Gray Dapple
Thoroughbred Assistance Program - Going Beyond The Finish Line
This is Buttercup .........
Buttercup lived for a year at a hidden horse slaughterhouse in New Jersey. At this slaughterhouse, called Bravo Packing (WARNING GRAPHIC AND DISTURBING VIDEO), there are no rules and no daily USDA inspections. Hence, the owner of the plant runs the show in a highly cruel alternative fashion. Horses like Buttercup, many of them young and directly off the racetrack, are detained for a year or even longer before being killed. They are slowly starved to death in a large muddy lot and are only offered hay with black mold and a trough with green, bacteria infested water. Why are they starved? To procure "lean meat" for lions and tigers at the zoos. Lean meat churns in 50 cents more per pound. It is considered a prized delicacy in the exotic big cat underworld.
Buttercup was left untreated for a serious bacterial infection called cellulitis in the kill lot at Bravo Packing for one year. Due to this unconscionable neglect Buttercup's cellulitis went chronic. Butter, along with 9 other horses, was ultimately rescued from Bravo Packing. But thanks to Joe Merola, who owns Bravo Packing, and denied her veterinary treatment for so long, Buttercup will have chronic cellulitis for the rest of her life.
Recently, Buttercup was at death's door, unable to stand, shaking from the toxicity...cellulitis had gone septic and had poisoned her bloodstream. No one, including the vets at Cross River, thought she would survive.
But I never gave up on Buttercup. I knew she wanted to live ... in the middle of the night with a team of friends at Butter's side, Dr. Kerri Tiehl and her loyal husband said goodbye ... "We've given her every medicine that we possibly can. We've exhausted every medical possibility. Buttercup will need to get up in order to survive. If she doesn't get up on her own in the next few hours, she won't live. I'm so sorry."
I was devastated and looked at Dr. Tiehl, thinking I would be calling her later in the night to have her come back and euthanize Buttercup. But just 2 minutes after Tiehl drove away, Buttercup miraculously rose to her feet. I was shocked, as was my team of support. How did she suddenly stand up, and why did she encompass such an impenetrable will to live? I concluded that if Buttercup could survive Bravo Packing, she could survive anything.
Butter has the worst case of cellulitis my vets have ever seen. She requires special care. All of the skin and flesh on her back left leg will eventually fall off, and there is risk that the bacteria will invade her joint. If that happens, it will be an instant death sentence. Her back leg needs to be warm hosed, sponged, and scrubbed with a brushed soaked in a betadine solution on a daily basis. Butter was recently moved to a spectacular full care facility. I go to the stable every day to treat Butter's leg and spend time with her. Butter's vet bills are already in excess of two thousand dollars and are ongoing. Buttercup desperately needs a sponsor, thanks to Monty and Joe Merola at Bravo Packing. Click here to sponsor Buttercup:
If you are looking for a mission statement for Gray Dapple TAP, Buttercup is the reason I rescue horses. She represents the brightness and darkness of horse rescue.
Founder and President
