Exceller Slaughtered in Sweden
In 1997, Daily Racing Form Traced 24-Year-Old Champion's Death
Exceller and Ferdinand were two American Thoroughbred champions among 3 million hapless horses to parish in slaughterhouses between 1986 and early 1997.
Exceller and Ferdinand, Thoroughbred champions, died in slaughterhouses. Their inhumane deaths prompted an outcry for the discontinuance of all slaughterhouse activities (hanging from one limb, bludgeonings, death row lineups), etc. Daily Racing Form, coincidentally programming for its "Whatever Happened To" series, traced Exceller's whereabouts just three months after his killing.
Ten Year Slaughter Destroys 3 Million Horses
Figures cascaded to the inquiring Daily Racing Form. It was determined that as many as three million American horses lost their lives in slaughterhouses between 1986 and early 1997.
Outrageous numbers of domestic cats and dogs are euthanized each year because they cannot be adopted, or cared for in a humane environment. A similar crisis is being addressed by the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation. Many Thoroughbreds who have thrilled cheering crowds at the nation's race tracks do not have the choice to end their stay on earth in dignity.
Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation Enters the Battle
The Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation's mission is to care for retired Thoroughbreds, attempt to find homes for pensioned champions, and to repay them in a manner befitting the service these horses have rendered to human society. The bloodlines of Thoroughbreds are cherished, painstakingly recorded, and guarded for future generations. A Thoroughbred's ability to thrill in the Sport of Kings is unique.
Concerning itself with story-endings such as those of Exceller and Ferdinand, the TRF is dedicated to seeking solutions to prevent those types of tragedies from continuing. The TRF's stance is that horsemen should accept partial responsibility for the conditions of the Thoroughbred population, help to lessen the blight that slaughterhouses bring to the industry, and to call for an end to the wholesale killing of champion horses.
Pagmar's Testimony Tells Chilling Story
Exceller met an unnecessarily cruel death, according to the testimony of Ann Pagmar, then owner of Jaboruder, the Swedish farm where the champion Thoroughbred lived the last year of his life.
Pagmar related that Exceller's owner called her to tell her to take Exceller to a slaughterhouse because the horse was no longer a breeder, and he couldn't afford to keep him. She offered to buy Exceller's breeding license and to keep him herself, she claimed, but the owner wouldn't relent. The 24-year-old Exceller was in excellent health, Pagmar related, and had not been infected as rumored with any condition that would scare off potential interested breeders.
Pagmar was obligated to serve the owner's signed authorization for Exceller's appointment with death.
The killing was ongoing that busy April day, Pagmar said, and a very nervous Exceller was made to wait in line for his own slaughter, able to sense impending doom, the smell of blood and gore in his sensitive nostrils. Standing there with him made her feel like Judas, she testified.
Exceller's owner, Gote Ostlund, claimed bankruptcy resulted from his effort to switch from Standardbred breeding to Thoroughbred breeding, for which he had purchased Exceller. Records from the Scandinavian Racing Bureau relate that this was the reason Ostlund called for Exceller's death.
But Ostlund had told Daily Racing Form that the killing was a result of Exceller being in poor breeding health and being quite old.
Individuals interested in helping Thoroughbreds may call the TRF.
