Killer pen makes home visits
From AlexBrownRacing
Friday, October 13th... Curbside service. Home delivery, and you are going to wonder how insane is this world? It has been almost three months since I have been allowed inside the killer pens. So the killer pens have been coming to me. A big cattle trailer, filled with horses on their way to slaughter in Texas. Yesterday morning the driver Billy uses our bathroom. He talks about the Mets. Billy says I should get my broken tooth fixed, no big deal at the dentist really. And then Billy tells me if I had four thousand dollars I could save every horse on his trailer. Three times in the last month Billy and I have had the same conversations. Hot through Arizona. Gas is cheaper in Ft. Worth. Thanks to a very giving John and Dianne, who live in Morgan Hill, I have enough cash to save exactly one horse.
And when you step onto the cattle truck, the silence is numbing. Our friend Sarah McDowell, who watches our ranch should I have to go somewhere, is with me. This is the first time for Sarah on a killer trailer. She has been to the pens with me many times, but the difference is enormous. On the killer trailer there is a sense of finality. Last chance. Sarah wants me to take a gray mare, she is first in line on the trailer, and her eyes are black and hopeful. She is probably a quarter horse mix. But in the rear I saw him. Knowing for sure he would have a racing tattoo. Starving and beat up, the tattoo was there, and he is only 5 years old. I tell Sarah this is the one. Billy the driver says $430.00. I ask him to throw in the gray mare, I should have cash soon, and can pay him then. But Billy says no, I know the rules. I refuse to look at the others. Because then the nights are long and sleep never comes...
Billy drives away, and Sarah is with the new gelding. The cattle trailer is slow. Five minutes later the trailer is still on Road 19, in our sight, trying to gain speed. Sarah is crying, and she yells at the truck to hurry the f*** up. Sarah is 22 years old, and the gray mare is stuck in her mind. She thinks she has seen it all. A world of throw away animals, and Sarah truly believes she has become hard core. But she cries like a baby, so I ask her to go to the feed store and buy some vaccinations. Maybe pick up a pizza. The day is long, there is another horse to rescue, and the new gelding needs a tub of supplements. Sarah knows I must move on. When you dwell you sputter. Going no where, just like the cattle trailer on Road 19.
We have several friends who attended a concert last night. Brooks & Dunn with Sugarland. And so the new gelding is named Dunn. He looks like a Dunn. The name came easily...
And a killer in Elk Grove tells me I will never be allowed into his feed lots as long as he is alive. Well golly gee. But the feed lots can come to us.
The fire which almost destroyed us, which took the lives of thousands of animals, was deliberatly set by a volunteer fireman. He lives in Gwenda, not far away, and yesterday on Channel 3 they announced his arrest. 12 felony counts of arson. I think about the single deer who came to our fence line often, and she lived in the grapevines. Since the fire she has not returned. I miss her. I miss how things used to be. We are grateful this man was arrested. He can no longer harm animals.
It is Friday The 13th, and we continue to pick up the pieces. More bids from contractors, and Cathy is taking her vacation so we can begin the clean up. Home is where the dumpster is.
Enjoy your day and hug your horses. A beautiful weekend coming up.
and here's a photo of Dunn, the gelding saved at the last minute off the truck headed for slaughter
