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Jennifer Ferrell jumped into a bit of a mystery when she purchased her OTTB from a meat buyer's lot in January.

Mysteries swirl, friends form over kill-pen horse

After reading for years about the joys and rewards of rescuing kill-pen Thoroughbreds, Jennifer Ferrell jumped in with both feet this past January and landed deep in a mystery. It began with the identity of the horse she rescued. After spotting a picture of a shell-shocked looking chestnut Thoroughbred, shown in a well-known meat buyer’s Shippensburg, Penn. lot, Ferrell purchased the horse for $675 with the help of volunteer Thoroughbred advocate, Beth Walker. Walker, a registered nurse and unpaid volunteer for the PA Kill Pen Network, had helped to identify and advertise the horse as 12-year-old mare C.A.T.K. Fly, a […]

Richard Couto, founder of the Animal Recovery Mission, helped convict a Florida man to a 1-year jail term for animal cruelty this week.

Jail sentence expected to buoy slaughter fight

An animal rights group seeking to shut down illegal horse slaughterhouses and other illegal butcheries received a shot in the arm this week when a Florida rancher, targeted in an undercover sting, was sentenced to a year in jail. Following the sentencing of Jorge Luis Garcia, 48, of Ranchos Garcia Farm to a year behind bars without possibility of probation, animal-rights activist Richard “Kudo” Couto declared the sentence a “groundbreaking” decision, one that should help other prosecution efforts of illegal slaughterhouses. “We’ve investigated 137 cases, but this is the first one involving the treatment of farm animals that has gone to trial,” […]

Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation Herd Manager Sara Davenport transitioned from doing breed demonstrations and management for the Kentucky Horse Park to overseeing 900 Thoroughbred ex-racehorses.

Q&A: She helps keep 900 TRF horses happy

A herd of 156 Thoroughbreds spots Sara Davenport as she pulls up to the Oklahoma land where they roam across sprawling fields. On this particular day, the Rye grass is growing thick, and the watering ponds are nearly spilling over. And as the herd manager for the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation approaches, they gather and turn like a flock of birds, sensing no need for her assistance on this day. “These horses are so funny,” says Davenport. “If the grass had been getting a little thin, they’d see our trailers and coming running toward us because they know we’d be moving them […]