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Horse Hero from Bridgton to be Featured on MTV

October 04, 2010 - BRIDGTON -- For the last year, Brogan Horton has gone undercover to document the illegal slaughter of horses in Miami and to get the slaughterhouses shut down.

It's dirty work, sometimes requiring her to crawl onto property at night to set up hidden cameras. It's dangerous work, involving not only people who kill horses for their pricey meat but also deal in illegal drugs and weapons. And it's heartbreaking work — Horton has been there when horses were butchered alive.

On Monday night, TV viewers will get to see her work firsthand.

Horton, 23, originally from Bridgton, will be featured on "World of Jenks," MTV's new hit show that follows 24-year-old documentary filmmaker Andrew Jenks as he spends a week with unique and inspirational people.

"I really wanted people to know that it doesn't take much to make a difference," Horton said. "Really, if I can do it, anybody can. It just takes passion and drive and the willingness to get in these situations and stick your neck out for what's right. What's right and honest. I really wanted to portray that."

Jenks and a crew of more than 30 people spent two weeks with Horton earlier this year as she fought to shut down part of an illegal horse slaughter ring.

Horton started her work with animals at 15, when she founded New Hope For Animals, a Maine-based nonprofit that provides feed assistance to horse owners and others struggling to afford food for their animals.

When she was 19, Horton moved to New Orleans in the days after Hurricane Katrina to help rescue animals there. A few years later, she saw a news story about horses being slaughtered in Florida.

"In backyards, just totally illegally. It was horrible. So I decided to move down," she said.

For the past year, Horton has investigated those illegal slaughterhouses, often going undercover to document the activity and bringing her evidence to the state's Attorney General's Office.

Although illegal, horse meat is considered a delicacy by some cultures and can sell for $40 a pound in Florida. Slaughter rings are run on swaths of public wetlands by former Cuban mafia members who deal at the same time in illegal drugs and weapons, Horton said.

"It wasn't on their own property. It was on public property. They were essentially squatting on the wetlands. They ran cable cords right out of Miami to get power out there, and it was all illegal. I couldn't understand why nobody had turned them in sooner," she said. "It was kind of because these guys are a little bit scary."

Her life has been threatened so often that Horton now carries a gun. Although she doesn't know exactly what will air as part of the show, she and the MTV film crew were, at one point, threatened by a man wielding a small ax.

Of the 250 illegal slaughterhouses running in the Miami area, Horton said she has shut down about 75. She hopes highlighting the problem on MTV will help.

"Maybe this will open up some eyes so we can shut down some more," she said.

The episode, titled "Freedom's Flight," will air Monday at 10 p.m. on MTV.

By Lindsay Tice, Staff Writer, Lewiston Sun Journal
Published Oct 04, 2010

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