Ex-Racehorses Starve (says Drape in Times attack)
 

The road to hell is paved with good intentions....and lack of money!

Or the shortsighted fact that they made horse slaughter illegal and farmed it out to foreign countries where it isn't regulated.

Owner could still take responsibility, and pay $200 to have their unwanted horses euthanized, rather than trying to get a final $250-500 for them at a killer buncher.

Or do as some of the farms used to: line up the unwanteds every spring in the back pasture, humanely shoot them, and bury them on the farm.

The problem is that people don't have the guts to take responsibility for their animals. It's difficult, I agree. Who wants to put down a horse that's 10 years old but nothing but a pasture ornament, so no longer wanted? So they sell it to a "good home" - which is a buncher.

If you are going to be in livestock, you have to be willing to be tough and humane.

I was in Costa Rica over the holiday and quite a bit of people there still use horses as their main transportation. I'm sure quite a few unwanteds would get a good home, the only problem and it is a huge one is the logistcs of getting the horses there.

Yeah, trying to insure they would get humane treatment etc, but we need to think outside the box and ideas such as that deserve consideration...good idea!

Is there a typo in there? Reduce the per diem TO $3 - who can feed a horse on $3 per day?

Nobody. It's disturbing, the pattern of not paying for their horses, over time. If they can only afford to pay for X number of horses, that's what they are going to have to do. It's heartbreaking to say, "No, we can't take another horse, sorry", but you can't let them starve trying to be a do-gooder.

Overbreeding at work again.

TRF, others refute misrepresentations in Drape smear
 

TRF Leadership Defends Organization
By Ron Mitchell

Updated: Friday, March 18, 2011 5:15 PM
Posted: Friday, March 18, 2011 4:47 PM

Leadership of the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation on March 18 defended the organization from allegations that some horses were being neglected while under the care of the equine retirement program and said it was continuining to work to fulfill its mission. During a teleconference to address a front page article in the New York Times, TRF chairman Tom Ludt said the organization “disputes many of the assumptions in the story.”

Dr. Patty Hogan responds to Drape
by Paulick Report Staff

Equine surgeon Patty Hogan, a recent addition to the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation, responded below to Joe Drape’s article in the New York Times regarding management of the organization’s horses.

Mr. Drape - I feel I must address some of your comments with some real facts:

1. The entire TRF board had the vet report you were referring to on February 23rd - the day it was written. Dr. Loafman was evaluating those horses at the direct request of the TRF/Mellon Fdn in order to insure accurate medical assessments and the safe shipping of all of the horses from that ranch. So yes we had that information way before you did and it was at our own request. I personally spoke to Dr Loafman at length and reviewed photos of the horses as well. I wish you had bothered to ask me about it.

2. The TRF had been trying to gain access to that ranch for weeks and was continuously denied- even showing up and the gates being locked. The reason why an "intent not to prosecute" was signed was to allow us to have the cooperation of the ranch owner and get onto the premises ASAP. If we went thru legal avenues at a snails pace, we would have wasted precious time and resources rather than having the chance to immediately retrieve our horses and move them to another location. This also allowed us to send in a team of horsemen and a veterinarian to the ranch after we removed our horses, in order to personally inspect all 4000 acres and be sure there were no horses left behind or unaccounted for. We could not have done that in a timely manner otherwise. We were also advised by the sherriff's department to proceed in this manner.

3. As soon as the TRF board was made aware of what was happening, action was immediately taken to take care of the horses. That was our #1 priority. There was no cover-up, there was no hush-hush. If you had asked us for information, we would surely have given it. But the truth is, you did not ask. If you had written this article as an investigative piece, rather than in the tabloid-fashion that it was, then maybe we would have had some valuable journalism here. You took what information was presented to you on a 'silver platter' by a person(s) obviously with an agenda, and ran with it. The fact is you contacted the TRF the day before the story was to print, without so much as a desire to find out the facts. The TRF offered you many sources to check into and that didn't happen. Give us a chance please.

4. No one is getting rich here. The TRF is not a perfect charity and has made many mistakes and exercised poor judgement. But the intent was clear and well-meaning - to provide a place for these racehorses that no one wanted. The fact is the TRF feeds 1200/day every day of the year and is struggling, as are many rescues/adoption organizations. Of course they are behind on their bills - but what do you do? If you are running a business, you would cut your losses, lay people off, whatever. What can you do here when the very thing you cannot afford to do is to feed and care for a living animal that your whole mission is to protect? Where do you cut your losses? The books are open for all to see - there is little money spent on administration - most of the salaried monies are for farm managers. The rest is for horse care - and there is not enough of it to go around - plain and simple. This is not unique to the TRF - it is happening everywhere. Without an industry mandate, volunteer organizations are left to tackle this terrible problem essentially on their own.

5. I work with many rescues/adoption organizations and I can tell you that they are all STRUGGLING to battle this problem attached to racing - there is a multitude of unusable horses,increasingly limited funds, and less and less opportunities for second careers. Almost everyone who is dedicated to these programs does so on a volunteer basis - even these "blue-chip board members" as you call them. We actually volunteer for this job- crazy as it is. Believe me, is is not picnic to give up hours and hours of your personal time, your own money, and expend efforts to help these horses, only to have someone like you have the ignorance and gall to paint this picture with such a broad,unflattering, and very midguided brush.

I fear that there can be no good to come out of your article and the horses will only suffer even more. Donations are already so hard to come by in these tough economic times, and the less people are inclined to trust and give, the less horses that will be cared for.

Maybe you would like to throw a couple of bales of hay our way? Its the least you could do.

Dr. Patty Hogan
TRF Board Member

TRF: No Easy Solutions
by Ray Paulick

The allegations made by Drape – which I dispute as largely false and reckless -- are painful. Though several TRF board members, in particular chairman Tom Ludt and president George Grayson (who stepped into the role when a former president resigned suddenly Jan. 17 of this year) have spent countless hours dealing with the issues raised over the past several months, this is not the time or place to get into a “he said/she said” debate over conflicting reports from equine veterinarians on the care of the TRF horses, the motive of the veterinarian that leaked her reports to the New York Times, the competence of some former TRF employees, or the relationship between the executors of Paul Mellon’s estate and the TRF.

Thanks for these, so hard to get an accurate picture without info.

Joe Drape is a sad joke.

Problem nowadays is information is instant and most people believe what they read in the media with question. Especially from the NY Times... People are too fuking lazy to dig deeper.

PS..

I am still reeling over the Memphis loss...

Yes he is. . . I think there's obviously some validity to elements of this story, but the presentation of things came with that usual Drape spin.

They did cover

If you've ever witnessed his attempts to handicap or to cover actual horse racing .... you'd better appreciate how relatively good his columns on subjects like this are.

I guess he didn't want to let too much time go by before he got a negative and inaccurate article about horse racing out. The one about drugs/steroids or trainers w/suspensions is probably due in 6-8 weeks. I'm sure he's got it marked on his calendar.