Saved from slaughter: Racehorse finds forever home in Virginia

CHILHOWIE Va. (WCYB) — A family in Chilhowie, Virginia now houses a retired racehorse who was saved from slaughter.

Allison Smith with Colby's Crew Rescue non-profit in Charlottesville said Killargue was an award-winning racehorse whose career ended when he suffered a race injury. He was later sent to stud, which is when male horses mate with female horses across the country.

After Killargue produces these successful race horses for this barn manager, he drove him to an auction in North Carolina and sold him at auction, someone bought him from that auction," Smith said.

Smith said Killargue's owner told his handler to give him away to a rescue, but the trainer sent him to a slaughterhouse. She said they traveled to Pennsylvania to save Killargue's life.

He thought the horse was no good and so he called up Killargue's owner at the time and told him this, and told him he was going to find a good home for him, find him a family, he was lying to Killargue's owner," Smith said.

Joey Atkins and his family own many horses in Chilhowie and took a trip to Charlottesville to adopt a mule, but Killargue also caught their eye. Atkins said the horse looked visibly injured.

His initial sale price was $25,000, he had several hundreds of thousands of dollars of earnings in his life," Atkins said.

I saw this guy and it was so sad, you can see he has some scars, still healthy, they took good care of him at the adoption center but if you can handle that animal and take care of it, you should," Atkins added.

Smith said with donations to their organization, they saved Killargue's life and found his forever home with the Atkins.

It's definitely extremely hard for us to go in there and see everything, moments like Killargue getting adopted makes all of it worth it," Smith said.

Smith said she hopes Colby's Crew Rescue continues to provide a forever home for horses.