Fight to save horses from slaughter continues

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BY OSKAR GARCIA / The Associated Press

Horse rescue workers fought to raise enough money by Easter to buy nearly two dozen horses from a feedlot in rural Nebraska, one week after most of a herd of about 250 was sent to slaughter.

So far they’ve raised $12,000 from donors in several states. Epona Horse Rescue in Kearney has purchased 18 horses for about $8,000, and private buyers purchased four more. The group has a deal with the owner to buy 23 more for $7,500, according to Lin Beaune of Epona.

Beaune estimated it would cost at least $20,000 to buy all the horses, nurse them back to health and care for them for a month. Rescuers hope many of the horses can eventually be adopted.

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Horses feed on March 20, 2007, at a feedlot in Filley. (AP)

Horses feed on March 20, 2007, at a feedlot in Filley. (AP)

“People across the country have stepped up to help these horses,” Beaune said, adding that donations came in from West Virginia, California and Tennessee.

Owner Gilbert Wolken told The Associated Press Wednesday he bought the horses to make money. He said he was selling those remaining to rescuers instead of other buyers to make more money.

“When I wanted to sell them, I got to sell them the way I wanted to,” Wolken said. “They just come in and they didn’t want to see them go the way I was going to go with them.”

Support to buy the horses has far surpassed what Beaune and others working to buy the horses expected a week ago, when they had raised enough money to buy just eight of the horses.

Wolken had kept the horses on his feedlot north of Filley about 100 miles south-southwest of Omaha.

“Everyone is emotionally and physically exhausted at this point,” Beaune said. “We’re kind of in a quiet time — the eye of the storm you might say — waiting to raise the funds.”

Christina Miller of Heartland Horse Rescue in Linwood said costs to buy the horses and care for the horses for 90 days could approach $40,000, including veterinary care. Her rescue set up a Web site with pictures of many of the horses left to be purchased.

“There are a few of them that are going to need, to be honest, they’re going to need to be euthanized.” Miller said. “They’re in really bad shape.”

Wolken denied that any of the horses were in bad health.

“That wasn’t the case. They were well taken care of,” he said. “Cracked corn ... and hay, all they wanted to eat, 24 hours a day.”

Wolken would not say who he found to buy the horses, but confirmed selling at least some of the horses to “kill buyers.”

Many kill buyers pay low prices for horses, slaughter them and ship the horse meat overseas.

The closing of several slaughterhouses nationwide has left parts of the country with a surplus of horses.

Fewer horses are being sent to slaughter for human consumption overseas because of public backlash against the practice.

Many members of Congress have also been pushing a national ban on butchering horses for human consumption.