In May of 1999, Equine Advocates traveled to a remote Pennsylvania town near the Ohio border to try to rescue all the horses being sold by an Amish farmer who had gone out of business. It was a slaughter auction because four "killer buyers" were present, looking to fill their quotas for the slaughter plants.

A total of 23 horses ended up being sold that day. Equine Advocates bought 13; Double D Equine Rescue saved four, and the remaining six went to private homes, shutting the "killers" out completely. "It was a great success," said Equine Advocates' president, Susan Wagner. " Not one horse went to slaughter. Mission accomplished!" Two of the 13 horses rescued that day by Equine Advocates were "Paula" and "Clare," both standardbreds and both former Amish "buggy" horses who had been relentlessly driven, used-up and discarded.

The "killer buyers" wanted both of them. "Paula," in particular, was emaciated and profoundly lame. Had Equine Advocates not saved her, she would have definitely gone for slaughter. (Read more about Paula's story in new EAI pamphlet, HORSE SLAUGHTER: AN AMERICAN DISGRACE.) "Clare," was not crippled, but her fate would have had the same tragic ending, had Equine Advocates not come to her rescue.