Midnight Glitter's Sad Story

In this photo: Midnight Glitter in Bravo Packing's Kill Lot

 Midnight Glitter was in his 20s when he was trucked out of Bravo Packing horse slaughterhouse and saved from Monty and Joe Merola's lean meat experiment. Glitter had been starving to death in Joe Merola's kill lot ever since Amanda began going undercover at Bravo in February of 2008. Amanda asked plant manager, Monty Merola, why he would want to slaughter a horse as emaciated as Glitter, He glibly replied, "Have you ever heard of lean meat? It makes me 50 cents more per pound by the time I sell it to Great Adventure's Wild Animal Kingdom." Amanda was horrified at his answer and was determined to save Glitter from the horrors of this creepy and macabre New Jersey Chainsaw Massacre family. She and her investigative partner in crime, Elle Nash, pretended that Kentucky's Gluck Research Institute wanted to purchase Glitter for experiments being conducted on starving horses to promote the comeback of American horse slaughter in an upcoming research article.

Since Monty and Joe believed that Nash and Sorvino were pro-slaughter and advocates of vivisection, they did not get suspicious that the girls were interested in "purchasing" a thin old slaughter horse like Glitter from "the lot." Hence, when a big rescue truck came for the other horses, all with different purchase excuses, Glitter was led onto the trailer and almost trotted up the ramp ... he had never looked so gallant in all the month's Sorvino had been witness undercover to daily atrocities at the slaughter plant.

Upon arrival at the Sorvino's rescue ranch, Cross River Vets entered the scene, ready to document the deplorable conditions of the 9 horses, fresh out of a slaughterhouse. They were appalled by the appearance and overall health of Midnight Glitter. Dr. Courie England gave Glitter a #1 on the Henneke scale ... just one score above death, which is zero. Glitter was a walking skeleton. He had rain rot, old scabs, and open wounds all over his body. He was blind in one eye, which Dr. Laurie Wessel later determined was caused by blunt forced trauma, so it is probable that Monty baseball batted Glitter's eye, just the way he did Scotchy's eye, out of revenge during one of his drunken, enraged episodes.

Midnight Glitter was treated like a king at Gray Dapple. He had a brand new stall in the main barn, and enjoyed grazing on sumptuous emerald acres in the rolling hills with other rescue horses. As the winter grew colder, Amanda put him in Mr. Quick's handmade felt stable sheet and a thick winter blanket on top. Over the months he had put on at least 200 pounds, and was growing a beautiful, shiny and curly mane. He had attracted a crew of fans, such as the Sorvino's housekeeper, who noticed his specialness. Amanda and her daughter, Bizz, adored him, and Bizz would brush his mane and tail daily, sometimes braiding them to make him feel royal.

One frigidly cold, winter day, Amanda had Dr. Wessel come out to look at an eye infection Glitter had developed. Wessel was impressed with the overall improvement in his health. She remarked on how much weight he had gained and how shiny his coat looked. She did notice for the first time that his blind eye, which was infected, was caused by blunt forced trauma. Amanda was haunted by that. Glitter was given eye meds, the housekeeper fed him carrot bits, and Wessel went home. Hours later Amanda would be calling the vets again, this time for emergency treatment. Glitter had suffered a serious choke episode.

As the night grew older and colder and the hours progressed, Glitter became more critical. This time, Dr. Audrey Yank pulled into the Sorvinos' driveway for an emergency visit. Tubing his throat and trying every procedure seemed to temporarily keep him stable.

But just one night later, he suffered yet another choke episode. This was highly unusual, and almost unheard of, since Yank, again tubed his throat. Glitter had one last sunny day. He had moments of happiness. But he had stopped eating, except for a few handfuls of mashed grain. Dr. Yank would be back yet one more time, this time for the last time. It was freezing cold. Yank came to his stall. Foam was coming of Glitter's mouth .. his heart rate was up so high he could not travel to the emergency surgery center. Throughout it all, Glitter kept his dignity, always standing and struggling to stay alive. Amanda could not bear the sadness and kept sobbing loudly, even though she tried not to for poor Glitter's sake. At 11:30 pm, Glitter had gone delirious. In this state, he walked purposefully out of his stall and headed towards the barn door. It was a dutch door and on that night, the top door was open.

"Where are you going?" asked Yank sweetly, as if drifting into a lullaby. "You want to go somewhere beyond that door, don't you ... but we don't know where that is."

Glitter literally transformed into a spirit and almost walked through the door. Amanda had never seen anything like it in her life. Yank and Sorvino let Glitter walk up and down the barn aisles, hoping the movement would give his delirious mind a sense of temporary happiness. Yank left, but suddenly walked back in ... "Please call me if you want me to put him down tonight, Amanda... I want so much for him to pull through but ... I just don't know what Glitter wants."

Amanda understood exactly what Dr. Yank was talking about. They both shared an understanding. It seemed like Glitter was trying to cross over, in the most beautiful, ethereal sense of th word. But Amanda could not bear to say goodbye. She stayed with him ... left the barn .. came back 2 hours later ... stood with him as his breathing rapidly increased .. he was foaming at the mouth ...


Bizz entered the barn. She wanted to say Goodbye to Glitter in case he didn't make it through the night. She hugged him and broke down, grasping the finality of these precious moments. She was thinking about how wavy and thick his mane was ... and that it reminded her of a doll's hair.