Jenks Goes Undercover to Stop Horse Slaughtering

  In this episode called "Freedom's Flight," Jenks went to Miami where he met Brogan (last name wasn't given), a 23-year-old animal rescuer.  She's not the throw-red paint-on-you-because-you-wear-fur kind of animal rescuer.  Oh, no, no, not Brogan.  She takes a different approach to her animal rescuing.  Brogan dons camo and wields a .38 caliber gun.  How many animal rescuers do you know who have been shot at twice and lug around a loaded pistol with them in their purse for protection on a daily basis?

  Protection from what, you say?  Protection from the men who have a bounty on her head.  Now, what in the world does this girl do to have all this craziness that sounds like something out of an Angelina Jolie flick, you may ask.  Brogan volunteers at a non-profit organization called ARM, Animal Recovery Mission, based out of Miami.  ARM targets illegal horse slaughtering in the C-9 Basin area, 15 minutes from Miami.  C-9 Basin is home to lots of illegal activity including the slaughtering of horses and other animals.  C-9 Basin has been considered a place of lawlessness, like a Wild Wild West of Miami, if you will.  ARM fights to shutdown slaughter farms and the illegal slaughtering of animals.  So, I guess the men who tried horse slaughtering as a business only to be shutdown with the help of Brogan and ARM aren't too happy with her or the organization, which has also received many death threats.

  Why would people slaughter horses?!  Well, besides for those people who enjoy eating horse meat and encourage it like how this boldly named blog, "Eat Horse," does, apparently, a horse's meat is in high demand on the black market.  In order to shutdown these slaughter farms, ARM volunteers go on surveillances when they try to videotape the horse killers in action or find activity that can be used as evidence in a case.  Missions such as these prove to be dangerous because the men on the slaughter farms are also armed and, obviously as said before with Brogan's price on her head, they don't let go of a grudge very easily either.

  Brogan and the founder of ARM, who goes by the nickname Kudo, introduced Jenks to Freedom's Flight, the horse the show's episode is named after.  Freedom's Flight is grandson to Secretariat, an American Thoroughbred racehorse who became the first U.S. Triple Crown champion in 25 years in 1973.  Secretariat went on to set race records in the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes that still stand to this day.  However, Freedom's Flight did not have royal treatment regardless of his lineage.  On the contrary, he was severely abused and undernourished.  With the help of Brogan and ARM, Freedom's Flight had a second chance at life.
                                                                    

Freedom's Flight BEFORE

Freedom's Flight AFTER

Photos courtesy of Animal Recovery Mission

  If you want to help these helpless animals and the organizations that protect them, I found some links that may be useful.

• To find out what you can do ... http://www.stophorseslaughter.com/
• Donate to end horse slaughter ... http://www.humanesociety.org/donate/
• Donate your time or money for the cause ... http://animalrecoverymission.org/?page_id=10