COMMENTARY | If allegations are true, there is a true horror story for animal lovers beginning to come to light. It is alleged that Kelsey Lefever, who is 24 years old and from Chester County, Pa., advertised herself as a horse rescuer and chose to take in former racing horses. She had credibility to owners because she was a fairly well known horse trainer. Instead of caring for them, as those who gave her the animals had believed, Lefever allegedly sold the horses at auction for slaughter.
Currently, she is being charged with selling four of the horses placed in her care but it is being reported that she admitted that she may have sold up to approximately 120 horses at auctions where the horses were purchased to be slaughtered for human consumption. The charges against Lefever include felony charges of theft by deception and deceptive business practices. She will face a preliminary hearing on Feb. 6 in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania.
There is no indication, and in fact evidence to the contrary, that any of the horses’ owners knew of what she was doing. From all appearances, the owners were trying to do the right thing for their horses by retiring them to a place that could care for them and provide them with a good home, which makes the allegations even more heartbreaking.
In recent years, the plight of the former racers has become common knowledge and many tracks and individuals in racing have worked to stop the practice. Penn National Race Course will even go so far as to ban any individual from participating in races if that individual is known to be involved in selling race horses for slaughter or slaughtering the animals themselves. Penn National also works with a local facility that helps to find homes for horses that are no longer able to race. Unfortunately, at least two of the horses Lefever is facing charges on were former racers at Penn National. Those horses had been sent to Lefever in May 2011 and are believed to have already been slaughtered.
Though it is illegal in the United States to slaughter horses for human consumption, it is not illegal in Canada. The only reason for the restriction in the United States is because the Food and Drug Administration lacked funding to properly inspect and certify the horse slaughtering facilities. However, recent legislation has allowed money to be allocated to the FDA for that purpose, so the ban may be lifted in the future. If this is something that you do not wish to see reinstated, be sure to contact your local state and federal representatives so that hopefully either federal action can be taken to prohibit the practice or your state can ban it locally.