Sanctuary Stories

A Horse Saved From Slaughter Comforts Frontline Healthcare Workers

Advocates like Kindred Community Farm Sanctuary rescue individuals like Badger from a brutal end in Canada’s horse meat export business

Tenderly
Published in
4 min readOct 21, 2020

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Keryn Denroche, a woman with short gray hair and a gray mask, poses with a soft looking brown horse on her farm sanctuary
Denroche and Badger. Photo provided by Kindred Community Farm Sanctuary

Most North Americans don’t consider horses a source of food, and many recoil at the idea. Yet unbeknownst to most, Canada is one of the biggest exporters of horsemeat and live horses destined for consumption, thousands shipped and stuffed into crates per year, in the world. For years, activists have been trying to expose the industry and shut it down, while behind the scenes, advocates have been rescuing horses bound for slaughter.

Keryn Denroche, founder and director of Kindred Community Farm Sanctuary on Canada’s west coast, is one of those advocates, and the sanctuary’s resident horse, Badger, is proof that horses are friends, not food.

‘If he hadn’t been [rescued], the trucks are there waiting to load up the horses who get passed by. The kill buyers.’

In 2008, Badger found himself at the Fraser Valley Auction, where animal owners auction off their stock to the highest bidder. When it was time for…

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