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FROM
Josh Peter, USAToday.com
November 1, 2019
Mike McBarron stepped out of the 96-degree heat and into a shed on his
feedlot after loading 37 horses onto a truck. They were headed to Mexico,
where they would be slaughtered and shipped around the world for human
consumption.
“It’s just a job to me,” McBarron told USA TODAY Sports. “I mean, I don’t
attach myself to them. I don’t fall in love with them.”
McBarron, 48, is one of the country’s most prolific “kill buyers,” people
who buy horses and sell them to slaughterhouses. They also represent an
uncomfortable reality for the horse racing industry.
Over the past decade, an average of more than 600 thoroughbreds a year have
died because of racing, according to research by the USA TODAY Network. By
contrast, an estimated 7,500 thoroughbreds a year are slaughtered for human
consumption, according to Alex Waldrop, president of the National
Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA).
From the racetrack to a dinner plate, it has been said of thoroughbreds
that are slaughtered and end up in restaurants and markets throughout Asia
and Europe in countries such as China, Japan, Germany and Russia.
“The problem is that the entire industry is a conveyor belt for slaughter,’’
said John Holland, president of the Equine Welfare Alliance, a nonprofit
organization dedicated to ending the slaughter of American horses. “They
just keep cranking them (out).’’
McBarron, who acknowledged he has bought and sold retired racehorses for
slaughter, has sent tens of thousands of horses to slaughter plants and
generated millions of dollars in revenue, according to invoices cited in an
informal investigation conducted by a nonprofit group called Animals’
Angels. That practice is unlikely to be a popular topic this week at the
Breeders’ Cup, which has attracted many of the sport’s top horses and
intense scrutiny of the sport.
Santa Anita Park, the Southern California racetrack that on Friday and
Saturday will host the annual event, is dealing with the backlash from a
string of race-related horse deaths — 36 since December. The Los Angeles
district attorney’s office has launched an investigation and, as protesters
decry the horse deaths at Santa Anita and elsewhere, PETA has called on
states to suspend racing “until real answers are supplied about these deaths
and the carnage is ended.”
Meanwhile, without public outcry, American-born thoroughbreds are trucked
across the border for slaughter. So far this year, accounting for all
breeds, more than 57,000 horses have been shipped for slaughter to Mexico
and Canada from the United States, according to U.S. Department of
Agriculture (USDA) data.
McBarron, who said he’s been in the business of shipping horses to slaughter
for 30 years, suggests it’s a public service because he said the horses
would otherwise be abandoned.
“Baby, you want to talk about an apocalypse now,” McBarron said, invoking
images of cars colliding with horses. “It ain’t like hitting a dog. You hit
a horse, it’s maybe 1,300 pounds. It’s like hitting a brick wall.
“The animal lovers, they don’t understand stuff like that.”
Most of the thoroughbreds shipped for slaughter are little known, but not
all of them.
Ferdinand, winner of the 1986 Kentucky Derby, likely died in a
slaughterhouse, according to a 2003 report published by The Blood-Horse, a
weekly news magazine focusing on the thoroughbred industry.
The Blood-Horse reported that Ferdinand, born in Kentucky and later sold to
a Japanese breeding farm, likely died in a Japanese slaughterhouse in 2002
and probably became steak or pet food.
Outrage reached Capitol Hill.
In 2006, by a vote of 263-146, the House of Representatives passed
legislation to not only ban horse slaughter in the U.S. but also ban the
transport and export of American horses for slaughter. The bill died in the
Senate.
Similar efforts since then have fizzled despite bipartisan support from
prominent lawmakers with Vice President Mike Pence voting in favor of horse
slaughter prohibition in 2006, when he was an Indiana congressman, and House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi doing the same. Nine times legislation to ban horse
slaughter has been introduced in Congress, and eight times it has failed to
be enacted into law.
John Sweeney, the former Republican congressman from New York who sponsored
the House 2006 bill, said he got a firsthand look at the horse slaughter
business while traveling with animal rights activists, and he characterized
kill buyers as “like the dregs of society.’’
“If the vast majority of people got a look at it, what they were doing, they
would be put out of business in a New York minute,’’ Sweeney said. “People
would be revolted by it and the rats would all run for the hills.’’
Sweeney said the “agricultural establishment,” including the cattle lobby,
has blocked the legislation. (Farmers have said they worry a ban on the
slaughter of horses could lead to a ban on the slaughter of other livestock
— a so-called “slippery slope.” Ranchers have said slaughter is an important
way to protect their land from being overrun by wild horses.)
“It shouldn’t have been controversial (legislation), but you had all of
these sort of powerful interests tied to campaign contributions,’’ said
Sweeney, who served four terms in Congress.
Yet Sweeney and his allies scored a victory.
In 2006, Congress passed a budget that barred the USDA from using taxpayer
funds for inspection at horse slaughter plants, effectively creating a
temporary ban on horse slaughter that Congress has renewed with each
subsequent federal budget. At about the same time, state law in Texas and
Illinois also were used to shut down the last three U.S.-based horse
slaughter plants.
While McBarron and the other kill buyers adapted by exporting horses to
Mexico and Canada, they also have found new customers — some of the same
people who decry horse slaughter, in fact.
Purchasing horses at auctions and private sales, McBarron and other kill
buyers post photos of the horses on Facebook and other social media websites
and offer potential buyers a chance to save them. The kill buyers can sell
the horses to slaughter plants for about 60 cents a pound, according to
McBarron, but first try to find online buyers.
“Don’t nobody buy them, then we ship them to slaughter,’’ said McBarron, who
also has shipped donkeys and mules for slaughter. “We’re not going to keep
them around just to look at them. I mean, we’re in this for a business.”
Then there is another business — exposing kill buyers.
The activist
That August day when McBarron loaded up the 37 horses, Sonja Meadows, an
animal rights activist for Animals’ Angels, was secretly taking video of
activity at McBarron’s feedlot. Yet again.
Her informal investigation of McBarron began six years ago.
In 2016, Meadows published a report on the Animals’ Angels website that
claimed, “Mike McBarron runs a multi-million dollar operation while
violating animal protection laws and regulations as well as environmental
laws on a regular basis.”
Meadows, who obtained documents and did surveillance of McBarron, alleged
that horses at McBarron’s feedlot die without assistance, carry infectious
diseases such as strangles or equine influenza and fail to get veterinary
care for infected wounds and other medical problems.
McBarron denied the allegations.
“Do I have horses die at my facility? Sometimes I do, yes,’’ McBarron said.
“Horses are like people. They die. But they ain’t dying because I’m
mistreating them or starving them or letting them go without veterinary
care.’’
Once Meadows’ report was complete, she said, she forwarded it to the USDA,
Texas Office of the Attorney General, Texas Department of Environmental
Quality and the sheriff’s office in Kaufman County, where McBarron lives. To
date, according to Meadows, the only information available about action
taken in response to her allegations of McBarron is he received a warning
from the Department of Environmental Quality for burying horses on an
adjacent property.
Meadows’ allegations fall outside the scope of the USDA authority, said
Joelle Hayden, a public affairs specialist for USDA’s investigative arm who
added that animal cruelty cases are handled by state law enforcement.
The three other agencies Meadows said she contacted about McBarron’s alleged
violations did not respond to USA TODAY Sports’ requests for information
about whether they followed up on her complaints.
After Meadows published her allegations, McBarron built a fence about 10
feet high that he said was an attempt to restrict the view of his property
from animal rights activists.
But that hasn’t stopped Meadows.
As McBarron worked at his feedlot, Meadows prepared to climb a tree on a
neighboring property.
“Watch for the snakes once we get to the underbrush,’’ she said.
Her forearms were scraped. Her left shoulder was bruised. Two days earlier,
Meadows explained, she climbed a tree while trying to secretly shoot video
at the property of another kill buyer. A tree limb broke and she fell 6
feet, said Meadows, 46.
“This line of work isn’t without risks,” she said, adding that while
conducting her investigations, she and her husband, Keith, have had guns
pointed at them, been chased by hornets and pit bulls, and fallen into a
river and from trees.
When attending public auctions, Meadows said, sometimes she wears a wig to
mask her identity and records video with a hidden camera. The day she
recorded at McBarron’s property, she outfitted herself in camouflage gear —
hat, jacket and gloves.
With her husband cupping his hands and providing a lift, Meadows clambered
up the tree and settled between two limbs. Then she pulled out her camera
and surveyed the property for signs of animal cruelty — something that might
otherwise be handled by enforcement agencies.
‘Never forget that sound’
The USDA remains responsible for enforcing laws regarding the transport of
horses for slaughter in Mexico and Canada. Those laws, spelled out in the
Commercial Transportation of Equines for Slaughter Act (CTESA), are designed
to protect the health and welfare of the horses. But the USDA has been
forced to rein in the oversight, said Joelle Hayden, a public affairs
specialist for USDA’s investigative arm.
“Due to current Congressional funding restrictions, USDA is prohibited from
inspecting horses covered under the CTESA,’’ Hayden said by email. “These
restrictions have been in place for the past few years. If we receive
evidence of CTESA noncompliance, we look into the matter and take
enforcement action as warranted.”
Sweeney said the USDA never wanted to enforce regulations and he dismissed
the notion that funding restrictions has anything to do with it.
“They always came up with that excuse,’’ he said.
That’s where activists such as Meadows come in.
Born and raised in Germany, Meadows said, “I remember as soon as I could
walk I would bring home injured birds and dogs, driving my mother crazy.’’
Meadows said she was working as an attorney in the automotive industry in
2005 when she took a road trip in Texas that changed her life. Driving
through the night, she stopped at a gas station.
“I heard the cashier say, ‘Oh, here they are again. Poor horses. They’re all
going to be steak soon.’ ” Meadows said. “There was a big rig, a big
transport truck, that had about 40 horses on it.
“I will never forget that sound. I’ve heard it so many times now, but that
first time still sticks in my mind. How their hooves kicked the aluminum
sides of the trailer with such force.
“I looked into the trailer and they were standing in there, crammed like
sardines, with their heads down. And the next thing that always stuck with
me was how angry the driver was. He came at me and he said, ‘What are you
looking at?’ ”
When she returned to Germany, she began researching the horse slaughter
industry, Meadows said. In less than two years, she had given up her job as
an attorney, moved to Maryland and started Animals’ Angels Inc., a nonprofit
devoted to exposing animal cruelty, with a focus on horse slaughter.
Investigations were launched by Animals’ Angels. Results were published
online. Donations came pouring in.
Animals’ Angels, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, raised more than $6 million between
2013 and 2018, according to tax forms. There are 665 investigative reports
published on the group’s website, with more than 500 on horse slaughter.
Even though transporting American horses for slaughter is legal, Meadows
said she has found countless cases of animal cruelty and reported alleged
offenders to authorities.
McBarron is one of 40 large-scale kill buyers she has identified. The signs
of his financial success are easy to spot.
‘The devil’
McBarron lives on a 9.7-acre property about 20 miles east of Dallas, and his
Mercedes and Chevy Suburban were parked in the carport during a visit to his
home. He lives with his wife, Katie, and her young daughter from a previous
relationship.
McBarron also owns a 23-foot pontoon and, according to public records,
lakefront property in Malakoff, Texas, that he bought this year for about
$500,000.
Yet because he has made his money in the horse slaughter business, McBarron
said, animal rights activists think he’s “the devil.’’ Think again, McBarron
said.
“I’m going to heaven when I die,’’ he said. “I’m a Christian, a born-again
Christian. I believe in Jesus, I’m a godly man.
“You know, I got a little potty mouth. I can’t help it. We all fall short of
the Lord, you know what I’m saying?’’
In 2007, the USDA fined him $21,000 for violations that included shipping a
horse that could not bear weight on all four legs and for non-compliant
paperwork, according to records. McBarron told a USDA investigator he tried
to pay a veterinarian to sign 50 blank health certificates, which is
illegal.
“And he would not do it,’’ McBarron told the USDA investigator of the
veterinarian, according to a transcript of the interview.
In August, about 70 miles from his home, McBarron pulled into the parking
lot at Johnson County Livestock Exchange in Cleburne, Texas, for a weekly
horse auction. Meadows and her husband had arrived more than an hour
earlier.
McBarron was looking for horses. Meadows was looking for dirt.
The future of horse slaughter
Fiddling with his cellphone and taking an occasional dip of smokeless
tobacco, McBarron stood inside the arena during the auction. By his own
count, McBarron bought 29 horses, including the two thoroughbreds for sale.
Before the auction began, one of the thoroughbreds caught Meadows’
attention. She approached the horse, spotted a gash inside its left hind leg
and took a photo of the injury. She also took video of malnourished-looking
horses. Never mind the posted signs stating no photos or video allowed.
Though McBarron has been one of her targets, Meadows said the ultimate goal
is to end horse slaughter for human consumption.
“We’re currently working on stopping the demand in Europe by showing the
primary consumer over there what these horses go through over here,’’ she
said. “And it’s been pretty successful.’’
In 2014, Meadows presented a report on behalf of Animals’ Angels in Brussels
to the European Commission, the executive branch of the European Union,
showing evidence of widespread animal cruelty in the horse slaughter
industry. Effective January 2015, the EU banned the import of horse meat
from Mexico — a decision that was triggered in part by the detection of
banned veterinary drugs in Mexican horse meat.
Since then, the annual number of horses exported for slaughter to Mexico and
Canada last year dropped to 97,000 from 152,000, according to figures from
the Equine Welfare Alliance. The number is projected to drop again this
year.
The push for a law to permanently ban horse slaughter in the U.S. and to
forbid the export of horses continues, with Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and
three other senators sponsoring the Safeguard American Food Exports (SAFE)
Act — legislation that would ban the transport and export of horses for
slaughter.
Holland, president of the Equine Welfare Alliance, said there’s no need to
fear horse overpopulation if horse slaughter is eliminated as a way to
absorb so-called unwanted horses. He said the historical record proves
market forces quickly correct the potential issue of horse overpopulation.
“This is not to say that we should not discourage overbreeding,’’ said
Holland, who also supports retraining racehorses for second careers such as
trail horses and who commended the National Thoroughbred Racing Association
for bolstered efforts in doing that.
Said Waldrop, the NTRA’s president, “We’ve got to end the slaughter of
horses for human consumption. We’re going to do everything we can to take
care of every thoroughbred when it comes off the track.’’
If new homes and second careers can't be found for those horses, McBarron
and the kill buyers are waiting.
“Well, people like me buy ’em because that’s what we do,’’ McBarron said.
“I’m just trying to make a little money.’’
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