It cost $14,000 to save just 25 horses at a recent Sugarcreek auction.
Three years ago, we brought you the tale of LeRoy Baker’s Sugarcreek horse auction – where unwanted steeds are bought up in the hundreds and sold off to the slaughterhouses every Friday.
After our story ran, letters poured in from readers who were disturbed by the reality of this age-old tradition, and accused Baker of being a murderer. But the truth was, if no one else was going to cough up the money for these unwanted animals, what was Baker to do? …
This article appears in May 14-20, 2008.
We keep hearing that the equine welfare advocates are on a slippery slope in trying to end slaughter. I tend to think it’s the opposite. If the pro advocates want horses treated like livestock, what do you think that will do to the horse industry? The slaughter bound horses don’t have any of the regulations that cattle have. There are no health papers with chain of ownership, no coggins and no checking to see if they’re stolen. If they want horses classified as livestock, that means the same regulations should apply. Are the pro folks prepared to withdraw medications to horses? How will racing survive if horses are denied the necessary medications they take? How will performing horses fair without medication? How about all the service horses? The mounted police need sound, fit horses to carry out their duties. The therapy horses that work with autistic and disabled children and adults and that work with soldiers to help regain their balance that are returning from Iraq with head injuries surely need healthy, fit horses. They can’t have it both ways. They can’t be sport, companion and services animals when they’re earning and then turn into cattle after they’re used up, unless of course, greed and irresponsibility are the motives which is exactly what got us to this point. Slaughter perpetuates the breed and dump cycle by paying owners/breeders to be irresponsible. Nothing will change unless the incentive is removed. Do you think Baker will survive if the horse slaughter industry had the same regulations as livestock? Just imagine what would happen to the pet overpopulation if the humane facilities started paying pet owners to dump off their pets. It’s no different with slaughter. The kill houses make sure they get their meat. It has nothing to do with amount of horses available. They’re not rounding up horses and providing a service.
The pro advocates deal with scare tactics. Let’s scare everyone with abandoned horse stories. Let’s hire PR firms to pump ‘em out and keep publishing them even when they’ve been proven false. Never mind that people are abandoning their homes and all their animals. The economy has nothing to do with it. What so ridiculous with these stories is that they are shooting down their own argument. The same number of horses are being slaughtered. The same auctions with the same kill buyers so how could there be abandoned horses if slaughter is the cure? Let’s send a hefty donation to the honorable Senator Larry Craig to block the bills. And don’t forget to send Senator Hutchison a donation. Let’s twist the language of the bills to scare people into thinking it bans all horse transport (AQHA).
The recent HBO segment was right on target. There isn’t one fact that can be disputed and the pro folks can’t stand dealing with facts. America’s dirty little secret is now front and center. Be patient. The pro folks will start spinning the facts for their own purposes and the PR firms will start pumping out the articles. Pro folks, think long and hard of what will become of the horse industry, particularly racing, if you get your wish and horses become livestock. You can’t have it both ways. Either they are companion, sport and service animals or they are livestock.
I would just like to comment I go to sugarcreek alot. Mr Leroy Baker is just making a livin just like everyone else does. And people complain that the horses are so horrible looking when they come through the ring but they aren’t baker’s horses. They are other people who buy horses because they think they are pretty or feel sorry for them and then they can’t afford them and then they end up there at sugar creek. So check your facts
that is so sad I would love to adopt 2 or even 4 of them to save them it is awful how they are killed and shipped….. i know we all have a heart and can’t allow this rotten treatment of the horses to continue….. shame on you for thinking this is okay…. to just send them off when they no longer serve your purpose…… don’t buy any more if that is your intentions…..
this comment is to Brittany Gabalski ur opinion makes me sick ur gross if everyone thought like you imagion what our world would be like: sickk twisted and gross
Mr Leroy Baker is just making a living well idk if you have ever been to sugarcreek but it sure sound like you havent or you either just dont have a heart
I GOT 2 YEARLINGS LAST FALL FROM SUGARCREEK. I PAID LESS FOR THE TWO OF THEM THAN I PAID FOR THEIR FIRST VISIT FROM THE VET. I WISH I COULD HAVE SAVED EVERY HORSE THERE BUT JUST COULDNT. THE HORSES I BOUGHT WERE SHIPPED FROM NY. THEY BOTH WERE INFECTED WITH STRANGLES. WITH ALITTLE MEDICINE AND TIME THEY ARE THE MOST SWEETEST HORSES EVER. THEY ARENT JUST HORSES THAT ARE OLD AND CRIPPLED LIKE SOME PEOPLE THINK. MY TWO HORSE ARE AQHA REGISTERED AND IN PERFECT CONDITION. I HATE TO THINK WHERE THEY WOULD HAVE ENDED UP IF NOT BOUGHT BY US. THEN I THINK OF ALL OF THE OTHER HORSES FROM VERY OLD TO ONLY A FEW WEEKS OLD. IT REALLY IS SAD TO THINK OF WHAT THESE ANIMALS ARE PUT THROUGH AND HOW SCARED THEY MUST BE.
You jackasses should be thanking Mr. Baker, butchering those horses is a hell of alot better than letting them starve to death in somebodys field. People think people are so cruel to horses, what about cows, people dont say shit about them, just because they taste good? its all a circle of life these are old broken down horses and its the end of the road for them most people can barely pay there bills and feed there family, and then u think they should have to uthinize there horse? Do you dumbasses even realize how much that costs?, just because people care about there horses doesnt mean they can afford to spend 500 hundred dallars on them to try to fix them, i had a pony that i got for christmas when i was seven and she was old and got sick and we had the vet out and we ended up putting her down, but we had over 500 bucks in the whole thing, all just to dig a hole, atleast horses that are butchered get uses for something, so thank you leroy anf fuck anyone whos thinks anything else
So we need to thank people who make a living peddling in animal cruelty, Casey Raber? I suppose Hannibal Lecter is your hero too.
You know it is sad what has to happen to the horses but it is just that it has to happen. I here so many people say that they wish they could save them all but again they can’t. None of us can. The problem does not lay with the meet buyers or the auction, the problem starts with all the back yard breeders who think that they should breed horses because they can. Where do you think most of these unwanted horses come from? But no one will ever Learn, your always going to have the people that can’t afford a horse that gets one and staves it and your always gonna have the people that breed horses for fun. As long as this is happening we need the kill auctions. I do not agree what the horses go through when slaughtered, but that is what we should be trying to change HOW not why they are killed. The horse economy is down just like the rest of it but if u ban kill sales then how much do you think its gonna drop. We can’t all live in a fantasy world where everything is all peachy. We need to stop acting like were in a miss America patent hoping for peace on earth. This is life this is the way it has to be for the better of us and the horses. So every one is entitled to there opinion and this is mine.
This post is for the uneducated foul mouthed person named Casey. Why don’t you go to school and learn to spell and write before attacking a bunch of people online? Wow, the Baker sympathizers are “real quality folks”, aren’t they?
in all reality ppl should stop the breeding process and save those who are less fortunette. Just like the dog pounds everyone is breed breed breed when theres tons of perfectly good dogs maybe not pedigree but perfectly good animals who are begging for a second chance.So next time you think oh i want a purebred or a pedigree…think again. Put yourself in their shoes, not able to voice your opinion on where you could be ending up next.
FEBRUARY 2, 2011!!!!
52 thoroughbred horses need homes. Will go to Sugarcreek this Saturday for slaughter. Gentleman died and his son wants nothing to do with them. Most broodmares are broke and some are in foal weanling, yearlings, 2 yrs and 3 yrs old most are gelded. FREE and papered. Friend of the deceased is trying to find homes 440-463-4288 or 440-463-4288 Barnesville, OH. Please copy and paste this on your status! PLEASE HELP
If all concerned would help raise funds for their care, I would take all the 52 horses, train them and find them homes. What’s the chance everyone concerned could raise sufficient funds. I would need enlarged stables, finances to replace my income to tend to them properly, food supplies, vet expenses, etc…
I saw online that all 52 horses from Barnsville OH have been rescued. I hope that this is really the case. Amazing what people can do on such short notice, with the help of the internet too! I live in SC and read a post on Face Book about this today. That’s one way to get word to travel. I am very relieved they are all spoken for – one article said the man who passed away was a vet. Don’t know how his son could so easily send his father’s horses off to Sugarcreek to most likely be killed … disgusting. The whole idea of any horses ending up at an auction where they can be bought just to be killed is sick.
Horses are no different than any other pet, except they are far more expensive to look after than the average dog or cat. They are no different than the average animal in that they have to be bred for a specific need. If not then they are over populating the system. The same as dogs or cats, when you have to many to look after and they can’t afford to be fed or kept healthy, then they need to be put down. Anyone that puts an animal before a human has some thinking to do. Meat is a food, there are people that are starving in this world, right in our back yards, why can’t the industry in turn use this system to help feed people in need? To do that, something will have to be killed, and because theyare an animal, why couldn’t they be used for that? If I had a starving family….I would not hesitate to do it myself. Its the unfortunate vain-ness and materialism in humans that make them think that just because they have an emotional attachment to something that it should be defended in that way. Look at the real picture here…
hey britt- hitler was just trying to make a living too
Wow. All the horse crazy freaks on here who actually know nothing about horses are driving me nuts. You can go right on ahead and “save” two, three, five, fifty horses from the auction, but you won’t be doing them any good. Two, three, five, or fifty different horses will go instead. Horses are expensive, as I and other horse owners know, and require knowledge to keep properly. A lot of auction horses are poorly trained, sick, or even downright dangerous, and there’s a reason they are going to slaughter. As long as backyard breeders continue to breed crappy foals, and uneducated people try to “rescue” and train horses, there will be slaughter and there has to be. Anti-slaughter legislation only hurts the animals it is trying to protect, thanks to the extreme and disgusting actions taken by animal rights groups who know nothing. I think it is a shame when good, sound, sane horses go to auction, and I have purchased, cleaned up, tuned up, and resold five Sugar Creek horses in my life. But that doesn’t mean we don’t need slaughter.
Also, proper slaughtering procedure is to shoot a horse in the head. If done correctly, it is quicker and more painless than euthanasia. The horse doesn’t even hear the shot that kills them. If regulated US slaughter plants were opened, it would end the suffering of thousands of animals.
I think anyone who thinks its ok ……..should be loaded up with those horses and ran thru the plant.oh I forgot humans are the only ones who feel pain…fear, torture! WRONG! I think..I think that if anything there should be a law NO one can breed without special permit. I think that the racing industry is the worst thing there is for horses,not to mention ALL the other types of abusive horse showings, ..I cant imagine running the life out of baby’s! then throwing them away!,..and those who are employed doing this I hope they all rot in hell