Rescue groups save racehorses from slaughterhouses

The handsome bay horse stood in a corral behind the Enumclaw livestock auction in May with other horses destined for slaughter in Canada. His sleek coat and muscular build tipped off members of the horse-rescue community, who checked his lip for the tattoo that identified him as a racehorse.

An Internet search quickly identified the Thoroughbred as Bucky B Lucky, a 4-year-old grandson of Seattle Slew.

Jeannette Parrett, a Federal Way horse lover and racing fan, not only recognized Bucky's name, she also had stood in the winner's circle with him at Emerald Downs racetrack in Auburn the previous year.

Now Bucky stood in a pen with other horses that had been sold to a meat buyer.

Parrett purchased Bucky and donated him to a rescue organization with a farm in Monroe.

Four more Thoroughbreds turned up at the Enumclaw auction barn the same month with splotchy green paint over their tattoos, as if someone were trying to hide their identity. All the horses had raced briefly at Emerald Downs or Portland Meadows but hadn't competed for months.

Horse-rescue groups bought these Thoroughbreds, and more than two dozen others this year alone, to ensure that they wouldn't be butchered, their meat exported for human consumption in Europe and Japan.

The United States shut down horse slaughterhouses in 2007 amid concerns about killing horses for their meat, but they're still legal in Canada and Mexico.

Some racehorses that are auctioned find new homes, but many are sold by the pound, loaded into semitrailers and hauled thousands of miles away.

"Most horse-race fans would be appalled to learn that these elite athletes who we breed, raise and train, who we call by name, are sent away to be eaten when they no longer perform," said Parrett, a volunteer with Save a Forgotten Equine (SAFE), a Monroe rescue organization. She said the economic downturn has led to more horses of all breeds being abandoned, making it even more difficult to find new homes for retired racehorses.

The New York State Racing Association, as well as some racetracks around the country, have adopted zero-tolerance policies that call for banning any trainer or owner who directly or indirectly transports a horse to an auction house that sells horses to slaughter.

Portland Meadows, which is part of a chain of racetracks that includes Santa Anita Park outside Los Angeles and Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, adopted the no-slaughter policy for its racehorses in 2008.

Emerald Downs has not enacted such a policy, and track managers there question whether it could be legally enforced.

"Nobody in this organization wants to see horses go to slaughter," said Jack Hodge, vice president of Emerald Downs. "But I don't know how we'd prove intent, if someone wanted to challenge it."

Hodge said he has "no firsthand information" that horses taken to auction at the Enumclaw Pavilion are being trucked to Canada for slaughter.

But Ron Mariotti, the owner and auctioneer of the Enumclaw Sales Pavilion, makes no secret that he is running a business. He sells horses, including Thoroughbreds, to the highest bidder. If the bid is below what he can get selling the horse for meat, he'll sell to a meat buyer or truck the horses himself to a Stanwood feed lot, where they are hauled to legal slaughter houses in Canada.

"Some go to slaughter, some go to new homes," Mariotti says about the horses he auctions off on the first Sunday of each month. "A horse is a product, just like a cow or a steer. The bleeding hearts who've got it in mind that they're going to save every one, they're idiots."

Horse advocates say there are many options for racehorses besides slaughter. Some tracks, including Emerald Downs, have created funds to help pay for placement and retraining of injured or retired Thoroughbreds, who may only be 4 or 5 years old when their racing careers end and may live another 20 to 30 years. These horses can learn new careers as trail horses, show horses or polo ponies, among other tasks, Hodge said.

Emerald Downs created the Prodigious Fund, named for a successful local horse whose career ended in injury and whom Hodge took home and retrained. Owners pay a voluntary fee per race and the track matches the amount raised each season. This year $20,000 was donated to find foster homes and retrain retired racehorses.

Hodge said the track also works with a local rescue facility, Second Chance Ranch. Over the past 10 years, more than 500 Thoroughbreds have gone from Emerald Downs to the ranch, where the horses learn another career and are placed in new homes, said Katie Merwick, the founder of Second Chance. She said it costs between $1,000 and $2,000 to retrain a racehorse.

Hodge said the track would continue to press owners to "make sure the best is done for every individual horse." And he added that most owners and trainers find their racehorses good homes when they leave the track.

Bucky's story

The story of how Bucky B Lucky ended up at the Enumclaw Sales Pavilion follows a path familiar to the Thoroughbred rescue community. Bucky was purchased as a yearling and trained at the West Coast Training Center, a 22-acre facility along the Green River owned by Keith Swagerty, a former professional basketball player and coach at Seattle Pacific University.

Swagerty remembers Bucky as "gregarious and personable." The bay horse was also a winner, earning $20,115 between 2007 and 2009 at Emerald Downs. His record caught the attention of Jeff Dorsch, a King County Sheriff's deputy who was drawn to the excitement of the racetrack so close to his Covington home.

"I thought it would be cool to own a racehorse. I liked Bucky's winning record and that he was cheap," he said.

Dorsch bought Bucky in September 2009 for $3,500 in what's known as a "claiming race," a race where a buyer agrees in advance of a race to pay a price set by the track. Bucky went from Swag Stables to the stables of Dorsch's trainer, Roy Lumm. Bucky raced twice more last year but came up lame. He rested over the winter, but in early spring, an X-ray showed bone chips in his leg that would require a $10,000 surgery to repair, Dorsch said.

Lumm, who's been in the horse-racing business for more than 50 years, said Bucky would not race again. Dorsch asked the trainer to find the big bay a good home. Lumm said he would.

Contacted in California, where he works the winter racing season, Lumm said he gave Bucky "to a gal who said she knew someone who wanted a riding horse. I don't know exactly what happened to him."

The next thing Dorsch knew, Jeannette Parrett was calling him to say that Bucky had been dropped off at the auction barn.

"Obviously I was appalled," Dorsch said. "I had no idea they sold horses to slaughter. I had no idea what happens to racehorses when they retire. I was naive."

Parrett used her winnings from a bet on 2010 Kentucky Derby winner Super Saver to buy Bucky from the auction barn. Swagerty also wrote a check to help pay for his future board. Bucky was placed at the Monroe farm run by Jaime Taft, president of SAFE, where he's now available for adoption to an intermediate rider.

He still has the bone chips, and will be prone to arthritis in later life, but isn't bothered by light riding, Taft said. He's happy and loves attention, she said.

Taft remembers when Bucky arrived last May, about 100 to 150 pounds underweight, with bites and hoofprints on his coat from being penned with other horses at the auction barn.

Taft's farm is on a broad plain set against the Cascade Mountains. White fencing runs the length of its fields. A dozen other horses grazed in the pastures.

Taft said Bucky backed into a corner of his new stall and fell asleep.

"It was as if he was saying, 'OK, I'm safe now,' " she said.

Lynn Thompson: 206-464-8305 or lthompson@seattletimes.com