2C z THURSDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2019 z USA TODAY E3 SPORTS
By contrast, an estimated 7,500 Thor-
oughbreds a year are slaughtered for hu-
man consumption, according to Alex
Waldrop, president of the National
Thoroughbred Racing Association.
From the racetrack to a dinner plate,
it has been said of Thoroughbreds that
are slaughtered and end up in restau-
rants and markets throughout Asia and
Europe in countries such as China, Ja-
pan, Germany and Russia.
“The problem is that the entire indus-
try is a conveyor belt for slaughter,” said
John Holland, president of the Equine
Welfare Alliance, a nonprofit organiza-
tion 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 generat-
ed millions of dollars in revenue, ac-
cording to invoices cited in an informal
investigation conducted by a nonprofit
group called Animals’ Angels.
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. De-
partment 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 ser-
vice because he said the horses would
otherwise be abandoned.
“Baby, you want to talk about an
apocalypse now,” McBarron said, invok-
ing 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 Ken-
tucky Derby, likely died in a slaughter-
house, according to a 2003 report pub-
lished by The Blood-Horse, a weekly
news magazine focusing on the Thor-
oughbred industry. The Blood-Horse re-
ported that Ferdinand, born in Kentucky
and later sold to a Japanese breeding
farm, likely died in a Japanese slaugh-
terhouse 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 legis-
lation 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 promi-
nent 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 Republi-
can congressman from New York who
sponsored the House 2006 bill, said he
got a firsthand look at the horse slaugh-
ter 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 estab-
lishment,” 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 cam-
paign 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 tax-
payer funds for inspection at horse
slaughter plants, effectively creating a
temporary ban on horse slaughter that
Congress has renewed with each subse-
quent 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 web-
sites 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 – ex-
posing kill buyers.The activistThat August day when McBarron
loaded up the 37 horses, Sonja Mead-
ows, an animal rights activist for Ani-
mals’ Angels, was secretly taking video
of activity at McBarron’s feedlot. Yet
again.
Her informal investigation of McBar-
ron 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 reg-
ular basis.”
Meadows, who obtained documents
and did surveillance of McBarron, al-
leged that horses at McBarron’s feedlot
die without assistance, carry infectious
diseases such as strangles or equine in-
fluenza 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 Kauf-
man County, where McBarron lives. To
date, according to Meadows, the only
information available about action tak-
en in response to her allegations of
McBarron is he received a warning from
the Department of Environmental Qual-
ity 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 al-
leged violations did not respond to USA
TODAY Sports’ requests for information
about whether they followed up on
Meadows’ complaints.
After Meadows published her allega-
tions, 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 hus-
band, 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 clam-
bered up the tree and settled between
two limbs. Then she pulled out her cam-
era 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 in-
vestigative arm.
“Due to current Congressional fund-
ing 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 evi-
dence of CTESA noncompliance, we
look into the matter and take enforce-
ment action as warranted.”
Sweeney said the USDA never want-
ed to enforce regulations and he dis-
missed the notion that funding restric-
tions has anything to do with it.
“They always came up with that ex-
cuse,” he said.
That’s where activists such as Mead-
ows come in.
Born and raised in Germany, Mead-
ows 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 start-
ed Animals’ Angels Inc., a nonprofit de-
voted to exposing animal cruelty, with a
focus on horse slaughter.
Investigations were launched by Ani-
mals’ Angels. Results were published
online. Donations came pouring in.
Animals’ Angels, a 501(c)(3) nonprof-
it, raised more than $6 million between
2013 and 2018, according to tax forms.
There are 665 investigative reports pub-
lished 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 of-
fenders 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 re-
lationship.
McBarron also owns a 23-foot pon-
toon 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, McBar-
ron 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,
for violations that included shipping a
horse that could not bear weight on all
four legs and for non-compliant paper-
work, according to records.
McBarron told a USDA investigator
he tried to pay a veterinarian to sign 50
blank health certificates, which is ille-
gal.
“And he would not do it,” McBarron
told the USDA investigator of the veteri-
narian, 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 Ex-
change in Cleburne, Texas, for a weekly
horse auction. Meadows and her hus-
band had arrived more than an hour
earlier.
McBarron was looking for horses.
Meadows was looking for dirt.The futureFiddling with his cellphone and tak-
ing an occasional dip of smokeless to-
bacco, 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’ atten-
tion. 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 stop-
ping 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 exec-
utive 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,
from 152,000, according to figures from
the Equine Welfare Alliance. The num-
ber 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 ab-
sorb so-called unwanted horses. He
said the historical record proves market
forces quickly correct the potential is-
sue 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 NTRA for bol-
stered efforts in doing that.
Said Waldrop, the NTRA’s president,
“We’ve got to end the slaughter of hors-
es 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, McBar-
ron and the kill buyers are waiting.
“Well, people like me buy ’em be-
cause that’s what we do,” McBarron
said. “I’m just trying to make a little
money.”Racehorses
Continued from Page 1C
Sonja Meadows says she often goes undercover when doing looking into
potential animal cruelty.MICHAEL MULVEY/USA TODAY SPORTS