownership, and sometimes, an owner gives a horse away “free to a good home” only to discover later that the person who took the horse never intended to give the horse a home; instead intended all along to sell the horse at auction. The Amish heartlessly off load their work horses at auction when they become unsound or otherwise unable to do their jobs.
We wish we could end horse slaughter and the auction pipeline. While that is impossible under current law, we can at least save some from this terrible ending. At any one time, we have as many as four rescues, either at our home or in foster. We consider foster or adoptive homes under strict guidelines and with our continued monitoring. Any pony or miniature horse rescued by us has a home for life.
Our location
Our mini farm is located on the beautiful Kanapaha Prairie in southwest Gainesville, Florida and for donations, the address would be 11717 SW 89th Street, Gainesville FL 32608, or via PayPal. Thanks!
