Half way through her memoir SAVING BABY (co-written with
Lawrence Lindner), Jo Anne Normile hits her tipping point when she recognizes
the extent of the slaughter pipeline at the racetrack where her beloved horse
Baby competed. Her anger and
helplessness become nearly unbearable. It is that tipping point which leads her
to work harder on behalf of the Thoroughbreds, and culminates in the creation
of two huge rescue organizations. She is not tireless, but she does not give
up. Her health and family are compromised by her devotion, but her
determination is steadfast.
Being a witness to abuse and feeling helpless to stop it is
torture. Jo Anne Normile does not actually witness any crime, since it is not a
crime to send a horse to slaughter, even if the horse is only two-years old and
basically sound. If the trainer can’t win with the horse, off he goes. Nor are
some of the other myriad abuses she sees considered criminal. It’s the way the unregulated
racing industry works: the horses are simply commodities, not pets, and are
often not even considered to be living, breathing, loving creatures.
Baby, whose registered name was Reel Surprise, is born at
the Normile’s barn as a favor to the owner who was recovering from a heart
attack. In return, once the mare, Precocious Pat, was ready, Normile could
breed her to Secretariat’s son, and keep that foal, fulfilling her bucket
list-type wish to have a grandchild of Secretariat on her farm. But Pat’s
owner’s health does not improve, and he asks that Baby stay with the Normile
family, with one condition: they must race him.
Thus began Jo Anne’s entry into the strange, exciting, and
ultimately disheartening world of Thoroughbred horse racing. The incidents of
mistreatment she witnesses are hard enough to take, but she believes she must
keep her mind on her own horse and not get in the middle of racetrack politics
and questionable practices.
Fortunately for the race horses, that reticence ends, but
only as a result of tragedy. Jo Anne is compelled to fight to save as many
horses as possible in Baby’s name.
SAVING BABY is a much needed eye-opener about the realities
of Thoroughbred racing and about being complicit in what can only be described
as barbaric mistreatment of animals. And it will perhaps remind us all that
standing by and minding our own business is not an option. Rescue work takes a
huge toll on Normile’s health, family life, and finances. Still, she
perseveres.
In THE RESCUE AT DEAD DOG BEACH, Stephan McGarva reaches his
tipping point as he witnesses an act of such barbarity he can no longer contain
the anger that has been periodically welling up within him.
His story begins when his wife receives a job offer in
Puerto Rico. The couple had grown a bit weary of small town Rhode Island life,
and jumped at this new adventure. McGarva, an extreme sports athlete and
artist, had been feeling lonely since his dog Achate had died, and the small
Rhode Island town just didn’t offer the kind of energy he was craving.
But his first outing in Puerto Rico, at Playa Lucia, to go
kite surfing takes a horrible turn. Instead of finding a secluded, pristine
beach, he is met with the sight of dogs (and one horse) who had been brutalized
and left dead or near death along the sands and the perimeter of the jungle. He
abandons his surfing plans that day, and instead begins what will become a
soul-crushing routine of daily caring for the barely living dogs and burying
the dead. Just as Jo Anne Normile fought
for the horses as a tribute to Baby, Steve McGarva feels he owes it to Achate’s
legend to help the unfortunate animals on the beach. His work gives him
purpose, but it also overtakes his life. His marriage suffers, as does his
health. But he forges ahead, unwilling to give up.
Within weeks, his pack grows to several dozen, and he finds
a few compatriots who also try to ease the suffering of the satos or wild dogs. The dogs are not
wild, but abandoned, abused, neglected. Why is a question no one seems to be
able to answer, although in some cases, the poor economy where people are
simply unable to afford the care of a pet, is to blame. Most of the dogs wear
collars, often embedded into their flesh, and all long for affection as much as
food and water.
As a consequence of caring for the pack, Stephen McGarva finds
himself to be the target of violence. There are plenty of people, he’s told, who
think nothing of murdering a stray dog or a stray American, and he is repeatedly
cautioned to watch his back. The threats grow in intensity. “I never would have
imagined,” he writes, “that animal rescue would become the most extreme sport
of my life.” Sporting a machete for protection, he enters a battle that seems
unwinnable.
This is not an easy story to read; the horrors he recounts
will make animal lovers bristle with anger. But it needs to be told and to be read.
What McGarva has accomplished is nothing short of miraculous. His courage and
his determination are to be emulated. The emotional toll the experience took on
him almost did him in, as with Normile, but like her, he found the inner
strength to keep going. And for the satos
of Playa Lucia and elsewhere in Puerto Rico, it’s a good thing he did.
To help out these rescue groups, go to:
www.savingbaby.org and to
www.allsatorescue.org. Books for Animal
Lovers will donate a portion of every sale of either book to the respective
organization as well.
