After Saving Two Horses from a Kill Pen, Stewart Talks About America's Slaughter Problem

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00:00Over the past decade, the number of American horses being exported for slaughter has fallen

00:07dramatically.

00:08Still, every year, 20,000 American horses are shipped abroad to Mexico or Canada to

00:14meet that terrible fate.

00:16After rescuing two such horses from a kill pen in northern Louisiana, owner John Stewart

00:21has decided it's time we all start talking about the problem.

00:26It was brought to our attention on social media that there were two racehorses that

00:30had ran in the month of May that showed up in a kill pen in, I believe it was Texas or

00:35Louisiana.

00:36And so we, you know, we're kind of flabbergasted as we are any time this situation happens.

00:41And so we decided to act.

00:44And so one of these horses won $275,000 on the track.

00:49And then someone ran these horses in claiming races.

00:52They didn't get claimed, so then they just took and dumped them.

00:55And when they got here, it was really sad, you know, looking, you know, and when you

00:58rescue these horses, like these horses, the horses are smart animals and they know exactly

01:04what's going on and they're not being fed.

01:07You know, they're around all these other horses that are in, you know, not good condition.

01:10And so it just wears on the psyche of the horse.

01:13And so when they got here, you know, they would barely look at you.

01:16You know, when they stood in the field, you know, they wouldn't come to you.

01:21You know, our horses come to us right away when they see us.

01:24And, you know, we started the, you know, the process of rehabilitating them.

01:28And we're lucky to have the resources on our farm to do just that.

01:32Most of the people in the industry, it's not that they're ignoring it.

01:35I think it's such a terrible end for these horses that they can't imagine that something

01:42like that would happen to these horses.

01:44But it's a real thing.

01:46You got to take action.

01:47You can't just say the problems are too big that I can't do anything about it.

01:51And I can't solve the whole problem, right?

01:53You know, that's impossible for me to do.

01:54But what I can do is I can take action and I can solve the problem as it relates to me

01:58as an owner and a breeder.

02:01People maybe think that I'm naive because I'm just getting into the game or whatever.

02:04But you know, I'm a pretty sophisticated business person.

02:07So I know that there's a cost for everything.

02:09You know, that's what people in the industry need to understand.

02:12Very few people are willing to contribute out of their pocket to solve the problems.

02:16But that's how it's going to have to happen.

02:17There's only so much, you know, everybody wants all the tracks should do it or these

02:20people should do it.

02:21Everybody's going to have to contribute.

02:23And that means the owners and the breeders as well.

02:26And so, you know, my view is in the way that I'm handling on my farm is that I think that

02:32whoever breeds the horse is ultimately responsible for the horse, period.

02:35Like we bring it into this world, just like children, you know, you should be responsible

02:39for them.

02:40We do have the ears of a lot of people.

02:43And so I'm trying to highlight this by openly talking about it as a problem.

02:47And so raising awareness about a problem is the first step to solving it.

02:51I enjoy being around the horses.

02:54You know, I got into it because of the racing side of it.

02:56But now on a farm, you're in it because, you know, these animals are part of your family.

03:04But now you can see like when we go to the paddock, they come to us.

03:09You know, they're walking to us.

03:10You can see in their eye, you know, there's hope in their eye again.

03:14And you know, they know that they're somewhere safe.

03:16And that's kind of the message that we just kind of tell them like all the time.

03:19And we just tell them, you're safe, you're here, you know, we're going to take care of

03:23you.

03:24And they might not understand the words that are coming out of our mouths, but they understand

03:26the feeling that's coming across with that.

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