Love for horses prompting rescue effort.
Dec. 1st, 2006 10:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sitaangelNov. 30, 2006
Love For Horses Prompting Rescue Effort
Paula Gibbs
Brooke Greenleaf
Brooke Greenleaf
Two, out of 125,000. What's the percentage - hardly enough to measure. But enough, for Brooke Greenleaf - for now, at least.
Greenleaf, who with her husband, Jim, owns a house and five acres of land in Boothbay, hopes by next summer there will be two rescued horses grazing peacefully on their land, instead of winding up in a slaughterhouse.
Earlier in the year, Brooke had looked into getting a dog for her six- year-old daughter, Hailey. As she was considering rescuing a golden retriever, when she decided to look into whether horses also need to be rescued. She had grown up with horses in Ohio, where she learned to ride and care for them.
What she found on the Internet shocked her. Race horses, that usually run for only four or five years, but live for 35 or 40 years, were going to slaughterhouses if homes couldn't be found for them. According to "After the Finish Line," a book by Bill Heller, 60,000 race horses are slaughtered annually The meat can't be sold in this country, but is exported to Europe and Asia.
Between the retired racehorses, wild mustangs, premarin mares and other unwanted equines, she learned that about 125,000 horses a year are killed. Just at one racetrack, Suffolk Downs in Massachusetts, there were over 100 horses that were retired from racing at the end of this season alone.
"One of these was a dapple gray, which had won over $1 million in prizes," she said. Horses that were once valued at $100,000 to $350,000 can be bought for as little as $500, she says. Some are sold at auction, but many end up in one of the slaughterhouses.
There is a movement underway to outlaw the slaughter of horses for human consumption. The U.S. House of Representatives voted 263 to 146 this fall to approve such a bill, and the U.S. Senate version of the bill, called the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act, S. 1915, has been co-sponsored by U.S. Senator Susan Collins. A spokesperson in her Washington, D.C. office said Tuesday she is a strong supporter of the bill. The bill has been sent back to the Committee on Commerce Science and Transportation.
Brooke started doing some local research, and learned there are currently 32 horses in Lincoln County that need homes. She talked to people who own horses; they told her it costs about $450 to board one horse. Because of the wet weather this fall, the price of hay has gone to between $5 and $7 a bale, she said.
After talking the situation over with her husband, who is a builder, the Greenleafs decided to build a small barn to accommodate two horses, and fence in enough of their land to give them a place to roam. She hopes to find some sources to get food for them at reasonable prices, or perhaps for free.
"I've already had three people who have come up to me and say they know of horses in the area that are starving," she said. While it's discouraging to know there are many horses that won't be rescued, Brooke says rescuing two of them will still be better than doing nothing.
She also hopes to help raise awareness about the plight of these horses, and convince others to become part of the rescue effort. And, she is looking forward to riding again, and teaching her daughter to ride.
She remembers as a teenager, walking into the barn where she kept her horse.
"He would hear my voice and practically break down the stall to get out," she says. This horse was a thoroughbred, too, whose name was Valhalla's Tavistock.
"I just cannot wait to wrap my arms around the neck of one and look into his huge brown eyes," she says.
"I'm just hoping I can make a difference - one horse at a time." To contact Brooke, send an e-mail to bhjgreenleaf@ clinic.net.
Love For Horses Prompting Rescue Effort
Paula Gibbs
Brooke Greenleaf
Brooke Greenleaf
Two, out of 125,000. What's the percentage - hardly enough to measure. But enough, for Brooke Greenleaf - for now, at least.
Greenleaf, who with her husband, Jim, owns a house and five acres of land in Boothbay, hopes by next summer there will be two rescued horses grazing peacefully on their land, instead of winding up in a slaughterhouse.
Earlier in the year, Brooke had looked into getting a dog for her six- year-old daughter, Hailey. As she was considering rescuing a golden retriever, when she decided to look into whether horses also need to be rescued. She had grown up with horses in Ohio, where she learned to ride and care for them.
What she found on the Internet shocked her. Race horses, that usually run for only four or five years, but live for 35 or 40 years, were going to slaughterhouses if homes couldn't be found for them. According to "After the Finish Line," a book by Bill Heller, 60,000 race horses are slaughtered annually The meat can't be sold in this country, but is exported to Europe and Asia.
Between the retired racehorses, wild mustangs, premarin mares and other unwanted equines, she learned that about 125,000 horses a year are killed. Just at one racetrack, Suffolk Downs in Massachusetts, there were over 100 horses that were retired from racing at the end of this season alone.
"One of these was a dapple gray, which had won over $1 million in prizes," she said. Horses that were once valued at $100,000 to $350,000 can be bought for as little as $500, she says. Some are sold at auction, but many end up in one of the slaughterhouses.
There is a movement underway to outlaw the slaughter of horses for human consumption. The U.S. House of Representatives voted 263 to 146 this fall to approve such a bill, and the U.S. Senate version of the bill, called the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act, S. 1915, has been co-sponsored by U.S. Senator Susan Collins. A spokesperson in her Washington, D.C. office said Tuesday she is a strong supporter of the bill. The bill has been sent back to the Committee on Commerce Science and Transportation.
Brooke started doing some local research, and learned there are currently 32 horses in Lincoln County that need homes. She talked to people who own horses; they told her it costs about $450 to board one horse. Because of the wet weather this fall, the price of hay has gone to between $5 and $7 a bale, she said.
After talking the situation over with her husband, who is a builder, the Greenleafs decided to build a small barn to accommodate two horses, and fence in enough of their land to give them a place to roam. She hopes to find some sources to get food for them at reasonable prices, or perhaps for free.
"I've already had three people who have come up to me and say they know of horses in the area that are starving," she said. While it's discouraging to know there are many horses that won't be rescued, Brooke says rescuing two of them will still be better than doing nothing.
She also hopes to help raise awareness about the plight of these horses, and convince others to become part of the rescue effort. And, she is looking forward to riding again, and teaching her daughter to ride.
She remembers as a teenager, walking into the barn where she kept her horse.
"He would hear my voice and practically break down the stall to get out," she says. This horse was a thoroughbred, too, whose name was Valhalla's Tavistock.
"I just cannot wait to wrap my arms around the neck of one and look into his huge brown eyes," she says.
"I'm just hoping I can make a difference - one horse at a time." To contact Brooke, send an e-mail to bhjgreenleaf@ clinic.net.
