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Subject: Re: search for Edwards siblings
Date: 24 Jun 2005 10:50:51 -0600
This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list.
Classification: Lookup
Message Board URL:
http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/FW.2ADI/1806.2
Message Board Post:
A phone number search:
K B Farms - (661) 834-1256 - 7301 Cottonwood Rd, Bakersfield, CA 93307
An article from the equine protection network:
http://equineprotectionnetwork.com/press/miracle.htm
The Miracle Mile
Snatched from the jaws of death, this game little filly's success helps a crusade to save other Standardbreds from a similar fate
July 1990 issue of Horse and Rider
By JAN GREER
THE big bay mare shifted her weight uncomfortably in the rumbling truck Her legs were swollen from standing still for so long. The other horses in the trailer were packed in so tightly that moving was an impossibility. Her thoughts were a tangle of confusion; her life had been so peaceful until the day after the auction, when gruff men had forced her and her companions into this strange truck. The mare nosed the stale fodder in the feed bin, listlessly eating a small mouthful. It tasted sour and her throat was dry and parched, but she swallowed it dutifully. The foal within her belly was demanding food, and instinct made her eat to keep up her strength. The demands of the foal had already stripped the rich layer of maternal fat from her body, and the remainder of her weight was dropping rapidly. With her eyes half-closed, she dozed, dreaming of rich, green pastures and clear, cold streams.
The bay mare's eyes flew open, the truck had stopped moving. The strange men surrounded the trailer, opening the ramp. The mare and her traveling partners were rapidly forced out of the trailer. When she was finally standing on solid ground, she looked back into the trailer. There, at the very front, was an old friend, a gelding she had once known from the racetrack. One of his front legs was dangling at a strange angle. And she could tell by the pain in his glazed eyes that he had made the long trip in that condition Then suddenly, they were all being herded into a large holding pen. At the far end of the pen was a long, low building. The closer the mare got to the it, the more her alarm increased She stopped, lifted her head and smelled the air. Fear, death, blood, pain, all of these images became clear to her. She jerked her head around and surveyed the pens on each side of her. They were filled with horses, hundreds of them it seemed, and their eyes were lifeless and the!
ir heads hung close to the ground. She whickered a soft greeting, but not even an ear twitched in the adjoining pens.
The bay mare could not have known she was at a slaughter-house, but her feeling of desolation was overwhelming. She ambled her large bulk into a corner farthest from the low building, and let her head droop like the others. Nature urged her to fight as long as possible for the little life that was kicking within her. Her eyes clouded briefly at the sound of the shotgun crack, as if she was saying a quick good-bye to her old friend.
She lifted her head sometime later to the sound of human voices near her pen. A man and woman were talking excitedly to one of the men from the truck, pointing to her and her traveling companions. Once again, she was being loaded into a trailer; this trailer was not as bad as the last, however. She had plenty of room to stand, and a gentle voice brought her some fragrant, clean hay to eat and a big bucket of cool water. The mare began to relax as she moved farther and farther away from the smell of death. After many hours of dozing to the rhythmic sway of the trailer, the mare awoke with a start. She felt the familiar tightening of muscles in her belly, a warning of the contractions soon to come. As she nosed the confines of her small traveling stall, she saw that there wasn't room to lie down. The bay mare flattened her ears at a neighboring gelding. The maternal instinct was already telling her to get away from the herd and find a safe, quiet place to bring her foal into t!
he world.
The trailer shuddered to a stop just as the mare's water broke, streaming down her hind legs and onto the floor of the trailer. She heard concerned voices outside and before she knew it, she was being led out into the night. Giant lights illuminated the ground around the trailer. The man leading her said some quiet words and laid a gentle hand on her sweating neck. A bale of hay was opened in front of her and spread on the concrete, while the encouraging voice urged her toward it. Realizing the rough bed was for her use, she circled the hay twice, dropped to her knees and slowly eased her great weight to the ground. Minutes later, the ordeal was over.
As the bay mare rested her head on the ground, the tiny bay filly took her first, wet look at the world.
When the owners of 28 Standardbred horses consigned them to an auction in Pomona, California in February of 1986, they had no idea that the purchasers were butchers, planning to sell the animals "by the pound."
After the sale, Standardbred breeder Marcie Knittel asked her husband, Dr. Wayne Knittel (who had attended the auction), what had become of a mare that had once been boarded at their farm. "The mare only sold for $100," Marcie recalled, But Wayne talked to the bidder after the sale and the man told him she was going to a good home to be a kid's riding horse in the mountains. It sounded very nice." Unfortunately, it wasn't "nice" for very long. The day following the auction, a strange truck was seen pulling into the sale facility. Instead of a horse van, it was a large "bull wagon," the type of vehicle normally used for hauling cattle. It suddenly became clear that the horses had been sold for slaughter. Marcie was notified, and she immediately went to work. She tracked down enough information on the buyer to contact his wife, who told her "they've already gone to Texas."
More sleuthing turned up the name of the packing plant where the horses were headed. Marcie contacted the plant manager by phone and persuaded him to let her buy the horses back.
Marcie's next step was to contact all of the previous owners that had consigned horses to the sale. She explained what had happened and pleaded with the owners to buy back their own horses. Even if the owners were not interested in possession of the horse again, Marcie asked them to contribute to the fund and give permission for another home to be found for their horse. Her diligent efforts were rewarded - funds for the buy-back were arranged and permission was given to find new homes for the horses sentenced to death. This was the birth of the Horse Care Foundation, a non-profit organization that arranges new homes for Standardbred racehorses to keep them from slaughter. The only remaining problem for Marcie was locating the horses and arranging for their rescue before it was too late.
Enter Mel and Sue Boyce, friends of the Knittels and owners of a horse transportation company Mel Boyce Van Service). "Marcie called Mel and asked him just what it would take to get our vans down to Texas and bring those horses home," recalls Sue. "We figured it would take us a little more than 24 hours driving straight through to get down to Morton, Texas where the slaughterhouse was, so we were on the road as soon as possible." Dr. Knittel jumped on a plane and flew down to Texas to finalize negotiations with the owner of the slaughterhouse. "Of course, the owner was asking a lot more for the horses than what he paid," Sue said' "but we gave him what be wanted. He ended up making a tremendous profit!"
Mel and Sue arrived at the slaughterhouse to find the negotiations had been successful. Unfortunately, what greeted them was not a happy sight. 'The horses were in pretty poor shape due to the trip down there and the time they had actually spent in Texas," Sue said.
"There was a really weird feeling down there. None of the horses had their heads up, they were all kind of drooped. It was almost as if they sensed something wasn't right. We loaded all 26 of the horses into our vans on the evening of February 22, 1986, and began the trip back to California."
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