Most of the foals are sold at auctions in the fall, at which time they are between two and three months old. They can regularly be observed trying to nurse off each other. The colts are sold by lot where almost all are bought by "killer buyers" (middlemen for the slaughterhouses) and feedlot operators who fatten them up before shipping them to slaughter plants in Canada and the United States. There they are butchered and their meat is then exported to Europe and Japan as a delicacy (with certain cuts selling for $25 per pound) for human consumption.

The fright and terror in these foals is apparent as they are herded through the sales arenas and then on to cramped trailers with canes and electric cattle prods. Some of them are loaded on to the backs of pickup trucks. Injuries are common, but veterinary care is virtually non-existent at these auctions. Young, frail horses are often loaded together with large, heavy horses with no one present to stop the cruel and inhumane treatment during the loading process.

THE HORROR STORIES

Mares who are no longer productive and stallions who are used up are also sold at slaughter auctions for meat. One Canadian investigator told us, "One of the saddest things I ever saw was an old, used-up Belgium mare being sold for meat at one of the auctions. She had a cheap halter on that was embedded in her head. Her owner wanted the halter back after she was sold to the killers so he ripped it off and she had this gaping hole in her head. She stood there shaking and bleeding profusely and nobody did anything to help her."

CONFESSIONS OF AN EX-PREMARIN FARM WORKER

"He (Frank _____, a PMU producer) does have horses right now that are wounded from the winter, but as he said, you cannot prove he did it. He told me that this is the reason why he has his PMU farms so far away from everything...

"He does not usually give worm shots or any other shots for that matter. Eventually the animals get very sick...some cannot stand or eat and become very weak and need to lie down. This is when he takes the (front end) loader and beats on them either causing them to abort or krippling [sic] them and worst of all killing them. Six or seven were killed in this way...

"He will also kripple [sic] a horse that he finds he can't work behind. The horse jumps because he spooks it and Frank will then beat it until it cannot stand well. Frank _____ came out and shot an older but healthy horse...with a .22 calibre rifle twice. He did not have any more bullets. And the horse did not go down. He had a black knife, the kind you push the blade up. The knife's end was broken so it was only an inch and a half long. He began slashing the neck of the horse over and over. It stood bleeding. He then went to the house, brought out a shotgun. Shot it three more times...

"There was a thoroughbred, its stall was too small. So when he cleaned the barn with loader and bucket, he would bash her legs. The horse was bashed up so bad that puss [sic] and blood was dripping. They were the size of watermelons...I took her out of the barn. I gave her a few shots. I bought things to get ride of the outer infection. I brought the swelling down. I showed the vet the day she came to look at the thoroughbred. The leg was only hurt at the time and she said the horse was finished. I fixed that leg and was working on the other.

"Frank didn't like this at all. I used to feed her oats outside away from the others. She was too weak to fight. Frank didn't like this either. He took the tractor and chased her around until her legs ripped in half. He left her to bleed to death..."  

(NEXT) PREMARIN AND WOMEN'S HEALTH

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