In early September, 25 horses bound for slaughter in Canada were seized from a Pennsylvania truck by New York State Police.
News of the seizure and arrest of the driver in St. Lawrence County drew strong reaction from animal advocates. It was the first arrest under a 2023 New York law that bans the transport of horses for slaughter. But an investigative report by the Times Union finds there are some hurdles for attorneys prosecuting the case.
WAMC's Lucas Willard spoke with Times Union managing editor Brendan Lyons about his report.
INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT
Editor's note: this conversation has been lightly edited for clarity.
Lyons: This particular [statute] that bans the slaughter was the first time that somebody was charged, and it was the driver who was charged from Pennsylvania, who works for Bruce Rotz, who was the kill buyer. But immediately there were concerns about how the statute is written, and the DA in our story, the district attorney in St. Lawrence County, had had broken that down for us in terms of, it's really intended to punish the owner or the person receiving the slaughter horses as opposed to a driver. And there are other concerns with, constitutional concerns about whether this could, for instance, interfere with interstate commerce. And so, where this is going to end up is still unknown because the defendant is supposed to appear in a DeKalb Town Court later this month. He has an attorney in, a local attorney from St. Lawrence County that he's retained. And so now we had spoken proactive…you know the lawmakers had all done sort of a victory lap in the advocates when this guy was charged on September 2 with transporting these horses. But as the dust settled, it became clear that maybe no one's going to be punished, and certainly there's even questions about whether these horses, which were seized and turned over to the Humane Association, might have to be returned to this kill buyer, which the advocates are already putting them out in…you know they're finding homes for them across upstate New York and saying that he'll never get these horses back.
Willard: So, Brendan, I want to talk about the law itself, and you had mentioned you spoke with the St. Lawrence County District Attorney Gary Pasqua in this story, and he points out the law does not carry a potential jail sentence. So, is there concern that the law really won't do much to deter this kind of transport of former racehorses?
Lyons: Yeah, and that's the other component here is that in the Ag and Markets law, the legislature and the governor made this a misdemeanor, but the punishment they sent is set for this crime is only a fine, and when that case is now brought into a criminal court, because there is no potential jail sentence, it can only be prosecuted as a violation, and so that's another glitch that is going to make it difficult for prosecutors. And the fear of the advocates is that police, if this case goes south, that police will simply say, "Hey, there's no point in us making these stops. No one's going to be held accountable, so we're just going to let them go.” And, I think that you're already seeing some lobbyists involved, like Karen Spencer from Horsepower, I know that she's already working the phones. She had gone to Michigan last week to meet with lawmakers there to try to convince them to pass a similar law, because Bruce Rotz has said, he's out in Western Pennsylvania, and he said, "OK, if I can't go through New York, I'll just drive through Michigan to get to Canada.” So, she's also going to be working on Albany lawmakers about strengthening this statute.
Willard: If you could help me understand how these racehorses actually end up in a position where they are, maybe years after their racing careers have ended, ended up headed to a slaughter facility in Canada. Where do they go after they're retired, and how do they actually enter this pipeline?
Lyons: So, they get sold at auction often, and then they go out into….sometimes Amish will buy them, but not always. Sometimes other people buy them, and they become workhorses. The Amish. are notorious, according to the advocates, for mistreatment of these horses, running them into the ground, basically running them hard on concrete roads and those sorts of things. And once they are almost fully broken down, they've come to the point where they're no longer good for workhorses, they'll be sold to the kill buyers. And the kill buyers then put them in paddocks and fatten them up with feed to get them ready to take them to Canada. I'm sure that they're also based on the description of State Police and the farmer, the livestock farmer who unloaded these horses. It sounds like they were crammed in there in violation of the other Ag and Markets law that used to be enforced as well. So, it's a pipeline that's been around. The kill buyer pipeline has been around for decades, and people because other states don't prohibit transporting or selling horses for slaughter when they're brought to Mexico or Canada, it's hard to stop. Ad it's also something that advocates say it's only going to stop if there's a federal statute. But that's going to be difficult, I think, to get through Congress just because of the livestock situation in many other states that don't prohibit it.
Willard: Are there any New York representatives or Pennsylvania representatives that are pushing for a federal law?
Lyons: I know there's advocates pushing for a federal law. I don't know about if any if any congressional members have gotten behind that or not. I'd have to research that to see.
Willard: So, we're coming up on a new legislative session in New York. Are lawmakers already working on fixes at the state level to address the concerns that you reported on in this article?
Lyons: It's a great question, and I left messages for Senator Joe Addabbo and Deborah Glick, the Assemblywoman, who were who were big supporters of this legislation when it went through, and they opted to ghost us. So, I do know that some of the lobbyists had talked into Addabbo about this situation, and I think they I think they will start talking about fixes, potential fixes, because what good is a law on the books if it can't be enforced? If it can't lead to a conviction?
