Lexington, KY - Recent legislation that opens the door for the re-instatement of horse slaughter in the United States has been making headlines across the country in recent weeks as horse lovers and industry professionals re-examine the ethics of horse slaughter.
For Lexington-area resident Penny Austin, the bill changes little about the realities of horse rescue. When the last slaughterhouses closed in the United States, many horse processing plants in Canada and Mexico sent agents to the borders to purchase unwanted horses at livestock auctions.
Since November 2009, Austin, founding member of One Horse at a Time, and a network of horse rescues and equine welfare advocates across the country have been working with Camelot Auction House in New Jersey to divert horses from Canadian slaughterhouse agents.
Begun by Lisa Post of Helping Hearts Rescue and others, the Camelot Horse Weekly (CHW) initiative has been in operation for two years, networking photos of horses in the Number Ten Pen, where they are held for several days until a "kill buyer" is permitted to purchase them.
"Back then, I had no idea it would turn into this Ö I just thought I'd do it here and there for a few weeks, maybe go once a month and showcase the horses, and now it's this. Who knew?" said Post.
It's not uncommon to see social networking used to organize rescue for animals in need these days; the remarkable thing about CHW is that it has "bailed" every horse from the Number Ten Pen - every week for two years. Some weeks, the number of unsold horses may be 15, while other weeks, it can be as many as 100.
"To me, there are no unwanted horses, just horses who need better matchmakers," said Austin.
She estimates that the group has rescued a total of close to 3,000 horses and donkeys - approximately 1 percent of the total number believed to be shipped to slaughter each year. As thrilled as she is with the group's success, she never imagined when they began that the success rate would be so high.
"It's a real demonstration of the power of networking Ö It's pretty awesome, what's been accomplished by such a humble beginning," said Austin.
Several volunteers attend the auction each Wednesday, jotting down notes, and professional photographer Sarah Andrew takes pictures of the horses that do not bring bids and are remitted to the pen. Photos and short descriptions are posted to the Camelot Horse Weekly Facebook page and Alex Brown Racing forum and shared by the page's 26,000 followers across the world. Purchasers must pay a reserve price and arrange transport for their Camelot rescue, and the Facebook page often helps individuals organize a ride for their new horse from several states away.
Many horses and donkeys are taken by local rescues to be rehabilitated and put up for adoption (Frog Pond Draft Rescue, Scarlet Rose Farm and Project Sage are particularly involved), while others are taken in by individuals.
"Horses have been re-homed as far as England, Bermuda, and probably just about every state," said Austin.
Those pictures are so moving, in fact, that Sarah Andrew created a calendar of them as a benefit for One Horse at a Time, a Nicholasville-based group offering education, adoption and fundraising for horses in need. The project has already generated $26,000 for the group.
Austin should know how powerful the photos are - she was especially moved by one of a dark bay, 2-year-old Thoroughbred filly left over from the sale.
"I had seen hundreds and hundreds of beautiful photos that Sarah had taken. Something about her reached out and said, 'I need to belong to you.' I said, 'No, you don't,'" she said with a laugh.
After two other adoptions fell through in the later part of the week, Austin volunteered to take the filly, which she named "Third Time's The Charm." At a towering 17 hands (68 inches) at the shoulder, Charm is still growing and began learning to carry a rider earlier this year.
Another Facebook page, Camelot New Beginnings, abounds with more success stories from "Camelot graduates." The group's home page is littered with before-and-after photos of Camelot feed-lot purchases, many of whom are in training or competing in their new homes. Austin's favorite was Lady Guinevere, a 20-year-old mare who turned out to have a propensity for jumping and began showing over three-foot fences this summer.
She admitted that, as is the case for many rescues, there are some horses taken by well-meaning people who aren't prepared for the responsibility of owning a horse, and they have to send it back to Camelot. But the horses finding happy homes are in the vast majority, she said.
The group has seen a wide variety of ages, breeds and conditions of horses come through the Camelot auctions since the economic downturn; some are older, former breeding horses, while others are off-track Thoroughbreds and Standardbreds. Still others are inexperienced gaited horses, draft horses and ponies.
Post and Austin don't believe the possible re-instatement of horse slaughter will change the work of Camelot Horse Weekly. The only changes they anticipate are the distance horses will travel between an auction and a slaughter plant. Post reported that shipping regulations imposed by the EU on horse meat have had a greater impact on prices than she believes the location of slaughter will. If anything, she thinks competition in the horse-meat market is more likely to drive up prices, making it more difficult to rescue them. Both advocates are unconvinced that horse slaughter will be making a comeback in the United States anytime soon.
"We'll just have to wait and see what happens," said Post.