CAMBRIDGE - A thoroughbred racehorse with an amazing pedigree is almost slaughtered! But, a local animal charity comes to the rescue. Until recently, the USDA confirms more than 50,000 horses were slaughtered each year in the U.S. Now, as American slaughterhouses are being shut down, thousands of horses are being transported to Canada and Mexico for slaughter. May 3, 1986: a lean bay Colt named Ferdinand rockets down the home stretch at Churchill Downs to win the Kentucky Derby, but 16 years after Derby fans toasted Ferdinand with mint juleps, the unsuccessful stud was slaughtered in Japan to be served in fine restaurants. Another thoroughbred named Sophie is the granddaughter of another famous Kentucky Derby winner, but Sophie would have met a similar fate as Ferdinand if it weren’t for a couple of nice ladies in Cambridge, Wis. Karen Johnson bought Sophie just hours before she was to be slaughtered. TODAY’S TMJ4’s George Mallet: “What kind of shape was she in when you first got a hold of her?” “She was about 200 pounds underweight and she had already been at the rescue for a month gaining weight at that time. She had two to three hundred wounds on her body that were inflicted by other horses both in transport to the feed lab and on the feed lab which is overcrowded,” Karen Johnson said. Johnson is now working with Milwaukee based Animal Fairy Charities. Debra Lopez created the group. “Although we campaign for all animals, our first mission is saving America’s horses with a bill that sits in front of Congress right now that can outlaw horse slaughters,” Lopez said. That bill, the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act is now stalled in Congress. In fact, just Thursday, the Humane Society asked Congress to step in. If you’d like to learn more about Milwaukee’s Animal Fairy Charities, click on the link under the video box at the top of this page.