Video: American Racehorse Lives the ‘Dream’ at Her New Home Following PETA’s Eleventh-Hour Rescue Outside South Korean Slaughterhouse
A filthy, malnourished mare—identified as an American Thoroughbred named My Elusive Dream—was moments away from entering the largest horse slaughterhouse in South Korea when a team of PETA investigators, in coordination with Korean group Jeju Vegan, stopped the truck and rescued her. Now she’s living the dream!
PETA has brought My Elusive Dream home to the U.S. aboard the Mare Force One and found her a new home. She’ll now live in comfort and safety at the Florida farm of The Stronach Group, where she’s recovering.
The Journey to Safety
My Elusive Dream, who had raced at top tracks before being used as a breeding machine in the U.S., was sold at a Keeneland auction in Kentucky, shipped overseas to South Korea, and again bred repeatedly. Since she had been deemed no longer profitable, her owners sold her to a meat buyer. Slaughter is the most common outcome for horses discarded by the racing industry in South Korea.
After swooping in and sparing My Elusive Dream impending slaughter, the rescue team discovered her identity and traced her lineage: She was sired by El Prado, the 2002 leading North American stallion, who had been owned by The Stronach Group. PETA contacted Belinda Stronach, who agreed to give My Elusive Dream a permanent home.
When PETA flew My Elusive Dream back to the U.S. from South Korea, she was more than 200 pounds underweight. The 16-year-old mare is now receiving food, affection, veterinary care, and the respect she always deserved.
The Stronach Group teamed up with us to call for a ban on the sale of North American Thoroughbreds to South Korean racing interests following our 2019 investigation that uncovered the widespread slaughter of racehorses and their offspring.
PETA’s footage captured inside a slaughterhouse revealed horses trembling as they arrived, many covered with mud and burrs, some bleeding, and one fresh off the track with a bandage on his leg from an injury sustained in a race just three days prior. Workers beat horses to force them onto the kill floor and slaughtered them in full view of others—violations of the Korean Animal Protection Act that resulted in multiple criminal charges and convictions.
How YOU Can Help Horses
Please join us in demanding that Keeneland stop dooming hundreds of American horses to death every year. This auction house needs to immediately prohibit the sale of racehorses to South Korea until these animals are guaranteed a safe retirement there.
