Wonderful Perchers

Monday, February 9, 2009

Bob Bull Saved From Slaughter

This is the story of Bob Bull, my husbands race horse.

I am telling this story with the facts that I have. We have most of the information but some of the time line has holes that we cannot fill and will not without the facts.


Bob Bull is a 4 yr old Thoroughbred race horse who originally made his debut with Tom Schell of McSchell Racing Inc when he was 2 yrs old. He was born in March of 2005 and hit the track when he was 2. This is the age when Thoroughbreds start racing.

Tom ran him in a claiming race in the 2007-2008 racing season and Bob was claimed by another trainer. Bob raced 4 races in 2008 under this new trainer and then ended up in Pennsylvania. We are not sure how or why he was in Pennsylvania but anyway, he was eventually found in a field starving. He was then brought to a slaughter house to be slaughtered. Yes, it is true, people from all over the world eat horse meat!


Just a little information before we continue on. All race horses have tattoos on their inner lip that identifies them with the Jockey Club, this is where all names of race horses are registered. If your horse has a tattoo, then you can track their pedigree, race records, past owners, sales history etc. It is just like Carfax (in a way). Tattoos are made up of a letter and numbers. They start with a letter (every year is assigned a letter) followed by the year in which the horse was born and then followed by the last 5 digits of their Jockey Club registration number.


A wonderful organization called Racefund dedicates everything to finding home for race horses and helps provide funds to help race horses in retirement. They also go regularly to the slaughter houses looking for horses to save since a lot of race horses end up at the slaughter houses due to injury or retirement, Sad! On a day that Racefund was at the slaughter house, they found Bob Bull in a "Kill Box". The kill box is a box that is just big enough to fit the horse in it. The horse is not able to turn around or move much in this box. In a slaughter house this is the last place that a horse, or any animal will see. The kill box lives up to its name so I am not going to go into further detail. Usually once an animal gets into the Kill Box they will never walk out on their own.

Racefund found Bob, found his tattoo and traced him back to Tom, who was one of his past trainers! Thank God for tattoos!! Tom was then contacted by Racefund and the rest is history.


Bob Bull has spent some time in Ocala FL resting, putting on weight and getting ready for his trip back to Miami FL. He was reunited with Tom a few weeks ago at Calder Race Track in Miami FL. He has starting his training to get ready for his first run in April!


This story just amazed me! You always hear of cats and dogs being thrown away like they were nothing...did you ever think a horse? Bob is one lucky horse and has a very kind and caring owner. My husband could not ask for a better person or horse to be partnered with. We have so many animals that we saved and Bob just fits into our family!


I know people don't like to read super long posts so I have tried to keep it short and I will be filling you in more on Bob Bull and his race history and personality. I will also be filling you in a little more on how Tom got into racing and how he cares about all his animals.


If you you are thinking of donating money to a great organization, please consider Racefund.org! You can find there site on the right hand side of my page to make a donation!
If anyone has any other information on this story or has anything they would like to add please feel free to contact me through my profile email. Thank you

8 comments:

Dan Felstead said...

Karrie...
I can't believe this...I had no idea that racehorses go to slaughter after they are retired!!!! That is horrible. Boy is Bob Bull a lucky sucker! Thanks for the insight and again, good luck with him.

Dan

The Stewart Stuff said...

Ohhh, that makes me sad and happy at the same time. I'm happy for Bob Bull's fortune, but sad for the others who don't get rescued in time. I am so glad you are sharing this journey with all of us! Keep up the good work!!!!

Karrie said...

Isn't it crazy! A lot of race horses go to slaughter at the end of their career but thanks to organizations like racefund.org and people like Tom, they are being saved. I read on their website that about 50,000 horses are saved a yr! It is sad but true. So lets make sure we cheer him on! He deserves it!

Haunted Isles said...

Here in Britain I support the ILPH (International League for the Protection of Horses and Ponies)it's my fav charity.

Karrie said...

That is wonderful Gladys!Thank You! We should always help out our animals since most of them need us humans to care for them. There are way too many animals "put down" for no reason! They need our help!

Light and Writing said...

Oh my what a sad, sad thing! I am a horse person and it hurts my heart to hear about these animals being neglected and killed! How wonderful that Bob Bull will have a home now! Thank you for sharing the info on where to donate as well!

Anonymous said...

It's amazing what goes on! I'm glad his story took the turn it did! We really do need to care for our animals. We found a cat trapped in a neighbor's shed for days. She was dehydrated and emaciated. I think she must have been feral, but she let us care for her while she needed it. As soon as she was well she wanted back outside and within 5 minutes had a squirrel in her grasp. So, she's not from around here either b/c the neighborhood cats and squirrels have some sort of detente. All this to say, she needed a little human care to get her back on her feet, um, paws.

VaL said...

Our government is likewise responsible for the killing of horses. Only these are the wild ones. The BLM has for sometime now been clearing the mustangs from the land they inhabit to make room for cattle. The amount of mustangs they have has become so tremendous they are euthanizing them. It is a shame that the cattle industry has our government in their pockets. I wrote my congressman but to no avail. All I got back was a letter stating it needed to be done or the cattle would have no rangeland. Guess he is in the cattle Industries pocket also.

I am so thankful that Bob Bull was saved. I am very thankful that organizations such as the one you mentioned exist. Thanks for sharing your experience with us.

VaL