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-----Original Message-----
From: United Organizations of the Horse
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of United
Organizations of the Horse
Sent: Friday, March 18, 2011 11:07 PM
To: Reynnells, Richard
Subject: New York Times - Ex-Racehorses Starve as Charity Fails in
Mission to Care for Them

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join us
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New York Times4nSLSKEoGsTbb5pekS
N9ezAfE4gqtAIUOUAPfjjbGe5uYVC6L7_58Y6wOkpfEA==]

Ex-Racehorses Starve as Charity Fails in Mission to Care for Them

The following article was published in the New York Times this morning.
The special
significance of this story is that the Thoroughbred Retirement
Foundation is held
up as a huge success of the horse rescue effort. This cannot stand. If
they can't
afford to feed them, they need to sell them, or put them down. Period.

When he posted it to our Facebook
[http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=6oijm7dab&et=1104878003005&s=2968&e=001sJ
BNz-Pmu-cVAwLFp3ng1HJ94XUnoCAj2fMlLJ3Q_Sk7YzwHpNMNkJsKndFWmbLZE5LLxZtHIS
aDKLjgSFlzLwqIjTEiHvIJ5-YWjPr9C1kyKTeQhNofbMzpYmPZndMzb8NCE8e03omjh34a9T
DLcE1ghVq-6abZC270LW3TZ63xwwcSsuRj2PFjWQC2cGfpXpIxWFkwE9Fk4L9SmfCC6sZuVb
kB5M-QGfJomTM0U1VzSgdUE17N9F9M4W_74-r7Id_5km8uR-B8UaF5u9E3hQ==]
page earlier today Dave Duquette wrote, "This article sums up why we
need the option
of processing back. Amazing that with that much money they are still in
trouble,"
and then he goes on to say, "Well, not so amazing to folks that know
what it costs
to care for that many horses." He's right.

Unfortunately, this is a pathetic example of what is happening all
across the Nation.
We have been apprised of dozens of "rescues" that aren't anything of the
sort. More
like a horse "nightmare" where instead of a quick, painless dispatch in
a processing
plant with a minimum of stress while still in good condition and
healthy, they face
months, if not years, of agonizing suffering before dying of
malnutrition and disease.
These are people who have no business taking care of horses--who don't
have the
knowledge, the skills, or the resources to keep horses from
suffering--and while
well intentioned, they only succeed in increasing misery exponentially.

As word of the disaster reported in the New York Times spread across the
country,
we hear that on the opposite end of the country in California people are
receiving
emergency contribution requests to help the Castleton Rescue in
Lancaster, California
with a 72 hour deadline for the care and feeding of some 82 head of
rescued horses.
The notice saying that they are "saving horses from the auction yard,
killer buyers,
race track, and keeping horses from being driven to Mexico or Canada for
slaughter."

There is nothing more heartbreaking than to review the literally
hundreds and hundreds
of reports of abused, starving, and neglected horses that are recorded
on http://amillionhorses.com.
[http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=6oijm7dab&et=1104878003005&s=2968&e=001sJ
BNz-Pmu-cC8y42pyARloUhzuUdlewd1xJ8OYMJckFb0qEIZ7hTljiB7t80TjuzVr4ePpoOp5
aMbcufkQu7_N6X18wm7Bt37JmvwXoEajIGHZEpLNtmQg==]

Ironic and horrifying, isn't it? Thousands of horses starve to death
because of
a few people's illogical aversion to one of the most valuable protein
sources known
to mankind and prized by millions, while thousands of human beings go
hungry, suffer,
and die, every day.

Let's stop the suffering...and feed the hungry. Both horses and humans
will be much
better off.

Sue Wallis

------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------

Ex-Racehorses Starve as Charity Fails in Mission to Care for Them

Brandi Simons for The New York Times

When Gayle England, whose farm is highly regarded as a special care
facility, complained
of a general lack of regard for the horses, 26 T.R.F. horses were taken
from her.

By JOE DRAPE
[http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=6oijm7dab&et=1104878003005&s=2968&e=001sJ
BNz-Pmu-csIaNd2ya3JPVC9OlNYwcI1eLBN1FhFweAvqCUIUVhd_KGjUc9HoW1Sq8xDc_GLi
8olT-V8-psBdiXrCV16aDa9QmxaE8aqVOwPX6J4k0fVAqHMjQvJu1KkA_s0SVTGBgFvFh6c_
BF-p460peJCeGg8Gw8Gn01ltSjcxA8JvU9yiCz1Ou74p1Fs7s__UcdQxmKmBFnas_TAMC6ra
NnquuJFa3YjH8xXI4=]One
of the largest private organizations in the world dedicated to caring
for former
racehorses has been so slow or delinquent in paying for the upkeep of
the more
than 1,000 horses under its care that scores have wound up starved
and neglected,
some fatally, according to interviews and inspection reports.


Brandi Simons for The New York Times

Horses were taken to Gayle England's ranch in Oklahoma after they were
found to
be ailing.

The group, the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation, is based in Saratoga
Springs,
N.Y., just miles from the famous racetrack that annually hosts one of
thoroughbred
racing's premier meets. For years, it has received millions in
donations from
some pillars of the industry. But over the past two years, according
to the foundation's
financial disclosure documents, it has been operating at a deficit,
and as a
result has not reliably been paying the 25 farms it contracts with to
oversee
the retired horses.

For example, at the 4-H Farm in Oklahoma, inspectors last month could
find only
47 of the 63 retired horses that had been assigned to it. Many of
those were starving.
The rest had died, probably of neglect, inspectors concluded. Last
week, at a
Kentucky farm that is also supposed to receive money from the
foundation, 34 horses
were found in "poor" or "emaciated" condition, inspectors found. One
horse had
to be euthanized because of malnutrition.

It is unclear how many members of the foundation's blue-chip board of
trustees
might have been aware of the deteriorating quality of care the horses
were receiving.
But the foundation's biggest benefactor - the estate of the breeder
and owner
Paul Mellon
[http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=6oijm7dab&et=1104878003005&s=2968&e=001sJ
BNz-Pmu-d2mu7SWDGQDxYnXMJdFJSuQx7DlC6jC9xDEcJhrgf8C5LYTF_wyNL7YoRM66KFMI
bg9sb7HeYpP-a8eJDls2oGv5mIHe4Q80C8W_kIf5t7OZc6Drk-7exlE5nkUmcewwnRhRvqmw
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dmc9mTJQQ-IuKwPeg=]
- in recent years had become concerned about the growth of the
foundation's herd
after hearing the complaints of caretakers, and it investigated.

The estate, which in 2001 established a $5 million endowment for the
foundation
and subsequently contributed $2 million more, last December requested
that Stacey
Huntington, a veterinarian based in Springfield, Mo., evaluate the
foundation's
herd. So far, Dr. Huntington, along with a local veterinarian in each
location,
has examined more than 700 horses at more than a dozen farms from
Oklahoma to
Kentucky and South Carolina. She found many examples of neglect and
lack of support
from the T.R.F. in her visits to the farms.

Brandi Simons for The New York Times

Stacey Huntington, a veterinarian, said, "The horses are getting the
short end of
the stick from this group."

"We have dug ourselves a big hole financially, and we're still behind,"
the foundation's
president, George Grayson, said. "It's been a struggle to keep up with
the costs
associated with a large and aging horse population, at a time when the
economy
and giving is down. Everybody on the board takes any allegation
seriously, and
anything less than positive circumstances for the horses are
unacceptable. When
we've been made aware of issues, we have responded quickly, and we
will on this."


The cases of neglect, while noteworthy because of the prominence of the
organization
overseeing the horses, are only the latest embarrassment for an
industry that
remains vexed by one of its most fundamental challenges: how to
humanely look
out for horses that no longer have any value at the racetrack or in
the breeding
shed.

The Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation was founded in 1984 to save
racehorses
no longer able to compete on the racetrack "from possible neglect,
abuse and slaughter,"
its mission statement says.

It has been embraced by some of the biggest forces in the sport: the
Jockey Club
has given the foundation nearly $250,000 over the past two years, and
individual
owners - like Mike Repole, the co-founder of Glaceau water and the
owner of the
current Kentucky Derby
[http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=6oijm7dab&et=1104878003005&s=2968&e=001sJ
BNz-Pmu-e6f0Uu4vURydzzWjHJr1aon8hhF1BW8EmeU9F09H45lpPai-CKwocnWZhsokV4CT
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SxX3ZknpOouqeUjv7uScwqaK_FZ10oTpsAUFZm]
favorite, Uncle Mo - have given sizable contributions as well.

Over the years, the foundation's board has included some of the sport's
most influential
owners, and the farms it contracts with have been homes to many of the
horses
those owners have bred and campaigned. Beam Us Up, an accomplished
racehorse bred
by Richard Santulli, the former chief executive of NetJets, was
recently removed
from one of the contract farms because of neglect. Santulli's wife,
Peggy, is
on the T.R.F. board.

The findings of the veterinarian hired by the Mellon estate, Dr.
Huntington, moved
the estate's trustees to send the farms money for things as basic as
food. She
found that some 25 percent of the horses have required some kind of
urgent care,
which the Mellon estate has provided, costing it "tens of thousands"
of dollars,
said Ted Terry, one of its trustees.

Dr. Huntington found that the foundation's education of the caretakers
and oversight
of their farms had been poor. At one farm, Dr. Huntington said, the
horses were
being fed cattle feed that contained a toxic element.

"The horses are getting the short end of the stick from this group that
advertises
itself as advocates of horses," Dr. Huntington said.

The most dramatic instance of neglect discovered so far, she said, was
at the
4-H Farm in Okmulgee, Okla., where the owners, Alan and Janice
Hudgins, would
not let Dr. Huntington onto their property to inspect T.R.F. horses
until the
foundation gave them $20,000, a partial payment of what was owed them
for taking
care of 63 horses since 2005. They also forced the foundation to sign
a pledge
not to prosecute them for the condition of the horses.

When the horses were released, the 47 survivors were in such poor
condition that
Dr. Huntington filed a report with the Okmulgee County sheriff's
office. Her report
included photographs of the malnourished horses, three of them
considered starving.
Nearly all of them needed urgent care.

Ms. Hudgins said her farm had kept horses for the foundation since
2005, but in
recent years it fell into a pattern of falling behind in payments.

In a tough economy with rising fuel and feed costs, Ms. Hudgins said
her family
got tired of having to settle for less than they were owed by the
foundation.
She said they had done the best they could with the horses, and had
informed the
T.R.F. that some older horses had died.

The foundation ran a $1.2 million deficit in 2009, according to its
most recent
tax filings with the federal government, three times the total in its
previous
filing. Its inability to pay the agreed costs for the care of its
horses severed
a number of relationships with farms, including Claybank Farm in
Lexington, Ky.,
which cared for up to 80 horses.

Interviews with farm owners, as well as e-mail correspondence they
provided, showed
the foundation was aware of its deepening financial straits -
occasionally taking
horses from farms where they had been well cared for and placing them
elsewhere
on the cheap.

Last September, the T.R.F. owed Out2Pasture Farms in Jamestown, Mo.,
more than $43,000,
The farm, run by two University of Missouri
[http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=6oijm7dab&et=1104878003005&s=2968&e=001sJ
BNz-Pmu-cYDVnt1N8GLlbXjkxJYj57q9Ne40vKV2sMoYDzRQ5ozdDwvjR_XvfbOMEz04ThlC
eLyx5w70bGgR-SMviGEOYZNi0q8Gql7j2i7y5dOE1_cO0-LAdHCbPfOO2aDcXvCzKmwqw2VM
JExn-bB63b7kVvrhgE1SOFMYMw4DZYDGpKXUc5idlYDDcd5ipYRIsiBWdIcPrD6kLEkfKAFh
A9OkQt2xT6axcclFjDNjqQvBRO5wQ6f6FM0Our]
professors, Zachary and Robin Hurst-March, is one of the nation's most
highly
regarded sanctuaries for thoroughbreds. When the couple pressed for
payment, the
T.R.F. asked them to reduce their per diem to $3 a day and eventually
removed
13 of their horses.

"I was being emotionally blackmailed to lower my per diem, and was the
subject
of retribution because I questioned the care of the horses," said
Mrs. Hurst-Marsh,
who is owed $10,000.

When Gayle England, whose farm in Stroud, Okla., is also highly
regarded as a
special-care facility, complained not only of the chronic slow pay but
the general
lack of regard for the farms and the horses, 26 T.R.F. horses were
taken from
her.

Last month, some of the horses in the worst shape were taken from other
foundation
farms and returned to the Hurst-Marsh farm and Ms. England. In fact,
one of the
14 horses moved to England's farm with the help and funding of the
Mellon Estate
had to be put down.

"They were making their administrative payroll this whole time, but the
horses
they were suffering," Ms. England said. "They need to be held
accountable."

Mr. Terry, a Mellon estate trustee, said he still does not know what
went wrong.

"We don't know if it was bad judgment, taking on too many horses or bad
decisions
made internally," he said. "Eventually, we're going to have to ask
ourselves if
we are throwing good money after bad."

A version of this article appeared in print on March 18, 2011, on page
A1 of the
New York
edition.http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/18/sports/18horses.html?_r=1&page
wanted=all
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