Horses to slaughter

[lilchick]

My first post here on this forum.... I go to an animal auctions 2 times a month and see chickens, ducks and turkeys sold to individuals like me and some do go to slaughter.
This same sale barn has a horse auction on 3rd Sat. of each month. I noticed several nice looking horses in back lots of sale barn running and eating from the hay bales. A nice haflinger mare and baby and a palamino mini mare also. Then I noticed a spirited black and white colt running and just lifting up his feet like a tenn. walker. proud of himself for sure and even had shoes on. There were a few people petting the ones closest to the fence and they were not culls these were nice looking horses... I inquire from the owner about them and he said the kill buyer had bought them the week before and his truck broke down and he had not been able to pick them up yet..
So horses do go to slaughter and it makes me sick to even think about it. I have shetland ponies and a few minis and the boys all got gelded this year to stop the babies..... my thoughts are that I will keep and care for mine and not send any to the sale barn...

 

[goodhors]

Reading information around the nation, since we have no slaughter plants in the USA, horse situations and prices have gone down the toilet. Locally you often cannot GIVE AWAY FREE horses that don't sell. People can not afford to have their lame, old, damaged animals put down because the Vet Euth prices, hole digging for burial, add up to $200-300 or more.

The price of cheap horses has ALWAY been dictated by what they will bring at slaughter. Slaughter held up the horse industry financially because there was always a place to take the animal if all other disposal methods were not useful.

So what seems to be happening with the unwanted horses is dumping. People going to some unseen location, turning the equines loose, putting them in someone's pasture or corral. Someone I know found two horses IN THEIR TRAILER at the TSC store!! Another person I know found THREE horses tied to her trailer at the local trail ride parking lot when she got back from her ride!! Both happened last fall. What do you do with them??

Out west, dumped horses are found starving in the desert, wandering on public lands in bad condition. Those animals have no idea where to find food or water, owners would have been kinder to just shoot them after unloading, save horse the torment.

Local shelters, humane society, animal control is totally overwhelmed with horse issues and no facilities to deal with them. Sometimes the person finding the animals is left with them!! I sure could not manage horses I found wandering loose, no space!!

I imagine with fall now coming, there will be more "found" horses because the summer owner can't afford hay now that pasture will be gone. Craigslist is FULL of free horses, some have issues, lame, old, too young from careless breeding, that no one wants. Other free horses, even usable, may still not be taken for many reasons.

Horses COST MONEY and time to own. No "free ride" came from that fact!

These animals must go SOMEPLACE, like unwanted dogs and cats. The kill buyer is a needed person in the horse community. He will gladly sell you any of those pretty or cute animals for a price. We had a local killer guy years ago, got some nice animals from him then. He also picked up the infirm, aged, sick ones for disposal. That pretty much is what happened back then with most horses. Few buried them on the farm in those days.

But if no one else wants those equines, then they still have to go someplace and the kill buyer is the only one with his hand up. Most folks with a kind heart are overloaded with horses. Rescues have NO MORE ROOM or money to feed them. You can't save them all. Some are not worth saving they will HURT you, though they may LOOK nice. Brains are fried, often injured past repair.

So my best advice is to stay away from the horse pens at the auction. Cattle and other livestock go the same way, when sold, the killer buyers take them. They are just too big to deal with in quantity, out on the little farmettes. Owners have sold them because they can't deal with those animals any more. Killer buyer makes sure they don't have to suffer a dragged out, painful path before dying.

 

[michickenwrangler]

I'm personally in favor of bringing back the "neighborhood knacker" or allowing small slaughterhouses to process horses. Sell the meat cheaply for dog food or bear bait. In the old days, poor people would often buy horsemeat from the knacker and nearly everyone who had a dog bought horsemeat as canned dog food was more expensive.

Most other countries (with large horse populations) have a system like the above.

The American Indians also used to eat their old and lame horses even though they are always romanticized as a "horse culture."

Montana has legislation in the works to bring back horse slaughter in that state. The ranchers are heavily affected by it and want it back.

 

[adoptedbyachicken]

I agree a local way of processing horses should be available to all. Getting the Vet out to put down a horse is not the best option in many cases. Having a thousand pounds of toxic waste to deal with rather than potential food for dogs, wildlife parks and even humans seems to me to be just wrong.

However the old system of shipping them thousands of miles in trucks made for cattle to a processor that handled them poorly had to end too, so hopefully soon this will all come together.

In this area you used to have 2 options. Both stopped due to rude ill informed folks haunting and hassling the business operators! One was a dog food company that would come and get your horse, you could drop it off, or they would kill on your property if you wanted it that way, they took the whole carcass. The second was the local large wildlife park that would come and kill on your property, they left the gut pile so you still needed to be quite rural or dig a hole.

 

[goatgirl4008]

I'm glad there are others out there that think like I do. When there were horse slaughterhouses here there was inspections, big brother was watching. Now the animals are being shipped long distances to end up in mexican slaughter houses that are just nonregulated disaster areas for the animals. Like all industries there is always room for improvement. But these people with high profile names and money. Got horse slaughter banned good for them where are they now? With rescues full to capacity and still more horses beening dumped. And others in less than suitable situations. We have even had a small rescue in my state that the owners are facing animal cruelty charges. It is a necassary evil but isn't a bullet to the head a more humane death than starving? The people that dump their horses I'm sure feel this is the last resort. We need something in place as a temporary assistance with feed and hay to the folks having difficult struggles. We have taking in a retired broodmare and if the chance comes up we will take in a couple more. But it all comes down to what is the best way to deal with broken down,old and those that just can't be broke to ride. The best way for the animal would be a quick humane ending and if that is slaughter than that's the way it should be.

 

[lilchick]

You made some excellent points here about slaughtering horses. I know that it made it worse ( ironic isn't it) for the horses when they closed them down.
It dropped the market right out when they shut down the plants in U.S.. And the economy isn't helping either..

It is sad that I cannot give away a pony yet one of my dwarf minis sold for 1,000.00!
Just because they are tiny and cute and make house pets...

The 2 in my avatar are dwarves named Dainty and Buster.

 

[LauraM]

OMG............there are SOOO FEW realistic and knowledgeable and practical horse people on these internet forums nowadays!!



Sooooo good to see some more people that actually understand what shutting down the slaughter industry in the USA has done to worsen the horse economy and put horses in a FAR WORSE situation than before!

Excellent posts!

 

[Beekissed]

I agree with this so much! These horses can be repurposed into food for pets, glue, the hides can be used....so much better than dying a slow and horrible death.

I also wonder why the same people who really see the sense in having horse slaughter can advocate all the no kill animal shelters. When they stopped killing the unwanted, excess dogs and cats this nation went into a crisis with the millions of animals that have to be fed and sheltered by under funded shelters.

Its really time to bring all the common sense solutions back into the picture and keep all the bleeding heart sentimentality out of the pet animal world. The spay/neuter programs are just inadequate for dealing with this growing problem and there will always be unresponsible pet owners and breeders....so time to reinstitute the kill shelters.

If not that, send all the unwanted dogs to the third world countries that see these animals as a valuable food source. Let someone get some good use out of them.

 

[michickenwrangler]

OMG............there are SOOO FEW realistic and knowledgeable and practical horse people on these internet forums nowadays!!



Sooooo good to see some more people that actually understand what shutting down the slaughter industry in the USA has done to worsen the horse economy and put horses in a FAR WORSE situation than before!

Excellent posts!

Thank you. I have noticed the tide turning with the economy, more people are in favor of horse slaughter.

Someone started a thread like this on the chicken forum and I think it had to be closed

BTW, these people who think the whole "mustangs = spirit of the west = American freedom, blah blah blah" I have this argument:

Horses lived in North America during the Ice Age. Mastodons and Mammoths also lived here too. All went extinct about the same time, through more or less natural means.

Now, if I were to loose a herd of Indian Elephants loose in the South with the justification that "these animals lived here once and are a symbol of America's past," I would probably be arrested and heavily fined.

Feel free to rebutt if you wish anyone.

 

[apdan]

Now, if I were to loose a herd of Indian Elephants loose in the South with the justification that "these animals lived here once and are a symbol of America's past," I would probably be arrested and heavily fined.

OMG Could you imagine the media on that one!!! IT WOULD BE CRAZY!!!!