[nathanbedford]

The walls of the horse's teeth grow and can eventually get to the point where the animal gets very little nutrition from his feed because he can't grind it and break it up. In the wild the animal has enough roughage for this to occur naturally but domesticated horses must have their teeth "floated" which is not a particularly complicated procedure. It is done with a file and it is not painful.

This must be a companion thread to the thread yesterday about the problems developing because ignorant liberals have outlawed horse slaughter which produces meat for human consumption. Instead of policing the slaughterhouse and ensuring that the slaughter is done humanely they have so fouled up the marketplace that the poor beasts are suffering terribly. Liberals have driven the price of feed through the roof because of the subsidies of biofuels and so the market is flooded with horses that people cannot afford to feed. Nor can they sell them. Many cannot afford to have a veterinarian euthanize them and dispose of the carcass. So the liberals have squeezed this traditional American relationship between man and horse from both sides and caused untold agony to the poor creatures. Many horses are trucked in indescribable conditions without water to Mexico for a thousand miles to slaughter.

There is no reason to require teeth be floated by a veterinarian. The procedure is too simple. This will only add more expense to the maintenance of pleasure horses and force more horses onto the trucks toward Mexico.

[Chet 99]

Which tells you that it takes more than just “good intentions” to make good policy.

[BOBWADE]

Do county or state laws apply to indian reservations? Perhaps they just need to take their horses to the reservation for service.

[tuffydoodle]

This is so stupid. The mind boggles at all the animal owner’s rights being taken away. Luckily, here in Texas, the vets don’t take these stupid laws so seriously. If I want my horse dentist floating my horses teeth then I’ll go to the vet, get the sedation meds and sedate the dang horses myself. My vet has no problem giving me anything I want since I’m a good customer and a long-time horse owner. Probably the only thing he wouldn’t give me is the rabies vaccine and I don’t blame him for that. I don’t think I’ve ever had a horse vet refuse me anything I’ve asked.