Fatal transactions; Sale of a horse can be a death sentence.

• Position: LOCAL NEWS

Byline: Paula J. Owen

When horse trainer Matthew D. Clarke found out that Munition, a 7-year-old thoroughbred gelding he had trained, had been sent into the slaughter pipeline, he was devastated.

Mr. Clarke has trained horses for more than 40 years and is the farm manager for the New England Stallion Station on Marshall Farm Road in Fitchburg. He retired Munition from racing last year.

"I was very upset about losing this horse," said Mr. Clarke. "It was a real tragedy. Five days after he was taken from my farm, he was transferred to `Spud' (Joseph F.) Noone, who is very well-known in the equine community in the Northeast. He gets horses together and ships them to an auction in New Holland, Pa. - one of the premier auctions for kill buyers. We turned up a day too late and found out he was sold."

Munition was sold to a New Hampshire "kill buyer," he said, and most likely shipped to a Canadian slaughterhouse. Kill buyers buy horses at auction to ship out of the United States to slaughterhouses in Canada and Mexico, where their flesh is processed for human consumption. The last three horse slaughterhouses in the United States were foreign-owned and closed in 2007.

"It was too late for him," he said. "He was gone. It is a terrible tragedy." I really still don't understand Mara's motivation in what she did. I believe it was naivety and stupidity."

Mr. Clarke sold Munition to toxicology research scientist Mara Feld from Leominster for $1. In 2005, at 2 years old, Munition was racing and was worth $260,000. Ms. Feld said she loves horses and wanted to help Munition by giving him a home.

However, after a few weeks, she said, she was unable to afford boarding fees and posted an advertisement on Craigslist to sell Munition.

Then she met the horse dealer Mr. Noone, and agreed to sell Munition to him in November. But, Ms. Feld said, he lied to her about what would happen to Munition once he was sold. She was told, she said, he would go to a loving family and she could visit him. After Mr. Noone did not respond to her repeated attempts to find out what happened to Munition, she said she feared the worst and began searching for him.

Unlike Mr. Clarke, however, she thinks Munition could still be alive, and has pressed charges against Mr. Noone.

Tomorrow at 10:15 a.m. in Gardner District Court, Mr. Noone faces a criminal charge of larceny by false pretense.

Additionally, she said, Munition was filled with drugs that the European Union prohibits in horses...