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FeedSad Angel No More
Saving Horses, One Animal at a Time
EVERY YEAR APPROXIMATELY 90,000 HORSES WIND UP AT kill auctions in the United States, where they are shipped to Mexico and Canada to be slaughtered, the meat sent to Asian and European markets.
Early last year, Howard Brodsky, CEO of New York Health & Racquet Clubs, found himself plunged into the nerve-wracking business of rescuing horses. “It’s been dramatic,” says Brodsky. His involvement began with a St. Bernard puppy he saw advertised on Petfinders.com. “It had been rescued from an Amish puppy mill by the actor Paul Sorvino and his daughter, Amanda, and they were trying to find a home for it,” says Brodsky. The fitness-club owner adopted the dog and became friends with the Sorvinos who brought the plight of unwanted horses to his attention.
Brodsky joined their rescue organization, graydapple.com, as executive director, and only weeks later, accompanied Amanda Sorvino to the New Holland Horse Auction in Pennsylvania where he saw savagely beaten, bloody animals. “They were drugged just so they could
walk through the center aisle to see if they were fit to be purchased for kill,” he explains. “If the horse was unable to walk through, it would be humanely put down by a vet onsite, but the sellers would receive nothing.” He said he personally witnessed unbelievable brutality and horses with compound fractures drugged so they could be dragged through the aisle.
At home, Howard and Lori Brodsky and their children, Madeline and Kyle, have three rescued horses. They also have three adopted dogs (their yellow Lab once belonged to their Bedford neighbor Dana Reeve), five alpacas, three English baby doll sheep, and a guard llama. The horses are a gorgeous Percheron mare who needed to be nursed back to health that his daughter named Midnight, and two nurse mare foals, Party Boy, a paint, and Blue, a Thorough-bred draft. Brodsky is planning on learning to ride Midnight, but is seeking loving homes for the other two. “They’re doing great,” he says. “We had to bottle feed them when we first got them. And to think they were on their way to be thrown alive on a pile as babies for the leather man to collect.”
Though legal, horse-rescue operations are risky, even dangerous. On a subsequent visit to New Holland, Brodsky brought $2,500 in cash to save five horses. Unfortunately, he was recognized as a rescuer and threatened by the Amish cowboys who run the place. “They said if I did not leave immediately I would most certainly be knifed,” says Brodsky. Using the services of a mediator, Brodsky was able to save one horse that day, a white Thorough-bred he named Sad Angel. “We have photos of her actually crying,” Brodsky says. “Sad Angel is now on a wonderful property in Pennsylvania, adopted by a loving woman who will love her for the rest of her life.”
Brodsky said his organization is very strict about who adopts a horse. “I’ve met lots of rescuers and my feeling is that unless you value human life above animal life, I can’t work with you. I am extremely passionate about this. I witnessed the disgusting practices that go on in the horse-slaughter industry and have pictures that are horrible to see,” he explains. One of the saddest things he relayed that goes on in Thoroughbred racing are jockeys who tell the owners that the horses are lame and need to be put down. “They take them to a kill buyer so they can line their pockets with $400 or $500 in cash for a perfectly healthy horse.” Brodsky says that 37 percent of all racehorses end up being slaughtered. “What is really sad is that local trainers sell horses for thousands of dollars to unaware buyers when a horse can be rescued for a small adoption fee—or even free in this environment.”
Animal Planet has come courting and a reality show about Brodsky’s operations, graydapple.com and horsefellas.com, may be in the works. He says that he’s constantly besieged with phone calls from other rescuers who purchase large lots of horses from kill auctions who need urgent help. His rescue already has 22 horses for adoption on a farm in Pennsylvania right now.
There is a tsunami of unwanted horses out there. “I hope I can bring awareness to the Bedford horse community,” Brodsky says. “These horses are so appreciative and loving. They know what was their destiny.”
