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Croswell Auction
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The Croswell Auction is not a nice place to be. It is dark, dank and just plain depressing to see the horses tied up short to the many walls of the little holding pens helplessly awaiting their fates.The first thing we saw were several ponies and minis, all in good weight, two were pregnant, one had a two month old half blind foal at her side. Then around the corner was the cutest donkey I'd seen in a while. Who dumps a donkey at a low level auction like Croswell, especially one as nice as this one? We knew right away he was coming home with us.
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The next choice wasn't so easy. There were about 30 horses, some looked good, some not so much. Several were saddled. God knows how long they were standing there tied up to the wall with no food or water. We made two quick trips around and started a process of elimination based on who looked like they needed the most help. The third time around a young pinto caught my eye. He was no older than 2, very skinny but friendly, had a swollen back leg and something wrong with his eye. We wrote his number down and moved on. There was a skinny horse with a saddle on, we wrote that number down too. Then we came across a palomino tied up on the opposite wall of two other decent looking horses in good weight. She was SKINNY, VERY SKINNY.
Her spine and hip bones severely protruding. She looked at me as I walked up to her, but when I came right up to her, she tried to hide from me by putting her head down and looking the other way. The sadness in her eyes was undeniable. She
broke my heart and I walked out crying, knowing she was the one, wishing we could take every damn one of them. We watched them bring in horse after horse and those guys are rough. They get on them in this little tiny pen and basically yank them around while the auctioneer hoots and hollers. You can see the fear in their eyes. It turned my stomach and made me very angry. They brought in a VERY highly bred papered quarter horse mare and the auctioneer read her breeding. She had Doc Bar this and Leo that, a very well bred mare in good weight. He said she was 7 years old but unsound. We watched the meat buyers purchase her. Such a sad, short life.
The two year old also went to the meat buyers I'm pretty sure. It broke my heart, but we could only take two animals and we had already won the donkey. Then they brought in the palomino. The auctioneer said she was a "drop off" and they had NO idea how old she was; she could be 3 or 30, but she just stood there in the middle of the ring with her head hanging down. Somebody said, "jump on her, she's broke" and there was a collective gasp from the audience because she was literally 200 plus pounds underweight. Thankfully, he didn't.The bidding started at $200 and went back down to $50 where a meat guy on the second
floor bid on her. At that point, I held up my ticket and bid $60 on her. Thank God, he didn't try to bid me up. So many people felt sorry for this poor animal, but I knew somehow, some way, I would make SURE she would be coming home on MY trailer. Next thing I knew he banged his gavel, looked at me and said "sold for $60". Everybody felt sorry for her, but nobody else bid on her.
broke my heart and I walked out crying, knowing she was the one, wishing we could take every damn one of them. We watched them bring in horse after horse and those guys are rough. They get on them in this little tiny pen and basically yank them around while the auctioneer hoots and hollers. You can see the fear in their eyes. It turned my stomach and made me very angry. They brought in a VERY highly bred papered quarter horse mare and the auctioneer read her breeding. She had Doc Bar this and Leo that, a very well bred mare in good weight. He said she was 7 years old but unsound. We watched the meat buyers purchase her. Such a sad, short life.
The two year old also went to the meat buyers I'm pretty sure. It broke my heart, but we could only take two animals and we had already won the donkey. Then they brought in the palomino. The auctioneer said she was a "drop off" and they had NO idea how old she was; she could be 3 or 30, but she just stood there in the middle of the ring with her head hanging down. Somebody said, "jump on her, she's broke" and there was a collective gasp from the audience because she was literally 200 plus pounds underweight. Thankfully, he didn't.The bidding started at $200 and went back down to $50 where a meat guy on the second
floor bid on her. At that point, I held up my ticket and bid $60 on her. Thank God, he didn't try to bid me up. So many people felt sorry for this poor animal, but I knew somehow, some way, I would make SURE she would be coming home on MY trailer. Next thing I knew he banged his gavel, looked at me and said "sold for $60". Everybody felt sorry for her, but nobody else bid on her.
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 Ginger with her blanket to keep her warm |
It was pretty obvious nobody loved this horse for a long time. The night we brought her home it was very cold and rainy. We had much trouble getting her warm enough to stop shaking because she had no body fat. The next day we discovered she had a fast growing thyroid tumor that was partially paralyzing her face. We made the difficult decision of ending her life humanely. She was with us for five days. We take much solace in the fact that her last days were filled with love and dignity. Had we not intervened, her last days would have been spent in a cold kill pen and she would have been trucked to Canada to be slaughtered.
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Ginger's Last Day at Peace in Pasture |
Ending Ginger's LifeThis video is sad, but is not graphic. It shows how EVERY animal's life should end, with peace, dignity and love.
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Ginger is an example of why we do this, why we go through the
pain and agony of rescuing horses that need us.
It doesn't matter if they're with us five days or five years, the end should never be
a cold kill pen, a long trip to Canada or Mexico and then at slaughterhouse.
pain and agony of rescuing horses that need us.
It doesn't matter if they're with us five days or five years, the end should never be
a cold kill pen, a long trip to Canada or Mexico and then at slaughterhouse.