Three Thoroughbreds Snatched from the Jaws of Slaughter at Maine's Hemphill Farm

Brenda Hemphill isn't saying how two thoroughbred fillies from Florida ended up at her notorious farm in Maine. But what we do know is that horses who are unlucky enough to land there often end up on a one-way truck to a Canadian slaughterhouse. And if it were not for emergency intervention by Pure Thoughts Rescue's Florida Thoroughbred Rehab & Placement, these young horses would have met the same fate.

On March 16th, Pure Thoughts founders Brad Gaver and Jennifer Swanson were tipped off that the former Florida horses were in harm's way at the Hemphill farm. They became alarmed after having read a recent Boston Globe article in which Brenda Hemphill admitted that she makes her money by marketing horses for meat.

But when they called her, Hemphill tried to pass off the fillies as "camp horses" who had been living in Maine for some time. It was the first of many lies the Rescue would be told. "Knowing that one of the thoroughbreds had just turned three, had raced last summer, and that the horses arrived in the last 10 days, the story did not add up," said Gaver.

Read the rest of the story on Examiner.com

My New Barn Visits Program Brings Animal Communication to New England Stables

I'm so pleased to announce that as part of my new onsite "Animal Communication for Horses" program, I'll be traveling to stables within a 90-minute driving radius of Sterling, Massachusetts for one-hour consultations with individual horses. Thirty minutes of each session will be devoted to telepathic communication with the horse, and another half-hour will be spent with the human client for followup discussion. I'll furnish a typed transcript of the session within seven days after the visit.

We don't often stop to think about the fact that telepathy is a horse's natural language. Horses are capable of transmitting vivid images of their preferences and life experiences, and of communicating their innermost thoughts and feelings about their people, their stablemates, their surroundings, their training routines, and even, their aspirations. It's not necessary for me to be in a horse's presence in order to communicate with him, but many people seem to prefer this type of in-person experience, so I am very pleased to be able to offer this new service.

My work as an animal communicator is firmly grounded in real-life details, and I am often able to supply concrete answers to puzzling situations that have not been able to be resolved via conventional methods. Because telepathy is not bound by time or space, I conduct most of my consultations "remotely," without ever having met the animal with whom I'm communicating. But in response to requests from local equestrians, I have decided to expand my services to include stable visits, requesting a minimum two-horse commitment to make the trip.

Clients who are interested in booking onsite stable consultations will receive a questionnaire to complete before the visit, with an opportunity to list questions and concerns that they would like me to address with their horses.

As part of my commitment to the casue of protecting off-the-track thoroughbreds from slaughter, I will be donating a percentage of my fees from onsite visits to The New England Thoroughbred Retirement Center in Deerfield, New Hampshire.

Mountaineer Racetrack May Ban Trainers Selling at Sugarcreek Auction

This is excellent, encouraging news!

The new management at Mountaineer Racetrack and Casino in West Virginia have today let trainers know that if they are found to have shipped horses to the notorious Sugarcreek Auction in Ohio, where most horses are sold to "kill buyers," they will lose their stalls. It's a great first step.

For a compelling, graphic, and very vivid description of what really goes on at the Sugarcreek auction, refer to Anne Russek's Report dated October 17, 2008, and available through the AlexBrownRacing.com Discussion Forum: http://forums.delphiforums.com/alexbrown/messages/?msg=30125.1

I believe that Ms. Russek's efforts to publicize the barbaric conditions in which horses are kept and shipped from this auction were indirectly instrumental in achieving this milestone, and I sincerely thank her.

Racetracks Adopt New "Get Tough" Policies Against Trainers Who Send Horses to Kill Auctions

For years, the powers that be at American racetracks have blithely turned their backs on a terrible truth: every day, on every backstretch across the country, broken down thoroughbreds are purchased for "meat money" and packaged into crowded vans for the beginning of a a journey to the hell of a slaugterhouse.

In just the last few months, though, the management of a few--primarily East Coast--tracks have taken a meaningful stand against this inhumane practice, and are now not only holding trainers accountable for what happens to their horses after they leave their care, but are enforcing the rules with stiff penalties, including loss of stable privileges.

In today's Bloodhorse.com, in an article appropriately entitled, "Furious," Virginia trainer Diane McClure chronicles some of her recent visits to "kill pens" in Sugarcreek, Ohio and New Holland, Pennsylvania, where she was able to identify numerous thoroughbreds who had raced within the previous seven days.

In particular, she describes the plight of a lame and emaciated three-year-old gelding, Falcon Fury, whom she found at the New Holland kill pen, about three weeks after his last start at Delaware Park. As it happened, an owner and trainer for whom McClure works had previously owned Falcon Fury, and when they were notified of his plight, they vowed to do whatever was necessary to save him from his certain fate: shipment out of the country to a Canadian slaughterhouse. Through their intervention, Delaware Park officials also became involved. They required that Falcon Fury's last trainer (the person who had sold him to a kill dealer) pay the costs of buying the injured gelding back from the dealer and of shipping him to a facility where the horrified previous owner agreed to underwrite his care.

Earlier this summer, Suffolk Downs banned all killer dealers from its backstretch, and has notified all of the trainers on its grounds that if any of them ship horses into the slaughterhouse pipeline, they will immediately lose their right to stable and train horses at the East Boston racetrack.

These are laudable examples of what McClure calls "zero tolerance" for "shedrow-to-slaughter practices." Owners, trainers, and racetracks need to work together to create formal policies to protect "used" racehorses, and then ante up the resources to support humane retirement options.

Considering Candidates' Views on Animal Rights Issues

I had no idea that as a State Senator, Barack Obama had sponsored legislation to end the slaughter of horses in Illinois. The state's Cavel slaughterhouse was finally closed in 2007, after a series of court battles.

Obama reasserted his commitment to animal rights yesterday, while campaigning in Nevada, in response to a question from a member of the audience. "I think how we treat our animals reflects how we treat each other," he said. "And it's very important that we have a president who is mindful of the cruelty that is perpetrated on animals." Amen.