www.secondchancefarm.ca

In the south central region of Ontario lies the quaint village of St. Jacobs. It's best known as a tourist town, with people visiting from all parts of the region to wander the town's streets and shop at its country stores and markets. Mennonites and Amish live there, and are frequently seen dressed in their traditional garb, riding in their black buggies, pulled by faithful, hard working horses.

St. Jacobs' biggest attraction is their big country market, where vendors sell tasty pies and jams, as well as quality meats and cheeses and other fine foods. The market is located adjacent to Ontario's largest farm animals auction, the Ontario Livestock Exchange, or OLEX.

Every week on Tuesdays and Thursdays, hundreds of dairy cows, beef cattle and veal calves are sold through the OLEX auction.

Horses are also sold every Tuesday at OLEX. Some people are aware that horses are auctioned there, and have heard that they can be picked up for a good price. What most people are not aware of, is that nearly all the horses that are brought to OLEX are bought by horse dealers, or kill buyers, who purchase them for slaughter.

This is where Charlie's story almost ended on Tuesday, August 12th. On that day, a local woman named Karen had an appointment cancel, leaving her with the rest of the day somewhat open. She decided on a whim to drop in at the OLEX auction, not far from her home. She'd heard the reports that people come away from the auction, upset with what they see there.

When she arrived, she observed the usual busy atmosphere, of moaning cattle and neighing of frightened horses, amongst the men who work there, who see the animals as just another number on just another day. These men, most of them Mennonites, are not seen to have a lot of compassion for the many animals that move through the auction. To them it is a job and the animals simply a product of that industry.

Karen knew that in the ring, the horses go through quickly, and sadly, they are sold by the pound. These horses are nameless now - their luck has run out. The kill buyers take their turns buying up the horses, to fill their quotas for the slaughterhouses in Quebec and Saskatchewan. They are pushed quickly from one pen to another, then get penned up in tight quarters with many other horses that they will travel with for their last journey together. The horses are scared and resist their claustrophobic surroundings. As they jostle for space, they often bite and kick at each other, trying to avoid and escape their inevitable outcome.

The auction was underway when she arrived. She squeezed her way onto the crowded bleachers of the auction ring. She watched as the horses were ushered in and encouraged to move around in the small ring in front of the auctioneer. The volume of the auctioneer's microphone was very loud. She thought, if the unfamiliar and intimidating environment didn't spook or frighten horses, the booming commentary certainly would. It was difficult to understand the auctioneer and hard to determine who was bidding and who got the high bid on the horses. She was thinking of leaving, but stopped when they led in the next horse.

Most horses run quickly into the ring, prodded in with whips or shouts, and walk or prance around the small area, persuaded by the handler. But this time the door opened and a small chestnut pony was slowly handed over by his halter to the ring man. A hush settled amongst the crowd before whispers were exchanged. The auctioneer then bellowed "blind pony (ha!) a short-sighted pony here, short-sighted pony".

Karen thought, who would bring this pony to such a place? An auction is frightening and chaotic enough for any horse, but a blind one? What chance would this pony have? Sadly she knew, he would be sold for meat, but then what? A long, arduous journey on a crowded truck to the slaughterhouse hundreds of miles away - in darkness, not knowing where he was or what was happening. She watched as a few Standardbreds went through the ring, but it didn't really register much, as she could only think of the sad chestnut pony. She left the auction area and went out to the catwalks that overlook where the cattle and horses are penned. She spotted the pony and kept an eye on him. He was standing alone and still in a corner of a long narrow pen.

Before long they opened the gate and put another pony in the pen. The new pony was very aggressive and immediately went after the blind one. He jumped up on the helpless pony's back and began biting him hard on the neck. Karen watched helplessly as the blind pony didn't know what to do or where to run. Everywhere he tried to get away, he either ran into his attacker, or a fence, or the wall. She saw no workers were interceding, so she started running around, asking who was employed there. She finally found someone and asked him to take the pony out of the blind pony's pen. The young man removed the aggressive pony from the pen. An older worker growled that they would've been all right, and Karen didn't want to make waves by saying that blind or lame horses should be segregated. She was just relieved to see they complied and separated the ponies. She stayed for two hours, observing and chatting with people, but mostly keeping an eye on the blind pony. She watched as they overfilled two pens with horses purchased by one kill buyer. She shouted over the railing to the handlers to make more room for horses, after the number in the long narrow pen reached 16. The horses were extremely reluctant to be forced in because there were so many - but the whips and shouts forced them in. They eventually packed 28 horses into that 10' x 50' pen - an area approximately the size of four box stalls that would normally accommodate one horse each. The horses were so tightly packed that they were being bitten by horses in adjacent pens and could not move away. When the time came to herd these unfortunate creatures out of this pen, most became frightened and backed up further into the pen, crushing against all the horses behind. Karen was horrified to watch.

Feeling sad and powerless for what fate awaited these horses, she left feeling dejected. She worried especially about the blind pony and what would happen when it came time for him to load onto the horse dealer's truck and his probable last ride to the slaughterhouse. Karen could not erase the image of the frightened pony standing alone and blind there and knew she had try to save him. She made a call to her friend Elsa Harper at Second Chance Farm in nearby Wellesley, and soon a plan was made to save the pony.

After several phone calls between Elsa, Karen and Shelley Grainger from the Canadian Horse Defense Coalition (CHDC), it was agreed that they would try to save this pony, so Elsa and Karen returned to OLEX. To their dismay, the pony was gone. They managed to determine that he had been purchased by a local horse dealer. After speaking with another dealer, they became alarmed since it was confirmed that the man was a kill buyer, and that the pony would very likely be going to slaughter soon.

After some investigation, Karen contacted the dealer that evening and asked to buy the pony. He reluctantly agreed, but made the deal for $50 over invoice. He had paid $21.

So a deal was made, and Karen realized this little guy deserved a name, so he became "Charlie". Preparations were made. That Friday morning, on August 15th, Karen and her friend Peter made their way to Dundalk by truck and trailer, to bring home little Charlie. It was a long wait between Tuesday and Friday, hoping and praying that Charlie would still be there, and that the dealer would not back out of the deal.

She found out more about him, and to her dismay, she was told that Charlie had been at the auction for a whole week! Whoever brought him was too late for the previous Tuesday's auction. For reasons only that person can explain, and will live with for the rest of their life, Charlie was left to whatever demise would befall him. For a whole week, in his blind, confused state, he stood alone and abandoned in that scary place.

When they arrived at the farm to pick up Charlie, they saw many horses that the horse dealer had picked up. They were told the horses typically spend two days holdover at the farm, then they are loaded onto a truck for the long, arduous journey to Saskatchewan, to Natural Valley Farms horse slaughter plant. Only a lucky few would not go to slaughter - the ones he determined he could resell for good money, but most - their fate was sealed.

Rather than make small talk with the kill buyer, they quickly loaded Charlie up into the trailer, and with a great sigh of relief were on their way! After a couple of hours driving to Wellesley, many people were there at Second Chance Farm waiting anxiously for Charlie's arrival.

What Elsa and the others saw, when the trailer was opened, was a beautiful chestnut gelding pony, with a flaxen mane and tail, and a bright white blaze on his concerned face.

He was led out, walking slowly and carefully down the ramp. He had no choice - he had to trust the hands that led him and the voices that reassured him, "It's alright Charlie, you're home and safe now." He held his head up high, taking in the sounds around him, perhaps seeing shadows of his new surroundings.

It wasn't long before they realized that Charlie was once probably a well looked after pony - perhaps a child's beloved mount. His coat was good, and his feet strong and just a little long, but the look on his face was one of fear. How could he not be in fear? Charlie is totally blind. One eye is deformed and calcified - the other a white milky colour. For over a week now, everything and everyone was strange to him. He'd been driven from his home to a large, noisy, cavernous auction, with nothing but rough hands and voices, and strange sounds surrounding him. For days that was his world - a prison of sorts.

With those experiences behind him now, Charlie walked carefully away from the trailer with high deliberate steps - the way blind horses will walk when they are unfamiliar with their surroundings. His fate was now in the hands of people who he would have to learn to trust. But Charlie is a trusting pony. Anyone who knows horses know that they are trusting by nature. If their spirit has not been broken by cruel handling, even sightless horses like Charlie who have been through so much, want to trust the humans who tend to them. So sadly, even horses that go to slaughter look for compassion and refuge from the humans who ultimately put them to their death.

To protect the other horses from possible infectious disease, Charlie has been quarantined since his arrival. He does get lots of sunshine, fresh air and some grass, as the children at Second Chance Farm all want to take their turns tending to him.

He's been vet checked, and was on a 5-day deworming schedule, as tests proved he was very wormy. His blood work shows him to be slightly anemic. The plan is to augment his diet with a supplement to improve his red blood cells. There is no evidence of previous founder, but his diet will be monitored to help minimize the risk of founder. He will be kept off rich pasture. The vet estimates his age to be about 15 year old.

His eyesight is virtually gone, but his appearance is otherwise good. He's been a tough little guy, holding up very well under the circumstances. After his deworming he'll be vaccinated, his feet will be trimmed and his teeth checked.

When the CHDC found out about Charlie, we knew we had to help. This blind pony's story exemplifies the plight of the thousands of horses that die in Canadian slaughterhouses every week. The horses are not all blind, but their fate is just as helpless as little Charlie's was. So many are beautiful young horses whose luck ran out the day they were purchased by a kill buyer at an auction. In 2008, it is estimated that over 100,000 horses' lives will end in Canada to satisfy consumers of horsemeat in Europe and Asia. These horses will die due to a foreign consumer market - not because these horses are unwanted. There are many examples of kill buyers outbidding people at auctions who want to give a horse a new home - a new chance at life.

If you find it in your heart, please help horses like Charlie who will never be a riding pony again, but can be a pasture mate. Help the beautiful young horses that never got the training they needed, but just need patience and time to become a faithful riding horse. When your old or sick horses cannot be looked after any longer due to poor health, call your vet and have your horse humanely euthanized. Sending your horse to slaughter is not humane. You need only to read the CHDC June 2008 report on Natural Valley Farms to understand the horrors of horse slaughter.

If you would like to contribute towards Charlie's care, please contact the CHDC here or Second Chance Farm here.

And if you haven't done so already, take a look at Charlie's video.

There are so many horses with stories like Charlie's. Please do your part to support our horse rescues. To find a list of Canadian horse rescues, please visit the CHDC website. If you run a horse rescue or would like to become involved with helping save horses from slaughter, the CHDC would like to hear from you.

Thank you for caring to read about Charlie. He is just one of so many horses that deserve a safe and happy life.

Shelley Grainger
Director, Eastern Region

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