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Falcon Fury
 The
following is Falcon's story and how his misfortune illustrates a change in the
way the racing industry. Please take note of all the horsemen who rallied
around this horse. Although the trainer who sent him to auction did a
horrible deed, many others directly in the industry stepped up to responsibly
care for this wonderful horse. What follows is a letter written by Diana
McClure and the entire account written by Anne Russek.
Click here to see video of him.
Dear Sirs,
Through the HBO Documentary “Running For Their Lives” I have recently become
aware of the well established pipeline in our industry sending horses from the
Backstretch to the Slaughterhouse. We need to establish a core value system with
a policy plan whereby we can expose and eliminate these pipeline participants.
Several racetracks have taken the initiative to state that sending racehorses to
an auction where a large percentage of them end up at slaughter is unacceptable.
The first week of July Suffolk Downs told their horsemen that sending horses to
slaughter was no longer an alternative and that there would be repercussions
such as loss of stabling for those making that choice.
The Pennsylvania Thoroughbred Horseman’s Association in conjunction with
Philadelphia Park racetrack management announced the formation of PTHA’S Turning
For Home, Inc. This is a non-profit horse rescue dedicated to helping
Philadelphia Park owners and trainers secure safe homes and second careers for
their retired racehorses.
Charlestown Racetrack has publicly stated that they have banned the two
prominently known kill buyers from their backstretch.
One merely has to visit a public auction and “flip lips” to identify
Thoroughbreds via tattoo that are in “the stable to table in seven days” flow. I
personally identified 15 Thoroughbreds in the direct kill pens at The Sugarcreek
Ohio Auction. Horses had raced as recently as 5 days before at Thistledown
Racetrack. Horses were also identified as last running at Beulah Park,
Mountaineer Park, and Charlestown. There was even a retired steeplechase horse
who last raced in Fair Hill, Md.
Upon visiting the New Holland Auction in Pennsylvania last week I discovered a
three year old thoroughbred gelding. He was emmaciated , scarred from a halter
burning his skin and three legged lame with a largely swollen left knee.
I identified him through his tattoo as “Falcon Fury”. He had run his last three
starts at Delaware Park, where he had been claimed off of an owner and trainer
that I currently work for. I called them immediately and even though they had no
longer owned or trained him for his last two starts they were shaken by this
discovery. Both told me they would financially support whatever I had to do to
save this horses life and prevent him from enduring any more torture or abuse.
The trainer’s assistant contacted the racing secretary, the general manager and
the stewards. She confirmed and informed them that the horse had last run at
Delaware Park on July 2nd, was signed out of the stable gate on July 6th by the
trainer and was at The New Holland Auction on July 21st.
Delaware Park has also made it clear that they will not tolerate this behavior.
They called the last trainer of record into their offices and then sent him to
the auction to find the horse. He found us and immediately denied any knowledge
of how this horse ended up in this position, however, he admitted that he had
placed 6 other horses with the same dealer. He acknowledged that he was in a
very compromised position with the officials at Delaware Park and they insisted
that he pay the purchase price and shipping costs. This helped us at that moment
but does not fix the broken knee with a slab fracture that was neglected to a
point that it may not be surgically repairable. It also does not provide for a
lifetime of care now required for a damaged horse, but it was a start.
I spoke with general manager , Mr. John Mooney and he assured me that Delaware
Park intends to handle this situation appropriately and furthermore they are
committed to working with the horsemen to help them make the right choice when
it comes to retiring and placing horses.
This is yet another example of a racetrack stepping up and owning responsibility
to this situation. Ultimately we should be able to fix this industry wide flaw
from within. If every owner and trainer would assume responsibility for their
own horses this problem would not exist. However, it does and we need to address
and fix the problem.
I would venture to say that anyone who watched the HBO Documentary would have to
acknowledge that the pipeline exists and is well fed by many licensed owners and
trainers. Anyone who looks in the eye of one of these abandoned and abused
horses and is not affected by what they see should not be considered a horseman.
The individuals participating in this pipeline are doing the horses and the
industry a huge disservice.
An owner, a trainer and an assistant trainer proved to me last week that there
are enough good horsemen left to make a difference.
If every racetrack would adopt a policy and procedure to help horsemen handle
“unwanted” horses they would be supporting the kind of horsemen needed to secure
the future of our sport. If every track would adopt zero-tolerance for shedrow
to slaughter practices they would be moving towards eliminating the participants
that do not belong in our industry.
Any person who doubts the need for a unified movement needs to visit a public
auction where kill buyers flourish and witness the horror from beginning to end.
Diana McClure
New Holland Report July 21, 2008.
By: Anne Russek
On Monday, July 21, 2008 Diana M. and I went to the New Holland livestock
auction. We went there to gather information and documentation that
Thoroughbreds from off the track were being pipelined to slaughter. We were not
intending to rescue any horses as we had no funds and no trailer. We wanted to
see for ourselves whether the HBO documentary had changed anything within the
racing industry.
We arrived at the auction around 5.30 AM. There were several large and small
trailers in the parking lot and we proceeded to record DOT numbers. We were
aware that some of the trucks would have been used to transport sheep, goats
cows and pigs. We knew not all the trucks were the kill buyers rigs. That being
said, we identified several known buyers. We also saw the truck and trailer of
the Camelot Auction in New Jersey, another auction that sells for slaughter.
We went into the horse area and saw that the horses were tied to a post and rail
iron fence. The horses had fresh shavings to stand on and they had access to
water and hay. Some of the horses were tied very short, movement was limited.
Other horses were tied loose enough they could lie down, one horse was loose and
standing in the aisle-way. The first group of horses were obviously grade , and
a few ponies. At the end of the long aisle, we saw our first Thoroughbred. He
was a chestnut gelding with two hind socks. His yellow auction tag was #613. The
first thing you noticed was that his right front leg was three times its normal
size and his knee was very swollen. It appeared fractured. He was pointing that
leg and incapable of holding it straight. He also had two wounds under his jowl
where his halter had rubbed through the skin. He was thin, but not emaciated.
Diana flipped his lip and we recorded his tattoo number. Diana put in a call to
a friend who could ID the horse for us. We moved some hay in the trough closer
to him so he could eat and we talked about how unbelievable it was that anyone
could have brought a horse in this condition to the auction. None of the New
Holland employees who were working seemed to have any concern about the horse or
his compromised condition.
Within five minutes we received a phone call with the ID information, the horse
was a three year old by Mr. Greeley named Falcon Fury. He had last run at
Delaware Park on July 2, 2008. He had finished 6th beaten 12 lengths, the
comment said 'lacked rally'.
Diana asked who the last trainer and owner had been. We were told the last owner
was Florence Patitucci and the trainer was Juan Vazquez. We were told that
Vazquez had only had him for his last two starts. When Diana inquired who had
trained him before Juan had claimed him, she was told Mike Pino was the trainer.
Diana went pale before my eyes. She got off the phone and told me that one of
Falcon’s former owners was one of her clients and that he would want to know
that a horse he used to own was at this auction. Diana called Pino and the
former owner and the reaction was the same. They were furious and distressed
that Falcon was injured and at an auction that sold to slaughter. Without a
moments hesitation Diana had been given the orders to buy the horse and get him
the hell out of there. Diana assured both men that we would not leave New
Holland without Falcon. Unknown to us at this time, Delaware Park officials had
already begun to investigate how Falcon Fury ended up at New Holland.
It was still hours before the start of the auction and so I called Gail Vacca to
tell her what was going on. Gail insisted that I get the New Holland vet to look
at the horse. I told her there was no vet there at that time. I then asked an
Amish employee about Falcon and he had no response or suggestion. Someone
listening in on the conversation very politely told me that as long as the horse
was standing up, the auction would not do anything about him. I expressed the
opinion that Falcon was probably full of bute and banamine, and the response
from the stranger was that although that was probably true, the fact remained
the horse was standing.
Left with no alternative but to wait for the auction to start, we adjusted
Falcons rope so that he could shift his weight more comfortably, and we went to
find more Thoroughbreds. We walked to an area where the horses were in corrals
instead of tied. Some were colts, one was a mare and foal, several were sick and
snotty. None were Thoroughbreds. Diana checked a few more horses, they were
Standardbreds.
It was still very early with few people and we walked outside of the building.
We turned a corner and walked right into a pile of dead pigs and a dead calf.
They were in the area where the trailers can clean out their manure. Sometime
before the auction started, the dead animals were removed.
We found our way to the unloading area and soon a trailer arrived. The man
unloaded a chestnut mare first who looked like a Thoroughbred. She was. We
didn't need to get her tattoo because he told us who she was. Her name was
Torchspector's Song, and she was by Allen’s Prospect. He told us she was his
neighbors horse and she could be ridden. He put a western saddle on her and led
her to the pens to tie her up. Her hip # was 659.
The next trailer that arrived was quite large. First he backed up to the chute
and offloaded a small herd of cows. After the cows were off, he opened a gate
and started unloading horses. I noticed that he did not unload all his horses,
he left five or six on the trailer and drove away.
The next trailer arrived and unloaded five or six horses and ponies and while
Diana followed them to look for Thoroughbreds, I stayed with the trailer. Once
again, some of the horses were left on the trailer. This time curiosity got the
best of me and I asked the driver why he wasn't taking them all off. He told me
that the remaining horses belonged to a man in New York and he was taking them
there. An Amish employee was sitting on a bench not far from where I stood. I
sat down at the end of the bench and I mentioned to him that it seemed awfully
expensive to drive all the way to New York with such a big rig carrying only
five horses. As I suspected, the Amish man said that the truck was not going to
New York, the truck was going to an auction three miles down the road called Mel
Hoovers. He said that dealers would take their horses there to be picked up by
the man from New York.
I did not need further explanation because I already knew that Mel Hoovers is a
direct to slaughter pick up point for the Bouvry slaughterhouse in Canada. I
presumed that the man from New York was likely Don Nickerson, who is a well
known kill buyer with a large feedlot. I regretted that I had not looked closer
inside the trailer to see what type and condition those horses had been.
I then called Diana and told her to follow the trailer to see where it was
going. Diana wasted not time and was able to catch up with the trailer. Within
ten minutes Diana called me and said, sure enough the trailer was at Mel Hoovers
and they were offloading the horses.
I also noticed about this time that there seemed to be more empty trailers than
full trailers pulling into the parking lot. I commented to several of the
obvious regulars and they said “yes” the auction seems to be slower today, you
should have been here last week, we were packed.” I then stopped by the USDA vet
office again, but still saw no one there.
I met back up with Diana and she told me that the assistant trainer for Mike
Pino, Syd, had called her back and told her that Delaware Park was outraged that
Falcon Fury was at the auction in an injured state. She told Diana word was
spreading around the backstretch. We were very encouraged that the officials at
Delaware were getting involved. Diana and I split up and continued our search. I
positioned myself at the unloading area, she walked the pens. We both took turns
checking on Falcon.
While waiting, a livestock trailer backed into the chute next to the horse
chute. More cows were unloaded, this time it was dairy cows with udders that
looked as if they were ready to burst. It was actually awkward for some of them
to walk they were so engorged. I thought the trailer was empty until I saw an
Amish man and the truck driver enter into the trailer carrying thin whips. The
next thing I saw was five or six baby calves, some with dried blood hanging from
their umbilical cords. They were only days old! They were so lost, so
confused...they could barely walk and keep their balance on the cement floor.
The two met kept swatting them with the whips and the little calves would bellow
very weakly. I do not think they were crying from any pain, they just wanted
their mothers. They had absolutely no idea which way to turn or what to do. The
men kept swatting, the calves kept crying, and the group slowly was pushed and
swatted down an aisle into a corral. It was pathetic to watch.
Another trailer arrived , more horses and ponies, but this time the driver put
two or three horses into a long corral very close to the unloading ramp. No
sales number stickers were put on these horses, yet they were tied like the
others. I asked the driver if these horses were for sale, he told me no. I asked
him why not and he did not respond. I walked into this aisle-way and flipped a
few lips, no tattoos. About this time a man was watching me and when I came out
of the pen he asked me if I was a rescue person. I told him I was not with a
specific rescue, but I was interested in finding any Thoroughbreds that might be
at the auction. He told me he had not seen too many today, but he said some
weeks, the pens are full of them. I asked him if it had anything to do with the
time of year, and he said no, today was just slow. I then let him know that my
concern was the number of Thoroughbreds that go to slaughter. He made no
comment, just nodded his head, and then muttered that was where most of them
went.
He said they were usually so crippled up and full of drugs, not many people
wanted to mess with them. ( He was referring to the fact they were usually not
bid on by anyone but meat men'. I kept pushing the envelope and told him I had
been to Sugarcreek , where there were many Thoroughbreds, and had heard New
Holland often had more than Sugarcreek. He told me he did not know about that,
but if I really wanted to find Thoroughbreds, I needed to go to Bruce Rotz's
farm in Shippensburg Pennsylvania. He told me “Rotz will take any kind of horse,
he don't care what shape their in.” I asked him why. He said because he has a
contract with the Canadian slaughterhouse. He told me that Rotz ships three to
five loads a week to Canada. I asked him how many horses in a load and he told
me thirty. I asked him how long does it take him to get to Canada and he told me
“Rotz can go straight up 81 and cross over at the Alexandria port of entry. He
can get there in six or seven hours.“ I asked him do you think I could go to his
farm and buy Thoroughbreds? He told me it was hard to say, but that Rotz or his
son came to New Holland and I might see them here today. I thanked him and we
went our separate ways.
Not long after that exchange, I saw a man sitting at the table where dealers got
the hip numbers put on their horses. He was wearing a baseball cap that said
Rotz Livestock. I asked him if he was Bruce Rotz and he snarled back “No.” I
have no idea if it was him or not.
By this time Diana had found a few more Thoroughbreds but she told me she had
met a rescue group and they had indicated they were going to buy as many as they
could and they were recording the tattoos. We went back to Falcon Fury and soon
Falcons former owner called us. He was anxious to know if we had purchased him
yet. Diana told him the sale had not started but we would call as soon as he was
safe.
The sale was about to begin and a lady came over to us and asked'' are you going
to rescue the horse with the broken leg?' We told her we were, and she said “you
need to make sure he runs through the ring early, he will be cheaper then.
Especially with his injury.” I asked, will they really make him walk over to the
ring and then up and down that aisle? She indicated he would sell through the
ring because he could walk.
The auction started and horses that could be ridden were lining up to be
auctioned. The noise was deafening, it was very difficult to follow the bidding.
Anytime you heard a horse go over the $600.00 bid you could breathe a sigh of
relief. I was becoming concerned about Falcon having to go through the ring, and
I thought that possibly I could lead him in myself which would prevent anyone
from trying to make him jog or move too quickly. I went over to the in-gate and
asked two dealers how I could bring the horse in soon. The one dealer asked me
which horse is it? I told him #613, a chestnut Thoroughbred. He asked me if it
was my horse, and I told him, 'No, I want to buy him'.
He then told me that only the owner of the horse could move him, and he further
indicated he knew which horse I was speaking of because he also said that I
could definitely not move that horse because he was already lame and if he
injured himself further, I would be responsible. I then asked him how I could
find the owner, and he told me to go upstairs to the office and they would tell
me.
As suggested, I went to the office and told the lady at the desk what I wanted.
She looked on her computer and found #613, and told me he was owned by David
Farrell. She said I should go back downstairs and one of the Amish would tell me
where and who he was. I did as she instructed, but the Amish man I spoke to
indicated he did not know Farrell, nor did anyone he asked know who he was. The
Amish man sent me back upstairs and said I should have him paged. Back upstairs
I went. The same lady looked at her computer again and this time she said, “you
need to speak to Ron Harker, he brought the horse here.” I returned to the same
Amish man and asked for Harker. This time he began to scan the crowd of
spectators and dealers and pointed to a man on the other side of the auction
ring. He called out “'Ron Harker! Over here!” I could hardly believe the same
man who had sent me upstairs the first time was Ron Harker. As Harker approached
me I told him thanks for sending me on the wild goose chase. He smiled and
laughed, and I asked if he could have Falcon brought up because I wanted to get
him out of the auction and to a safe place.
(note: David Farrell never had Falcon Fury in his possession. Ron Harker
apparently uses Farrell’s Pennsylvania address when he brings horses to New
Holland so that he will not have to have coggins papers. This is a violation of
Pennsylvania coggins regulations since Ron Harker lives in Tabernacle, NJ). N
Harker then asked me if I wanted to buy him privately. I said I thought you
could not do that, once they had an auction sticker, they had to run through the
ring. Harker told me, “Oh no, I can sell him privately, we just have to let them
process the paperwork through the office here“. He then asked me what the horse
was worth to me. I responded that the horse had a broken knee, and Harker nodded
his head in agreement. I said that I shouldn't have to pay you anything, but
rather than see him sent to slaughter, I would give him $250.00. (Harker never
indicated that Falcon would not be slaughtered.) Harker said okay and we went
upstairs and he signed him over to Diana.
Diana and I went back downstairs and moved Falcon to another spot because he was
now tied next to a horse that kept trying to kick him. We began to make calls to
Mr. Ryan and a vet to see what our options were for transport. We all concurred
that Falcon was full of pain killers, and since he had already been cruelly
transported to New Holland, we would just have to get him to Diana's farm as
quickly as possible. Diana went to broker a ride while I stayed with Falcon.
Within minutes, a man waving foal papers in his hand came walking very quickly
towards me. He was very excited and started talking to me in broken Spanish,
asking me if I had just rescued a racehorse. I told him yes, and he looked past
me and saw Falcon and declared ,“that's my horse.” I corrected him and said, no,
that's our horse. Who are you?.
‘I'm Juan Vasquez, I train him”. Juan continued in an avalanche of information
relating the story that Falcon had broken his knee in his last race, and that
Juan had 'given' him to a man named Steve that had told Juan he was going to
rehab Falcon for a therapeutic riding program. Juan insisted he had no idea the
horse was here. Juan said the Stewards at Delaware Park had called him and told
him they were going to evict him from Delaware for sending a horse to a kill
auction. By now Diana had returned and she told Juan in no uncertain terms that
we considered his story to be full of holes. Juan then offered to let me talk to
Steve Hryckowian, the man who Juan said had picked Falcon up at the track on
July 6.
I called Steve and he told me that Juan had never told him Falcon had a broken
knee, but he did not want to get Juan in trouble. I asked Steve if he had picked
Falcon up and he said no, that Juan had brought the horse to him.(the sign out
sheet at Delaware Park shows Juan Vazquez to be the person who removed Falcon
from the grounds).
Steve told me that he had kept Falcon for ten to twelve days. Steve said that
when he realized how 'broken' Falcon was, he gave him to a man whose name he
could not remember. I told him the horse was at New Holland, he said he had not
known what the 'unknown ' man was going to do with him.
When I got off the phone, I told Diana that Juan's story did not match with
Steve's. Juan pulled a big wad of money out of his pocket and said he wanted to
give us back our money, pay for the shipping, and anything else we wanted. Juan
was desperate for us to call Delaware Park and tell them that Juan was
blameless. Diana told him 'no can do', but we did take $450.00 to cover the
purchase and the shipping. We gave Juan a piece of paper saying that he had
given us $450.00, but we made him give us ownership of Falcon. We told him this
matter was far from over.
Diana made arrangements with a shipper and we told him we would meet him at her
farm. On the way home, we stopped at Mel Hoovers. Mel was not there, but his son
was.
We explained to him we were both trainers, and we were gathering information to
share with the different racetracks regarding the number of Thoroughbreds that
are going to slaughter. We told him that recently Charlestown Racetrack had
banned Peter Preston and Charlie De Hart (two kill buyers) from picking up
horses at the track to take to auction or to kill pens. We told him we had heard
they both brought horses to Hoovers. The son neither admitted or denied the
claim. He did say that horses did go to Canada directly from this auction, but
it was all types of horses, not just Thoroughbreds. I asked about the horses
that had been brought here this morning from New Holland but he said that his
Dad already had enough horses and they didn't get any from New Holland. (Based
on what we had witnessed earlier that morning, we did not believe him.)
I then asked him if we offered him more money than the meat price could we buy
any of the Thoroughbreds destined for slaughter and he said no. I asked him if
trainers ever brought their horses here and mandated that the Thoroughbreds go
directly to slaughter and he said yes. I asked him was there any circumstance in
which he would sell a horse privately that had been earmarked for slaughter and
he said no. He was very clear that if an individual brought a horse to Mel
Hoovers to be shipped directly to slaughter, that is what would happen. Whenever
Hoover has a load of thirty horses, the Canadian slaughterhouse will send a
truck to pick them up. We thanked the son for his time and we left.
Once Falcon Fury was safely home at Diana's, he was x-rayed. He has a severe
slab fracture of his knee. Falcon has a displaced slab fracture of his third
metacarpal, that the vet indicated was about as bad as he’d ever seen.
Additional radiographs will be taken tomorrow to determine if surgery is an
option. Our vet is concerned as to whether or not the fracture can now be
surgically repaired due to the amount of time that has elapsed since the initial
injury occurred. A skyline view of the knee will allow him to determine if
surgery is option.
We are currently working with the Pennsylvania and Delaware SPCA to initiate
charges against all three men who knowingly transported this horse across state
lines with a broken knee, never seeking veterinary care at any time.
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