Noir was found in a slaughter pen, waiting—although he didn’t know it—to be transported to Canada or Mexico where it is still legal to slaughter horses for food. A volunteer from New England Equine Rescue (NEER) spotted the black gelding. He was clearly bright. He had obviously been highly trained. And he also had sarcoids on his ear, sheath and chest. The presence of the sarcoids (cancerous growths) suggests the reason he was in the slaughter pen. Sarcoids are expensive to treat, difficult to cure and sometimes fatal. That an animal with sarcoids could even be considered as a food source, provides a peephole into that nasty world where horses are killed to provide “gourmet” meat to places on the globe where horsemeat is considered a delicacy.
NEER volunteers patrol the slaughter pens on bailout missions, looking for horses to save and hauling them into the rescue network. The black gelding was one of the lucky ones. Mary, his rescuer, called him The Trick Horse when she discovered that someone had taught him to bow, to beg and to rear on command and balance on his hind legs. That owner may have fallen on hard times and perhaps sold the horse to a new and less caring owner. His story will probably never be known. Horses in slaughter pens are acquired without disclosure, and fraud and misrepresentation are common. (more…)
THOSE WHO RESCUE OUR HEARTS
Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010There are two stories here, both rather sad, unless—like me—you choose to view them as redemptive.
Bud arrived just when he said he would—a few minutes early in fact. He backed the truck slowly up the service drive toward the barn. Ann Marie had finished her business, and she and her vet tech were packing their van. She acknowledged Bud with a small salute.
We watched his arrival from the kitchen window.
“Please,” my daughter said, “could you take my checkbook and pay him? The check’s all filled out except for the dollars. I wasn’t sure of the final amount. And could you also ask Bud to please…take off…the halter?”
Since my self-designed job description was to provide emotional support, I overrode my resistance to go out there. I took the checkbook and went to meet the truck, stepping respectfully around the now-still horse. The two heavyset men in the cab looked like clones of each other; the one I took to be Bud began backing the truck carefully over the lawn. The passenger gazed at me dolefully. I went around to the driver’s door. (more…)
Tags: equine rescue, IG rescue, Rainbow Bridge, rescue repts, veterinarians
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