WASHINGTON—The ASPCA® (The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals®) today commends the members of the U.S. House Appropriations Committee for approving an anti-horse slaughter amendment to its fiscal year 2015 Agriculture Appropriations bill. The amendment would prevent the U.S. Department of Agriculture from using taxpayer dollars to inspect horse slaughterfacilities. The Moran Amendment, introduced by Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.), was passed in the full committee by a bipartisan 28 – 22 roll call vote and would continue a ban on the gruesome horse slaughter industry on U.S. soil.
“At a time when funding for many vital programs is being cut, it is imperative that Congress not use millions of dollars worth of taxpayers’ money to fund horse slaughter, an abhorrent industry that benefits only foreign interests,” said Nancy Perry, senior vice president of ASPCA Government Relations. “The ASPCA has worked for years to protect horses from terrifying, inhumane deaths at slaughterhouses, and we are thankful to Representative Moran for his strong leadership in advocating to protect our nation’s treasured equines.”
This spending prohibition was put in place in 2005 and was routinely included in the annual Agriculture Appropriations bill until it was omitted in the FY 2012 Consolidated Appropriations Act, opening the door for a possible return of horse slaughter in the U.S. The FY 2014 Consolidated Appropriations Act reinstated the funding limitation on horse slaughter inspections after an amendment was successfully added in both the House and Senate Appropriations Committees. Last week, the Senate Appropriations Committee passed a similar anti-horse slaughter amendment by a bipartisan 18 – 12 roll call vote in the Senate version of the 2015 Agriculture Appropriations bill.
Horse slaughter is inherently cruel and often erroneously compared to humane euthanasia. Whether slaughter occurs in the U.S. or abroad, the methods used to slaughter horses rarely result in quick, painless deaths, as horses are difficult to stun and often remain conscious during their butchering and dismemberment. The majority of horses killed for human consumption are young, healthy animals who could otherwise go on to lead productive lives with loving owners. In addition, meat from American horses is unsafe for human consumption since horses are not raised as food animals. They are routinely given medications and other substances that are toxic to humans and are expressly forbidden by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for use in animals intended for human consumption.
“Horse slaughter has no place in American society and this amendment affirms that Congress does not condone this inhumane practice,” said Rep. Moran. “These iconic creatures are a proud symbol of the American West that should be treasured for their beauty and treated humanely, not killed for export. The American public has made clear they oppose horse slaughter and today’s vote reflects the will of the people.”
While the Moran Amendment in the appropriations bill protects American communities from the devastating welfare, environmental and economic impact of horse slaughter facilities, it cannot prohibit the transport of approximately 150,000 U.S. horses for slaughter across the border to Canada and Mexico each year. To address this issue, Reps. Patrick Meehan (R-Pa.) and Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) and Sens. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), introduced the Safeguard American Food Exports (SAFE) Act (S. 541/H.R. 1094)—legislation that would end the current export of American horses for slaughter abroad, and protect the public from consuming toxic horse meat.
In a national poll commissioned by the ASPCA, 80 percent of American voters, including the vast majority of horse owners (71 percent), expressed opposition to the slaughter of U.S. horses for human consumption.
To learn more about the ASPCA’s efforts to ban horse slaughter, please visit www.aspca.org.
Great article to share and educate people with. ~Declan
California Chrome's pretty story can't hide sport's ugly side
California Chrome is a win away from horse racing's Triple Crown. (USATSI)
In a few weeks California Chrome will try to finish off the Triple Crown at the Belmont, and that will be exciting and historic, and what could be wrong with a sport that gives us something exciting and historic?
Well, this: When the same sport gives us death and destruction. Cruelty and slaughter. Living animals, some of the most beautiful creatures on Earth, treated as commodities. Because when a commodity is no longer profitable, that commodity is discarded.
Where does this column go from here? To a place the people most firmly entrenched -- on either side -- won't want to be taken: the belief that this is a philosophical debate, not a factual one. Right vs. wrong? That's too easy, too lazy. Horse racing is complicated, an impassioned but impossible issue, as confounding as the riddle about the sound of one hand clapping.
Because horses are very much dying.
And horses are very much treated like royalty.
One happens, but so does the other. And they happen for the same reason: Thoroughbreds are bred to become world-class racers, and the ones that do -- or come close, or offer the promise of producing world-class offspring -- live a better life than most people. They eat. They sleep. They exercise. They have sex. They do it again tomorrow.
The ones that don't become world-class racers? The majority of the roughly 22,000 foals projected to be bred in 2014? They run the risk of being mistreated, abused. Discarded. They aren't all mistreated or abused or discarded. You're on a website run by CBS, not PETA, and fairness matters here more than winning an argument.
So I'm trying to be fair, even as I'm sure where I fall on this debate: Horse-racing is a good idea gone bad, an industry that has its share of reasonable and compassionate fans but one that survives only because the gambling industry is its money-pumping heart. And I'm not about to advocate for horse racing just so gamblers will have a place to chase their fix. Chase it somewhere else. Preferably not on the dog track, either. Don't get me started ...
At the top of the horse-racing food chain, people know their sport is imperfect. And they're working on that. The CEO of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, Alex Waldrop, spent time with me on the phone Wednesday and Thursday -- this was too much information to digest in one call -- defending his sport. Not that he was "defensive," if you know what I mean. He wasn't angry or combative. The CEO of the NTRA was defending his sport because he knew he was talking to someone who'd like to see TR -- thoroughbred racing -- eliminated.
Waldrop sighed and got started. He made it clear that the NTRA -- founded in 1998 to promote the sport, encourage its safety and integrity, and lobby for legislation at the federal level -- doesn't want horses mistreated or put at risk, from the time they are bred until they have breathed their last. The NTRA has its most sway at the actual racetrack, and it has tried to make that experience safer by creating the Safety and Integrity Alliance Code of Standards that Waldrop said is adhered to by the country's largest 25 tracks. Veterinarians are at every track. Bio-markers are studied to determine when and why a horse is at risk of a breakdown. Engineers are studying the dirt to provide the safest possible racing surface. Waldrop said certain drugs, including muscle-building anabolic steroids, have been eliminated or severely restricted in the wake of Eight Belles' death at the 2008 Kentucky Derby.
On and on Waldrop went, over the course of two different conversations, laying out just how much the NTRA wants to clean up its sport.
"We don't support the status quo," he said. "We want to see change. There are some folks who oppose it, but not many. You can find many bad things about any business, and [the media] sure do find them in ours. We want to be held accountable, no question, but we're committed to improving the safety and integrity of our sport."
But some things cannot be avoided. Thoroughbreds are bred to be as strong as possible, but as light as possible. That means muscular carriages and legs that are thick and powerful and yet not too thick, lest they be heavier than the horse on their left or right. It's a delicate, dangerous dance that is not done with the intent to endanger horses -- and yet, cannot avoid doing so. The line between a world-class racer and a future breakdown? It's as skinny as Eight Belles' ankles.
But to focus too much energy on the elite horses would be to miss the real heartbreak of horse racing -- what happens to those who never make it to that level. Which is to say, most of them. Waldrop gave me that 22,000-foal estimate for 2014. Somewhere between a third to a half of those will be promising enough to go to auction. What happens to the rest?
Well, it's tricky. Some are sold privately, to ambitious trainers with big dreams and modest means -- the kinds of trainers that would seem more likely than this industry Hall of Famerto be featured in a New York Times expose. Some become companion horses, well-loved pets, to people who like to ride. Some are slaughtered.
Slaughterhouses are gone from the United States but not gone, period, and last yearreportedly 150,000 American horses were put in trucks and shipped over the border to be slaughtered for meat, including an estimated 10,000 thoroughbreds. That happens to these big, beautiful horses, and the NTRA knows it, but it's trying to stop it. Waldrop says the NTRA opposes slaughter and told me about the NTRA's Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliancethat stipulates all those top US tracks in the Safety and Integrity Alliance "must have a relationship with a reputable thoroughbred retirement organization, and they must be actively engaged in finding second homes, second careers for their horses.
"We try to adopt out to a third party, someone who wants a horse at home, maybe as a pet, maybe as a riding companion. Maybe as service horses -- associated with penal institutions, helping prisoners work with horses. It's wonderful therapy for the horse and prisoners. Same with autistic children. Great things can happen there."
Yes they can. And horrible things can happen, too. The horses that do get sent to a slaughterhouse? They die in a way that defies description, if only so you won't be physically ill to read about it. They are shot in the head, not always successfully given the location of the brain and the skittishness of the breed, and then hung by their feet to bleed out after their throat is slit.
Does that happen to most thoroughbreds? No. But it happens to way too many of them. So do breakdowns on the track, as many as 24 per week in 2012, according to the New York Times.
They die because they are bred to be too fast for their own good, and because sometimes the breeding fails -- one way or the other. And so the philosophical question is this: What to do with a species of horse that is bred to produce winners like California Chrome?
ASPCA Commends Senate Committee Vote to Prohibit U.S. Horse Slaughter by Eliminating Inspection
Approved amendment would protect horses from cruel practice in the U.S.
May 22, 2014
NEW YORK—The ASPCA® (The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals®) commends the members of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee for approving an anti-horse slaughter amendment to its fiscal year 2015 Agriculture Appropriations bill. The amendment would prevent the U.S. Department of Agriculture from using taxpayer dollars to inspect horse slaughter facilities. The Landrieu-Graham Amendment, introduced by Sens. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), was passed in the full committee by a bipartisan 18 -12 roll call vote and would continue a ban on the gruesome horse slaughter industry on U.S. soil.
“There is no such thing as a commercial horse slaughter plant that doesn’t inflict cruelty on horses,” said Nancy Perry, senior vice president of ASPCA Government Relations. “Using taxpayer dollars to fund this abhorrent industry is irresponsible and wasteful. We are thankful to Senators Landrieu and Graham for their strong leadership in advocating to protect our nation’s revered equines.”
Horse slaughter is inherently cruel and often erroneously compared to humane euthanasia. Whether slaughter occurs in the U.S. or abroad, the methods used to slaughter horses rarely result in quick, painless deaths, as horses are difficult to stun and often remain conscious during their butchering and dismemberment. The majority of horses killed for human consumption are young, healthy animals who could otherwise go on to lead productive lives with loving owners. In addition, meat from American horses is unsafe for human consumption since horses are not raised as food animals. They are routinely given medications and other substances that are toxic to humans and are expressly forbidden by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for use in animals intended for human consumption.
This spending prohibition was put in place in 2005 and was routinely included in the annual Agriculture Appropriations bill until it was omitted in the FY 2012 Consolidated Appropriations Act, opening the door for a possible return of horse slaughter in the U.S. The FY 2014 Consolidated Appropriations Act reinstated the funding limitation on horse slaughter inspections after an amendment was successfully added in both the House and Senate Appropriations Committees.
While the Landrieu-Graham Amendment in the appropriations bill protects American communities from the devastating welfare, environmental and economic impact of horse slaughter facilities, it cannot prohibit the transport of approximately 150,000 U.S. horses for slaughter across the border to Canada and Mexico each year. To address this issue, Sens. Landrieu and Graham, and Reps. Patrick Meehan (R-Pa.) and Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), introduced the Safeguard American Food Exports (SAFE) Act (S. 541/H.R. 1094)—legislation that would end the current export of American horses for slaughter abroad, and protect the public from consuming toxic horse meat.
In a national poll commissioned by the ASPCA, 80 percent of American voters, including the vast majority of horse owners (71 percent), expressed opposition to the slaughter of U.S. horses for human consumption.
To learn more about the ASPCA’s efforts to ban horse slaughter, please visit www.aspca.org.
Perhaps nothing in this world is more powerful than maternal instinct. Look no further than this incredible and touching story about a pair of ponies, Bella and her newborn foal,Butterscotch.
Last month, the two were trapped in a barn fire on a ranch outside of Dallas. The fire destroyed the barn and claimed the lives of the farm’s chicken and sheep. Firefighters were amazed when they found a badly burned but still breathing Bella laying on top of her foal.
“She actually kind of backed the baby into the corner and stood over her and shielded her from the fire and the debris that was falling,” said Whitney Hanson of the North Texas Humane Society.
Thanks to her mother’s heroic act, Butterscotch escaped major trauma. Bella, however, has been in a fight for her life. Severely burned over most of her body, her prognosis was uncertain at best.
Despite her injuries, Bella has never stopped nursing Butterscotch. The two still stay close even on walks.
“They’re doing really well,” Hanson said. “We’re very optimistic about their recovery.”
At this point, most of their concern is for Bella.
“We weren’t really sure she would pull through but she had such spirit and such a bond with her baby, Butterscotch, that we think that’s the reason she’s come so far,” Hanson said.
The North Texas Humane Society has taken the two in while they recover as their owners are unable to shoulder the full cost of the treatment. You can donate directly to their care at theNorth Texas Humane Society website. So Pitch in if you can and help Bella and Butterscotch in their road to recovery.
Wild Camargue horse in the salt marshes near the mouth of the Rhone
It is said that in riding a horse, we borrow freedom.
Horses and humanity have had a deeply intertwined history; horses have been an ancient fixture in antiquity, seen on the most ancient of cave paintings, from Lascaux and Chauvet, to other examples of early art, when human beings first tried to capture the most powerful symbols often dramatically depicting their connection with the environment.
Following these ancient depictions as early as 25,000 BC, the horse was then domesticated some twenty thousand years later, found to be essential to the very existence of homo sapiens in the quest for survival. Legends such as Alexander the Great and his horse Bucephalus, and mythologies from the Greek myth of Pegasus, the Scandanavian Sleipnir, mount of Odin, to the horses depicted in Chinese, Hindu, and Persian mythology, each were similarly tamed and ridden by both great leaders and the gods as a symbol of their authority and power.
Camargue horsemen herding the black bulls famous in the area
Since, horses have been depicted as a metaphor for the wild, the majestic, and the unbreakable. To this day, this spirit and the subsequent loyalty of equus ferus caballus has been used to not just inspire the imagination, but even for healing, from programs using inmates to tame wild horses for adoption and therapy programs, to other examples of the horse being used for therapeutic purposes among the most emotionally and physically vulnerable.
(Note: two important films about this: Horse Medicine and Horse Boy.)
This connection with the horse, when done well, is one built on a slow and steady process of trust, and eventually, if horse and human bond, of mutual confidence and devotion. This connection with nature resides deep in ancestral and even genetic memory, reaching so deeply into the history of our development that at its best, it marks the human capacity to connect and exist in harmony with the wildness of nature. At its worst, it mirrors the darker human tendencies toward subjugation and need for harsh and sometimes brutal control.
Reflecting the best tendencies of those who consider themselves to be horse people, close to where some of the oldest horse paintings have been found in southwestern France, is the home of one of the oldest breeds of horse known.
A Camargue horse relaxing in its stall
The white horses of the Camargue have been both a well-known fixture and inspiration for the people of the area, a section of of Provence in the Alpes Côte d'Azur and the Languedoc between Arles and the mouth of the Rhône near Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer. The landscape is comprised of vast area of salt marshes, where the Camargue horses continue to run wild and make up one of the many reasons for tourists to come to the area.
(The other: the annual pilgrimage of Roma, commemorating Sara, thought to be either the handmaiden or daughter of Mary Magdalene, who was thought to have landed where the town of Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer sits, to spread a true version of Christianity that embraced the involvement of both sexes in the decision-making and leadership of the faith.)
Camargue 'guardians' (riders) at a local exhibition
Often depicted in promenades et "balades à cheval," theatrical experiences marking their history in the area, as domesticated, they are a powerful reminder of the ancient connection between both nature and humanity as well as horse and rider.
Bred and ridden by "gardians" among various local "manades," or farms, the white horses, standing from 13 to just over 14 hands (hand = 4 inches) and weighing in at up to 1,100 lbs, among those not still running wild, are bred under strict guidelines by the French government, who since 1976 have had a strict classification system for the breed and breed standard, closely delineating those born in the region and under specific conditions.
Because of the nature of the breed, being strong, stocky, and calm, they are utilized both for demonstrations of the breed-specific equitation, and for the work of herding another famous fixture of the area: the famous black bulls of Camargue featured in a non-lethal form of bullfighting popular in this part of France.
A rider following demonstrations on equitation specific to the breed
Gardians of the manades congregate at various events, exhibitions and meetings, comparing bloodlines of their horses and showcasing their natural capacity for herding, in equitation, and for safety and rescue operations in the region.
A combination of both French culture of the region and its own version of native horsemanship, these events mark a meeting of business and long-standing recognition of families that have worked with the Camargue horse for generations.
As a true celebration of the breed, its history, and its capacity, while innately close-knit, the community of horsemen and women, are, like many who are attached to a particular horse culture, are both hard-hewn and passionate ambassadors, showing the hallmarks of the breed's abilities, with events often being free to both insiders and the public.
Horse people from the area catching up with other breeders
But the public may be more aware of the breed than they realize: a beloved film among both children of a certain generation and horse lovers, White Mane is about the eponymous Camargue horse and the child who tames him. Better known among French and European audiences, in 1960, Denys Colomb Daunant made documentary Le Songe des Chevaux Sauvages, "Dream of the Wild Horses" which won the Small Golden Berlin Bear at the 1960 Berlin International Film Festival.
As the old adage among horse people suggests, "Show me your horse and I'll tell you who you are," the same would be said for the native horse of the Camargue and its landscape. Rugged, strong, steadfast and full of spirit, this horse reflects the ancient connection that epitomizes the balance that can be found when we respect one of the animals that has truly affected human history. And these, as one of the oldest breeds of horse alive, also remind us that there is beauty in nature worth nurturing, and a true partnership to be had, if we allow ourselves the profundity of such a relationship.
A statue of the Camargue horse in the center of Saintes-Marie-de-la-Mer
Mare (20) foaled a healthy set of twins without any assistance
Written by Frank Farragher As posted on Connacht Tribune
ONE of the wonderful if rare sights in the equine world – a healthy set of twins and foaled without assistance by a mare of 20 summers.
Living twins are very much a rarity in the horse world with a very low survival rate, but here and there it does happen, and when it does there is no more pleasing sight.
Pictured above (by Sean McAleer) is Tommy Keeney’s Connemara mare, that last Friday morning at Doolhulla, Ballyconneely, delivered a beautiful set of ‘twin boys’, without any assistance.
The mare hadn’t been scanned – if she had, the veterinary advice would be to abort one of the twins – but nature took its course and the 20-year-old mare delivered two very healthy offspring.
The proud dad is local stallion Gurteen Cathal – the supreme champion at the Clifden Show last summer – and owned by another Ballyconneely man, Kevin Bolger.
“She’s a temperamental mare and was only covered once but she held and we’re all delighted with the outcome.
“This is not a mare to be trifled with. Only Tommy Keeney can go anywhere near her but she’s doing well and the three of them are a lovely sight,” Kevin Bolger told the Farming Tribune.
He explained that over the last 15 to 20 years, this is only about the fourth set of twins in the region that have survived.
“I suppose that nearly 90% of mares are now scanned and when twins are spotted, one of them generally ‘goes’, to give the other the chance of surviving.
“This mare just foaled naturally – without any assistance – at the field right beside Tommy’s house.
It’s one of those rare but beautiful sights in the world of horses,” said Kevin Bolger.
Exclusive: Dying Hollywood Mogul Sam Simon Secretly 'Rescues' Racehorse
BY ANNA SCHECTERFirst published May 1st 2014, 5:12 pm As posted on NBCNews.com
A Hollywood producer who’s giving away his fortune before he dies of cancer secretly funded the “rescue” of a racehorse that animal advocates say was on the verge of being raced again despite the risk of “catastrophic” injury.
Sam Simon, producer of “The Simpsons,” “Cheers,” and “The Drew Carey Show,” among other series, says he ponied up the cash for two reasons. “One is an animal is no longer being abused and two, people are finding out what horse racing really is.”
The horse, Valediction, had been trained by two different top trainers who’ve been disciplined by authorities for allegedly over-medicating horses. One of the trainers, Steve Asmussen, has won more than 6,700 races and $200 million in his career and has a horse entered in Saturday’s Kentucky Derby. Valediction was being prepped to return to the track in February despite an injured leg when Simon -- through a front man supplied by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals [PETA] -- stepped in and bought him for $60,000.
Activist: Horse racing industry is like factory farming
NBCNEWS.COM
On a videotape secretly recorded by PETA, Asmussen’s assistant can be heard talking about injecting horses with medication and how he could get a sore horse past track veterinarians. He can also be heard calling Valediction a “rat,” meaning a horse who doesn’t make money.
Said Simon, who was diagnosed with terminal colon cancer in 2012, “When you watch them talk about Valediction as a rat and now you know he’s a in a pasture someplace, it makes you feel good.”
In March, PETA revealed in a New York Times article that an undercover investigator had worked with Asmussen and his assistant Scott Blasi for more than four months in 2013 and shot secret video. After reviewing seven hours of footage and preparing a 285-page report, PETA charged in formal complaints to racing authorities in Kentucky and New York that Asmussen had “forced injured and/or suffering horses to race and train.”
Asmussen can allegedly be heard on video discussing how to manufacture paperwork for illegal workers, while Blasi makes apparent reference to an electric buzzer used to shock horses during a race.
Blasi and other staff members also talk about 2011 Kentucky Derby runner-up Nehro, and how the horse had kept racing despite problems with his hooves, which were held together with filler and glue. “His foot is a little bitty nub,” said a blacksmith on the tape.
The PETA report also alleges that horses were medicated daily with thyroid medication, diuretics and other drugs even when they didn’t need them, and that horses were burned with liquid nitrogen to increase blood flow to sore spots.
As a result of PETA’s undercover taping, racing regulators in Kentucky and New York announced probes of Asmussen. Authorities in both states say their investigations are ongoing. Asmussen fired Blasi, who had worked for him for 18 years, days after the release of the tape, and Nehro’s owner removed all his horses from Asmussen’s care. Asmussen had previously served a six-month suspension in 2006 after a horse he trained tested hundreds of times over the legal limit in Louisiana for an anesthetic.
Little noticed amid the first rush of publicity for the PETA investigation, and the revelations about a Derby contender, was a lesser horse. One of the horses seen on the PETA video was Valediction, a brown stallion born in 2009. Never a top runner, he had won his first race at two years old at Keeneland in Kentucky, but then didn’t race for more than a year. When he started racing again, all but one of the races he ran in were claiming races, meaning he was essentially being offered for sale. In a claiming race, a buyer can “claim” one of the horses for a set price just before the contest begins. The claim must be made before the race starts, and a buyer can’t back out of the purchase if the horse then performs poorly.
“If they ask you how he is, say he’s my favorite horse”
On Aug. 1, 2013, at Saratoga racetrack in upstate New York, Asmussen entered Valediction in a $20,000 claiming race. Prior to the race, trainer Rudy Rodriguez “claimed” Valediction on behalf of Andrew Gurdon, a New York owner. Valediction finished fifth, and then appeared to limp off the track. According to PETA’s undercover investigator, one of Asmussen’s employees told him it was crucial to get the horse off the track while the adrenaline from the race was still in his system, and before pain and inflammation set in, so his injury would be less apparent in his gait.
After the race, Asmussen’s assistant trainer, Blasi, was elated that Rodriguez had claimed Valediction, according to the investigator. “I could do a f****** cartwheel right now,” said Blasi on PETA’s undercover tape. “If they ask you how he is, say he’s my favorite horse.”
Rodriguez knew right away something was amiss. “I thought we could make some money,” he told NBC News. “Unfortunately, when he got off the racetrack he had a broken knee or something.”
New owner Gurdon told NBC News that Rodriquez tried to avoid paying the claim and taking the horse, but the racetrack stewards wouldn’t allow it.
Clark Brewster, attorney for Asmussen and Blasi, said the horse had been fine before the race and left the track under his own power instead of being “vanned off” -- carried away by a vehicle – meaning the claim was valid.
Eight days after the race, Valediction had surgery on his left front leg for injuries apparently sustained during or after the race. The surgeon removed bone fragments but left a hairline fracture to heal. According to PETA’s investigator, many months prior to the race, while Valediction was in Asmussen’s care, the horse already had burns on his front legs indicating that at some point in the horse’s life, someone had used “freeze firing” – the application of liquid nitrogen – to speed healing.
“We’ve traded a rat for a rat”
Two months after the race, Blasi ran into Rodriguez at another racetrack. Blasi can be heard on the investigator’s tape telling Rodriquez he would “do good” with Valediction.
“Nah, he’s a rat, man,” said Rodriguez.
“Ay!” said Blasi, who had earlier claimed one of Rodriguez’s horses. “We’ve traded a rat for a rat.”
Rodriguez, who became a trainer just four years ago, has already amassed $19 million in career earnings. But in 2007, while he was working for trainer Rick Dutrow, who is now serving a 10-year ban from racing, Rodriguez was suspended for a week by Kentucky authorities and fined $2,500 for “conduct detrimental to racing” because of a horse that was trained under a false name. He had six drug “overages” of legal drugs in four other states between 2010 and 2013, and served a 20-day suspension in New York for “overages” of an anti-inflammatory drug in New York. In 2013, Kentucky racing authorities ordered round-the-clock surveillance of his entry in the Kentucky Derby –- at Rodriguez’s insistence –- before they would grant him a license. Rodriguez insisted that a third “overage” in New York had been the result of sabotage, and that someone had injected his horse without his knowledge.
Rodriguez told NBC News that his past brushes with racing authorities amounted to “very minor stuff and I don’t think it was anything wrong.”
His mission after buying Valediction was to get the horse ready to race again. After surgery, he sent Valediction to recuperate for several months at the upstate New York stable of racing agent Frank Halay. In November 2013, Halay shipped Valediction to Morrisville State College, southwest of Utica, N.Y., which has a rehab program for horses.
By February, according to Halay, the horse “seemed to be progressing really well” at Morrisville. “He was swimming in a large swimming pool several times a week,” said Halay.
Halay said Morrisville had rehabbed Valediction to the point where a vet was about to take X-rays to see if he could race again, when a call came from a man in Virginia who wanted to buy the horse.
In reality, the buyer was a front man for Sam Simon.
Simon is a long-time, prolific backer of animal rights causes and other non-profits. In 2011, he self-funded a mobile food bank that feeds the families of unemployed workers. He started a foundation to rescue shelter dogs and train them as certified assistance dogs. In 2012, he bought a ship for the Sea Shepherd Society, which sends vessels to block whaling around the world. He is a PETA board member, and has contributed so much money to the group that it named its Virginia headquarters after him.
LEIGH VOGEL / COURTESY OF PETA
Valediction, a thoroughbred racehorse, retired in Loudoun County, Va. Sam Simon, producer of 'The Simpsons,' 'Cheers,' and 'The Drew Carey Show,' among other series, is giving away his fortune before he dies of cancer. He secretly funded the 'rescue' of a racehorse, Valediction, that animal advocates say was on the verge of being raced again despite the risk of serious injury.
In November 2012, when Simon was diagnosed with terminal colon cancer, he knew how he wanted to spend his remaining days. “My new hobby in the twilight of my life,” he said, “my rich man’s hobby, I should say, is liberating animals from abusive situations such as roadside zoos and circuses.”
Soon after his diagnosis, he summoned PETA President Ingrid Newkirk to his hospital bedside. “We just talked about what we can do in the time I had left,” he said.
The decision to buy Valediction came quickly. “I got a phone call from Ingrid [about] an abused thoroughbred,” he said. “I say yes to everything she asks me.”
Newkirk told him about the undercover investigation of horse racing and said Valediction’s owners might be steering him back to the track despite his leg. Simon said yes. “I’m coming into it knowing that these horses are commodities, that this this is factory farming more than it is a sport.”
On Feb. 14, Simon’s front man purchased the horse for $60,000. Rodriguez said that owner Gurdon was still optimistic about Valediction’s chances of racing again, but “when somebody offers you that kind of money, you’ve got to cut your losses … You’re better off taking the money.”
Four days after the official purchase date, PETA got the results of a pre-purchase veterinary exam from Leatherstocking Veterinary Services. It said he was partially lame in his left leg “with significant arthritis,” inflammation, and evidence of a past fracture.
“The future soundness of this horse given his X-rays and lameness … is questionable. I would recommend he be retired as future soundness, even for trail riding, is questionable.”
The next day PETA’s buyer took Valediction to a farm in Loudoun County, Va., an hour west of Washington, D.C. , where he’s living today. No one is allowed to ride him.
LEIGH VOGEL / COURTESY OF PETA
Valediction is fed carrots at his retirement home in Loudoun County, Va.
“Valediction was in pain, arthritic and had suffered a fracture, and yet he was being prepared to race again, to wring every last dollar out of him,” said Newkirk, the PETA president. “If Sam Simon hadn’t stepped in to rescue him, I think it’s a safe bet Valediction would’ve had a catastrophic breakdown, that his next race would have been his last, and then, like most spent racehorses, he could’ve become hamburger.”
Horse slaughter for meat is illegal in the U.S., but retired and injured racehorses have long been among the U.S. horses sent to Canada and Mexico to be processed for dog food bowls or dinner tables. Even a Kentucky Derby winner may have ended up as food, according to a leading racing publication.
Halay, Rodriguez and Gurdon all say, however, that they would have had other plans for Valediction if he proved unfit for competition.
“We always try to do the right thing by the horse and if they don’t race, try to find them a home,” said Rodriguez.
Halay and Gurdon said they would’ve found a home for Valediction if he couldn’t run, perhaps sending him to a retirement home or a place where he could do trail rides.
Asmussen and Blasi referred all questions about the PETA video and Valediction to their attorney, Brewster. Brewster says he respects Simon’s motivation, but that all the trainers, Rodriguez, Asmussen and Blasi, “did right” by Valediction.
Said Brewster, “This was a success story, not a negative story. “
He also says PETA’s video is “heavily edited” and the animals rights group “manipulate[s] the facts.”
“I mean they’re just not honest people,” said Brewster. “They have an agenda. The end justifies the means for these folks.”
“When I talked to Steve [Asmussen] about [Valediction], he loved the horse,” said Brewster. “Everybody did.”
Simon jokes that he wants to bring Valediction out to Los Angeles, so he can show him off. “I have friends with Teslas and I want to know how to top that.”
More seriously, however, Simon says he’s just happy to have provided a happy ending for one horse.
“People don’t know what they’re watching when they’re watching a horse race,” he said.
Asmussen’s entry in Saturday’s Kentucky Derby, Tapiture, will start from the 15th position. Tapiture is rated by bettors as a one in 15 shot to win the race.
LEIGH VOGEL / COURTESY OF PETA
LEIGH VOGEL / COURTESY OF PETA