Racehorse Rescue

In The Seattle Times a local rescue is working to help save retired racehorses. Many horses once they reach an age of 4 or 5 can no longer race and are sent down the road. Due to their high energy and need for re training many retired race horses are sent to auctions where slaughter houses buy them. According to the article “Over the past 10 years, more than 500 Thoroughbreds have gone from Emerald Downs to the ranch, where the horses learn another career and are placed in new homes, said Katie Merwick, the founder of Second Chance. She said it costs between $1,000 and $2,000 to retrain a racehorse” Rescues like Second Chance rescue as many as they can each year but not all can be saved. Many of the horses that aren’t saved are sent to Canada or Mexico to be butchered and then meat is exported to Europe and Japan for human consumption. The Article also talks about, “Portland Meadows, which is part of a chain of racetracks that includes Santa Anita Park outside Los Angeles and Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, adopted the no-slaughter policy for its racehorses in 2008.” This policy has helped save horses but is still not a perfect solution to the problem.

This article goes into the story about a promising thoroughbred named Bucky. After not racing for a while Bucky was sent to auction at least 100lbs underweight and beaten up. Bucky’s story has a happy ending though, even with some health conditions he was rescued and now is a happy horse living with a view of the Cascade Mountains. Not all racehorse stories end with this happy of a story but as people become more aware of the problem with horse slaughter many more retired racehorses are finding homes.