Life after the races can be deadly for horses, but some rescue groups are trying to change that.
Ferdinand’s story was the stuff of legend. Before the 1986 Kentucky Derby, the three-year-old chestnut Thoroughbred was a 17–1 long shot. His win defied expectations and set records: the oldest jockey ever to win the contest (Bill Shoemaker, age 54) and largest purse at that time ever paid out to the winner ($609,500). Ferdinand went on to place second in the Preakness and third in the Belmont Stakes that year. And in 1987, he was named Horse of the Year after the Breeders’ Cup Classic.
But Ferdinand’s story took a tragic turn after that. When he was retired from racing in 1989, he was sent to stud, but his offspring never proved to be as fast or skilled on the racetrack as he was. So in the mid-1990s, he was shipped off to Japan, where breeders again tried to put him up for stud. No luck. Finally, in 2002, the Kentucky Derby winner was sent to a Japanese slaughterhouse.
Ferdinand wasn’t the only one. Roughly 100,000 American horses are sold to slaughterhouses overseas every year, and about 15,000 of those are Thoroughbreds. The situation used to be even worse. It wasn’t until 2007 that the U.S. Department of Agriculture stopped inspecting horse meat. Because inspection is required for any meat processing done in the United States, that decision put an end to the country’s three horse-meat processing plants (one in Illinois and two in Texas). But even though slaughterhouses in the United States have shut down, it’s still an easy trip over the border into Mexico or Canada, where thousands of horses are killed for meat every year.
Each horse sold to a slaughterhouse brings up to $500, but it costs about $5,000 a year to feed, shelter, and care for a horse. And even though some horses, like Ferdinand, earn big payouts in their day, many owners decide that the horses will cost more than they’re worth. So, given the choice of paying to put a horse down, paying for it to live out its natural life, or earning a little cash by getting rid of the animal, many owners choose the latter. And because of that trend, rescue organizations all over the United States are stepping in and trying to change owners’ minds about how to handle horses that don’t fit the standard definition of high performers.
Dozens of these groups exist around the country. Some are dedicated especially to Thoroughbreds; others will take in any breed. But they all share similar goals: to end the slaughter of American horses and to give all the animals good homes where they can live out their days.
The horse lovers who run the rescue groups pride themselves on giving the horses as simple and carefree a life as possible. They reintroduce the animals to living among herds, where they don’t have to race or do heavy work. Many horses arrive with injuries sustained during their racing days, and some even have to go through detox to flush out steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs in their systems.
One of the largest Thoroughbred rescuers is CANTER, a free Michigan-based service established in 1997 that helps to match needy horses with nonracing people who want them. Jo Anne Normile had her own racehorses, whom she turned into eventing horses when the animals’ track careers were finished. At the track, Normile and her husband met many trainers and owners who wanted to sell their former racehorses rather than send them to slaughterhouses. So the Normiles started CANTER. There are now offices in six other states, and the group gives support and advice to both sellers and owners.
CANTER and other groups usually operate at full capacity all year, but they’re still only able to help a small percentage of the total number of needy horses and rely mostly on outside donations to continue their operations. But as the plight of unwanted horses becomes better known, additional resources become available, making the obstacles a little less intimidating.