Foals saved from trip to slaughterhouse...
This article was in the Hartford Courant this morning.
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SIXTEEN FOALS and three yearlings are resting and recovering at Ray of Light Farm in East Haddam after being rescued from a trip to a Canadian slaughterhouse. Ray of Light, an animal rescue center, along with the Equine Angels Rescue Sanctuary in New Milford, rescued the foals and will put them up for adoption. (STEPHEN DUNN / November 2, 2007)
EAST HADDAM - In Canada, the scruffy Clydesdale-mix yearling was known only as SB 14, a designation carved into the side of her tri-color coat marking her as bound for slaughter and eventual consumption in an overseas market.
But on Friday, as she frolicked in a rear paddock at Ray of Light Farm in East Haddam, the horse that had been slaughter-bound became Savannah Belle, destined to live out her life in a Westchester County, N.Y., barn patronized by the likes of Martha Stewart.
"I was thinking about buying another horse, but then I saw her picture on the Internet," said Nancy Goldmark, the New York horsewoman who will adopt Savannah Belle next month. "Her story, everything she's been through, it moved me. I had to help rescue her."
Goldmark's new best friend was one of 30 horses rescued this week from two Manitoba farms that supply urine from pregnant mares that is used to make Premarin, the popular drug used for estrogen-replacement therapy to treat menopausal women.
The farms sell the urine to Wyeth, the New Jersey-based pharmaceutical giant, which made almost $1 billion in Premarin sales in 2006. The Humane Society of the United States said most foals that result from Premarin-created pregnancies are eventually slaughtered for meat.
Some farms that supply pregnant mare's urine for Premarin have been criticized for their treatment of horses, but the organizers of this rescue effort say the two farms where they bought the horses treated them well until deciding to sell them for slaughter. Wyeth did not respond to e-mails seeking comment on horses used to create Premarin.
A Canadian rescue group bought the horses from the farms this week and hauled them to the U.S. border, passing them through U.S. Customs and into the hands of a Pennsylvania rescue group and Equine Angels Rescue Sanctuary of New Milford.
EARS brought 19 horses to Ray of Light Farm, an equine-assisted therapy and rescue center, where they will receive medical treatment and rehabilitation. If all goes well, they will be given to good homes for lifelong adoptions, said EARS co-founder Frank Weller.
"Humans have a special relationship with horses," said Weller, whose group has led 200 adoptions over its five-year history. "They go to war with us, work our land, carry our burdens and become our trusted companions. That, to me, makes them more than livestock."
Bonnie Buongiorne, Ray of Light's founder, said the horses will remain there for at least four weeks under quarantine. The horses, many as young as six months, are essentially wild and must slowly and lovingly be desensitized to human touch, she said.
On Friday morning, Buongiorne and Weller knelt submissively in the paddock that held half a dozen of the rescued foals, keeping their heads down while offering the skittish animals flakes of enriched hay. A few foals accepted the food, while others scampered away.
Ray of Light has already lined up new homes for six of the rescued horses, according to Buongiorne.
Their origins mean that only the most experienced and committed horse-lovers can take one of these foals home, Weller said. A potential owner must have at least two acres of fenced land, a paddock and a good water source, and submit to an inspection.
The adopter must also pay a $1,600 fee to cover the cost of transport, medicine and hay.
Goldmark considers that a small price to pay for the companion that she hopes to bring home to Westchester next month. She hopes that one day she can ride Savannah Belle on the trail, but for now, she is content to snap photos of her sassy new pal.
"She's got spirit, and I like that, because I'm no wallflower, either," Goldmark said. "It is like she's telling the whole world, `I might have been down, but I was never out, so watch out.' To think that she was going to end up on somebody's plate."
For more information, visit rayoflightfarm.org or foalrescue.com. For adoption inquiries, call Ray of Light Farm at 860-873-3700 or e-mail Weller at [email protected].
If anyone is interested in adopting one of the beautiful creatures, please email Penny Overton at the addy below.
Contact Penelope Overton at [email protected].
