A report published March 4 from the Albany Times Union spotlights the ongoing aftercare issues in the Thoroughbred and Standardbred racing industries in New York. The report examines the case of Tender Boy, who last ran at Finger Lakes in November 2021 and showed up on social media as being in a kill pen in Pennsylvania the following month.
Timothy Murphy, horse's owner/trainer, told the Times Union he had spent two years trying to rehabilitate the horse from a serious hoof issue, but that Tender Boy's return to the races was not successful. Murphy said he gave the horse away and the Thoroughbred later ended up at a livestock auction, where he was purchased by Bruce Rotz. Rotz maintains a contract with a horse meat plant in Canada.
Upon recovery from Rotz's kill pen, rescue advocates told the newspaper they thought the horse had been drugged at the auction and was revealed to have significant laminitis, which they believed had been brewing for as much as six months.
According to reporting from the Times Union, 13 trucks carried horses from Rotz's facility in Shippensburg, Penn., to Quebec loaded with horses for slaughter in an 11-week period in early 2020. A total of 350 horses were carried on those loads; of those, records indicated 16 were Thoroughbreds and 119 were Standardbreds. It's uncertain what the breed composition is of the horses exported to Canada or Mexico for human consumption, but some rescue advocates have indicated Thoroughbreds may be under-represented in the scant available paperwork or unofficial surveys of kill pens because some may be sent “direct ship” to protect the identities of their racing connections.
A new law recently passed in New York now prohibits the transportation of horses for the purposes of slaughter, which will lengthen the journey to Canada for those originating in Pennsylvania, as they now must skirt the state.
New York is the only state so far to implement regulations specifically prohibiting racehorses or racingstock from entering the slaughter pipeline. Questions remain about how those regulations will be enforced.
Read more at the Albany Times Union
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