From:
Pat Dickey
To: Mary
S. Nash
Sent:
Subject: Horse Auction –
Jan [not
her real name] just got home from a local horse auction where she talked with
killer-buyer I.W. Ward about the live horse slaughter trade. He purchased
over 30 horses today. All but two are going to kill...many are pets as the
buyers left and these all went late in the day, which is the killer-buyer modus
operandi. Jan saw a pretty little appaloosa go, and the family had no idea
that it went to kill.
I. W. was starting the big horses at higher prices so it made them more expensive for other buyers. Jan went to see what the “temperature” was of the killer-buyers and to see if they would talk. They had enough beer and did. I. W. was at the gate offering people money before they went into the auction, and he bought their horses from them before the sale so they would not have to wait. These people might not know when they sell to him that their horses are going to kill.
Also, a friend of I.W. Ward’s said to Jan, “You will ruin the horse market if you continue [fighting live horse slaughter]. They will not be worth anything.”
Killer-buyer
I.W. Ward asked Jan, "How is the horse slaughter thing going?
Are they going to shut them plants down?"
Jan played
dumb and said she didn’t know. She
asked him if he was licensed by the plants to supply them horses.
He said he wasn't licensed but they “sub-contract” him to supply
horses. She asked if he had a quota
to fill and he said he did. Jan
said, “If I brought up a load of horses, could I sell them there?”
He said, “They will take whatever you got but you won't get as much money as I do."
Jan said
the killer-buyer bunch drank beer all day throughout the sale, so their tongues
loosened as the day went on.
According
to I.W. Ward, “they” are trying to build a new plant in
Jan said to
killer-buyer I.W. Ward, “There are some skinny ones in there."
He replied,
“Oh, there’s some meat on them, and they grind them up for zoo food and bone
meal.”
Generally
the killer-buyers don't bid on the skinny ones because they do not bring the
money. There was only one skinny one in Ward’s trailer. One skinny horse
he passed on brought only $125.00, and it went to a family. They start the
big fat ones out,
He said he
will take them home today but you "won't recognize them by Tuesday”
because he feeds them bread and bloats them up. Jan asked if he sold them by the
trailer load, by weight, and he said they take each horse out and run it through
a chute and weigh it. He told her that after 18 years this is the first time he
saw them slaughter them. Also Jan
learned that each sale only allows one killer-buyer so they do not bid against
each other.