Horse Talk

[amandaa]

It seems to me that our congressmen lack foresight when it comes to understanding the implications of the laws that they pass. Laws ending horse slaughter and closing plants in the U.S. were passed to protect horses in this country from abuse. However, the end result of these laws has been more abuse to horses and the elimination of raising horses as a viable business here in the U.S.
Now when horses are sold to slaughter (it still happens the price is simply much lower), the horses are hauled to either Canada, Mexico or one of the few existing plants in the states that periodically open. These animals endure 20+ hours jammed into a trailer or truck instead of only being hauled a few hours which was the case before the slaughter laws were passed. Even better, since they're hauled out of the country, we as a nation have no real control over how they're treated. Plus, since there is no real consistent horse slaughter market right now, the price of horses is severely depressed. Problem horses, broodmares and horses that have outlived their usefulness have almost no value. An owner has little to no incentive to take care of an animal with no value, so these horses are left to suffer and eventually starve to death through lack of care.
As a long-time breeder of horses, I can safely state that I've sold more horses to slaughter since this ridiculous law was passed than I ever did before the law. There used to be a market for a nice, safe old horse that couldn't handle being ridden hard or an older broodmare that could still have good colts with a little extra care. Now, not only is there no market for these horses, but there's no market for broodmares in general and really any riding horse that exhibits any problem behavior.
Here's a novel thought. Why not reopen the slaughter plants, allow people to eat horse meat if they wish to, and just regulate the industry (as we do for cattle, hogs and other livestock) to ensure that the animals are treated in a humane manner? In one fell swoop, we'd create jobs and give the horse industry a much-needed kick start to get back where it needs to be. Financial gain is a great incentive to ensure that horse owners treat their horses ethically. Fix the horse market to ensure that horses are worth something, and we reduce the number of cases of abused horses -- seems pretty simple to me.

[APHALady]

Amanda, it is great to find someone that understands the problems within the horse industry!
I agree with what you have written, it is a terrible thing to see some of the horses that are left to fend for themselves.
I don't believe our Congressmen lack foresight at all, the only thing they understand is getting the vote,
and the vote comes from others with no foresight and have decided that the horse is not considered livestock anymore but as a companion animal, I say "Hawgwash", beasts of burden is what they were and still are,I love my horses and have had some wonderful , faithful "Companions", but at the end of the day when the ranch work or the show was over they were still livestock !

Here in most of the Western states there is a lot of open, unfenced land, both private and government , seems if there are no fences people believe they have the right to turn horses loose, most of these horses are like you say, older or have some type of problem which makes them unmarketable, but these horses are not used to fending for themselves and will usually stay in an area until they are rescued, or die from lack of feed and/or water.
Then of course there are those people that label themselves as horsemen/women and will with hold adequate feed and water to feed a more valuable horse, I have one in mind at this time that was rescued from an advertised rescue farm in S. CA. in 2009, investigated and deemed to be an isolated case, so nothing was done to the owner, the mare had been moved and the investigating officer never went to see the mare nor did they request the information filed by a veterinarian ??????
I guess it was OK to starve one but not more than one!
Another thing I don't understand is why we bring horses from the PMU ranches out of CAN., don't we have enough problems with finding care for our own?

[rancher1]

I think we're really all on the same page here. It seems to me like the folks currently in the horse business don't really understand horses -- lol.
I had a lady recently contact me inquiring about training two eight-year-old geldings that really hadn't had much done to them to potentially be ridden by the lady and her young daughter. Of course, I advised her to stay away from this and buy herself a nice, safe, well-broke horse. She was on board with this plan, but couldn't bring herself to get rid of these two older horses. She actually told me that she's afraid to handle them to worm them, but she's keeping them because she doesn't want them to be sold to slaughter.
Unfortunately, I can't think of a better use for these horses than to be sold for slaughter. In my mind keeping and/or trying to train horses like this is just a good way for an inexperienced horse person to end up in the hospital.
I guess I'm just a little old-school, but I think that if an animal can't do a job and earn his keep, then he should be sold (for slaughter or any other purpose) and a different animal should be purchased that could do the needed job.

[lauratepperme]

Oh no! What are they doing horses...These people are the most cruel people I heard of... How can you expect an animal lover to react on this?

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