D IF FI CULT in the HORSE RE
SOMEONE had left the big chestnut at the New Holland Auction in southeastern Pennsylvania in a halter and lead rope made of baling twine. A gash ran across his forehead and fur was missing from above his eye. He paced in his pen and screamed. He was likely a Hanoverian in his twenties and his more likely future was the Canadian slaughter yards.
By Patti Schofler
where he was named Pacino, after Al in the movie Scarface. Not so fortunate are other Warmbloods—and those of
H
every other breed. Several horses from a Pennsylvania sales barn were so debilitated that they were sold to a man who planned to butcher them to feed his large cats. Through the New Holland Auction, the cat owner asked Kelly Smith, founder of Omega Rescue, if she wanted two he didn’t need. “I saw something was moving on the side of the mare. I
was told she had fallen in the trailer going to the sales barn, and had been trampled by other horses. She was in such excruciating pain and she was pawing the ground. I won’t forget how a foal had gotten loose and was running around and in all that pain the mare was in, she stopped and nick- ered to the foal,” Kelly says. “I rushed her to New Bolton [Center Hospital, Univer-
sity of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine]. It turns out her stomach wall had caved in and her intestines were pushed up against her skin. She had a broken jaw and she was bleeding internally.” The mare was euthanized, the most humane solution and one Kelly says she much prefers to slaughter.
14 November/December 2015
is potentially tragic destiny was diverted by Omega Rescue before he was loaded on the transport, and he landed at Diamond L Riding Academy in May
Famous Rescue Story Omega Rescue and the New Holland Auction in New Holland,
Pennsylvania, along with the kill buyers (those who ship horses to slaughter outside the U.S since slaughter is illegal here) who shop at the auction, have a long history together. They recently were tied closer by a forthcoming documen- tary about international jumper champions Harry deLeyer and the horse Snowman. Harry rescued the horse by taking him off a truck destined for the slaughter yards more than fifty years ago. The connection was
cemented this year when the film crew, after
completing the filming of Harry & Snowman, went with Kelly to a kill buyer’s facility. So distressed by what they saw, the crew bought three of the 25 horses bound for slaughter and formed a partnership with Omega to establish the Snowman Rescue Fund. “You can hear about it, but seeing it is devastating,” says
Ron Davis, film co-producer and director and himself a former jumper rider. “At the kill barn, the holding pens make
Kelly Smith
Courtesy Harry deLeyer
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