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00:00Over the past decade, the number of American horses being exported for slaughter has fallen
00:07dramatically.
00:08Still, every year, 20,000 American horses are shipped abroad to Mexico or Canada to
00:14meet that terrible fate.
00:16After rescuing two such horses from a kill pen in northern Louisiana, owner John Stewart
00:21has decided it's time we all start talking about the problem.
00:26It was brought to our attention on social media that there were two racehorses that
00:30had ran in the month of May that showed up in a kill pen in, I believe it was Texas or
00:35Louisiana.
00:36And so we, you know, we're kind of flabbergasted as we are any time this situation happens.
00:41And so we decided to act.
00:44And so one of these horses won $275,000 on the track.
00:49And then someone ran these horses in claiming races.
00:52They didn't get claimed, so then they just took and dumped them.
00:55And when they got here, it was really sad, you know, looking, you know, and when you
00:58rescue these horses, like these horses, the horses are smart animals and they know exactly
01:04what's going on and they're not being fed.
01:07You know, they're around all these other horses that are in, you know, not good condition.
01:10And so it just wears on the psyche of the horse.
01:13And so when they got here, you know, they would barely look at you.
01:16You know, when they stood in the field, you know, they wouldn't come to you.
01:21You know, our horses come to us right away when they see us.
01:24And, you know, we started the, you know, the process of rehabilitating them.
01:28And we're lucky to have the resources on our farm to do just that.
01:32Most of the people in the industry, it's not that they're ignoring it.
01:35I think it's such a terrible end for these horses that they can't imagine that something
01:42like that would happen to these horses.
01:44But it's a real thing.
01:46You got to take action.
01:47You can't just say the problems are too big that I can't do anything about it.
01:51And I can't solve the whole problem, right?
01:53You know, that's impossible for me to do.
01:54But what I can do is I can take action and I can solve the problem as it relates to me
01:58as an owner and a breeder.
02:01People maybe think that I'm naive because I'm just getting into the game or whatever.
02:04But you know, I'm a pretty sophisticated business person.
02:07So I know that there's a cost for everything.
02:09You know, that's what people in the industry need to understand.
02:12Very few people are willing to contribute out of their pocket to solve the problems.
02:16But that's how it's going to have to happen.
02:17There's only so much, you know, everybody wants all the tracks should do it or these
02:20people should do it.
02:21Everybody's going to have to contribute.
02:23And that means the owners and the breeders as well.
02:26And so, you know, my view is in the way that I'm handling on my farm is that I think that
02:32whoever breeds the horse is ultimately responsible for the horse, period.
02:35Like we bring it into this world, just like children, you know, you should be responsible
02:39for them.
02:40We do have the ears of a lot of people.
02:43And so I'm trying to highlight this by openly talking about it as a problem.
02:47And so raising awareness about a problem is the first step to solving it.
02:51I enjoy being around the horses.
02:54You know, I got into it because of the racing side of it.
02:56But now on a farm, you're in it because, you know, these animals are part of your family.
03:04But now you can see like when we go to the paddock, they come to us.
03:09You know, they're walking to us.
03:10You can see in their eye, you know, there's hope in their eye again.
03:14And you know, they know that they're somewhere safe.
03:16And that's kind of the message that we just kind of tell them like all the time.
03:19And we just tell them, you're safe, you're here, you know, we're going to take care of
03:23you.
03:24And they might not understand the words that are coming out of our mouths, but they understand
03:26the feeling that's coming across with that.