Posted on 06/01/2008 6:22:29 PM PDT by Lorianne
The global food and fuel crisis is resulting in more than just people going hungry. Rising grain and gas prices, as well as the closure of American slaughterhouses, have contributed to a virtual stampede of horses being abandoned — some starving — and turned loose into the deserts and plains of the West to die cruel and lonesome deaths. Horse rescue projects, which are mostly small, volunteer operations with limited land and resources, are feeling the consequences of this convergence of events. In the meantime, many now unaffordable horses are being sold to abbatoirs south of the border where inhumane methods of slaughter are practiced.
The global food and fuel crisis is resulting in more than just people going hungry. Rising grain and gas prices, as well as the closure of American slaughterhouses, have contributed to a virtual stampede of horses being abandoned — some starving — and turned loose into the deserts and plains of the West to die cruel and lonesome deaths. Horse rescue projects, which are mostly small, volunteer operations with limited land and resources, are feeling the consequences of this convergence of events. In the meantime, many now unaffordable horses are being sold to abbatoirs south of the border where inhumane methods of slaughter are practiced.
(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...
Part of the problem is that there are now apparently laws in many areas prohibiting euthanizing a horse with a shot to the head. While it would be a good idea to have some regulations on this — like on the caliber of bullet and age of the person firing the shot — and public agencies making basic “how to” information freely available (i.e. exactly where on the head to place the shot).
And having collection of carcasses be a government job makes sense given the public health implications, though horse breeders should be required to provide some serious financial support to that operation. In the Northeast, the government is collecting colossal numbers of roadkill deer off the public roads. Not sure exactly what’s being done with the carcasses — most of them are in condition to be used even for pet food.
Remember, just because it's "the law" that doesn't mean people are going to abide by it every opportunity.
All animals in the wild die cruel and lonesome deaths.
Spotted Owls die cruel and lonesome deaths. Crested newts die cruel and lonesome deaths.
Bambi will die a cruel and lonesome death unless some hunter finishes Bambi off quickly and mercifully.
Horses and cattle...whatever works. I worked in a slaughterhouse for years long before I ever became a veterinarian and know how to put a cow or horse to sleep with a .22 quickly and efficiently. The trouble with most rednecks is that they believe one has to have a .357 or a cannon to kill a large animal and when they shoot the animal the bullet goes everywhere and exits the brain where it is dangerous. If the owner wishes for me to do the deed with a euthanasia solution, its their call.
I had nothing and have had nothing to do with legislation with respect on how to euthanize a large animal. My beef is with the rednecks that think they can treat, deworm and vaccinate these animals with medicine from a feedstore and mangle the job more often than not.
If we were Europeans, we’d see horses for what they are — steaks!!!!
Yesterday four mares and three foals dropped in for a visit near the house. These mustangs all looked sleek and sassy.
Near us a woman with four horses of her own rescued two abandoned horses. She found them staggering down the road. They were is dreadful shape. The horseshoes on the filly were half off and causing her great distress. The gelding could barely walk the ramp into the horse trailer. Every rib on both horses pressed through their sides.
It is irresponsible and plain wrong to abandon any kind of domestic animal.
And responsible horse owners will be glad to do it that way. Problem is majority of horse owners were backyard idiots that thought it was cool to have a horse until feed got so high. Most of them simply quit feeding the horse until people threaten to call authorities on them- then they dump them. There really is no way to deal with that type of owner- but when those people could take that horse to the sale and get around $1,000 bucks for them if they were in good condition- then that is what they did. Since the dudly do gooders killed the horse market by shutting down slaughter here they brought this all about.
I think everyone that signed the horse slaughter bill petition to congress needs to pony up and pay to care for all these horses. They assured us that would happen when they were getting slaughter shut down. Where is Willie Nelson and other celebrities that fought for this to happen?
I’d like to round up a couple hundred head of these poor horses and haul them to Willy’s place in Texas and dump them out for him to care for.
Most horses that the idiots that are the problem owners have are bred by other idiots. Usually they put mares and studs together and are surprised to get colts. Or some breed horses just because baby colts are so cute.
Responsible breeders are breeding a much higher quality horse and the idiots won’t spend that kind of money.
To help you relate better to what we are saying- think about the difference between the way dogs are treated in the ghetto and the Kennel Club set- then I think you will get the picture and understand the problems better.
The thing is the city sends the dog catcher around the ghetto to gather strays and kill them for those idiots. No one wants to take on the horse problem- horses are just so much more trouble to handle that most agencies aren’t and don’t want to be set up to deal with them and the few that will are overwhelmed by the numbers since slaughter was shut down.
I didn’t like horse slaughter either- but I begged and pleaded with those determined to stop it to please make sure there was a way to care for all the unwanted horses before they closed the slaughter houses becuase I knew this would happen. Thier response to me was that it would not be a problem because horse rescue organizations would take care of all of them. Problem is horse rescue organizations were overwhelmed before slaughter was ended and many of them have shut down because some were set up only for PR while the battle was being faught in Congress. Now that they won the battle against the slaughter houses the dudly-do-gooders are gone to the next cause and horses are suffering.
Many here at FR warned their own Congress critters what would happen, explained why, and warned them that they were indulging themselves in the crudest sort of animal cruelty.”
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Yep, I was one of those...........the idiots didn’t listen.
Hmm, interesting comments about the rednecks treating their own horses and mangling the job.
Out here in Montana we are encouraged to treat and deworm our horses. I have had the vets send me and the horse home quite a few times with the meds and instructions on how to treat problems from colic to scratches (not scratched skin but that fungus they can get from mud) to infections or serious injuries.
I would never pay a vet to deworm our horses. We ALWAYS deworm our own horses, vaccinate them with feedstore meds (except for the vaccines that only the vet can give here..such as intranasal strangles and west nile virus).
I have gotten up out of bed every two hours to check the vitals on horses who have colicked following the instructions of my vet. Cleaned and medicated wounds twice daily according to the instruction of my vet and with the meds form his office, etc. There is no way our vets could keep up with all the demands unless the horses were hospitalized and most aren’t, they are sent home with instructions for the owners. Some folks can afford to keep their horse at the clinic for nursing but most of rednecks take the animal home and do the job themselves.
Our 4H daughter cleans her geldings’ sheaths when they need it..no problem. Something she learned in 4H and it has to be done. A job not for the faint-of-heart but easy and fairly quick.
Out in the west we rednecks are more independent and learn to do a lot of stuff on our own. Gosh, I thought most horseowners did most of their own stuff.
A couple of things to note:
1. It wasn’t the greenies who shut down the horse slaughter plants. It was the Wild Horse Annie types who tried, tried and tried again to find a way of preventing ANY “mustang” from ever finding its way into a slaughter plant. First they rammed the Wild Horse Act down on us. Then they added adoption fees and certification. Then they added audits and more paperwork.
Finally they shut down the horse slaughter plants.
2. The vast, vast majority of these activists are white, urban, upper-middle class women. I’ve had to come face-to-face with them in multiple BLM and RAC meetings in Nevada, and they’re uniformly driven by an abundance of emotion and a near complete lack of logic. When all else fails for them in a legislative debate, they either start getting teary-eyed, or they bring in brainwashed children.
Now, they have come face-to-face with the results of their actions: domestic horses being chucked out on the range. Everyone with a cool, calm head told the various legislators packing this bill (eg, Sen. Ensign, R-NV) that this would happen. Didn’t matter. Legislators have been cowed into an inability to tell women “No” when they ask for something.
Here’s a prediction: The Wild Horse Annie types are never going to admit a mistake, much less go backwards. They’ve accomplished their goal - ie, making sure that no “mustang” is ever sent to a slaughter plant. They could care less about everything else - the condition of the range, mustang over-population across the west, you name it.
About 45K, last I looked at the BLM stats.
About 50% of all mustangs are in Nevada.
The price of putting a horse down varies; it goes up (often WAY up) as the horses are located in more urban areas.
eg, it would cost you nothing to put a horse down if you were on a ranch in the rural west. Walk the horse out to BLM land, put it down with a shot in the skull and it becomes buzzard and coyote bait.
Cost: $0.50 or less.
Urban areas: you’ll need to haul the horse away somewhere, because many urban areas will have prohibitions on burying the carcass, so you either have to haul it away live to kill & bury it somewhere else, or haul it away dead. Now things get really expensive.
Don’t ask them to pay for the care of these horses. Because they’re going to just chuck them in with the pastured mustangs.
You know that there are thousands of mustangs being shipped hither and yon around the country to pasturing contractors, right? This is the second part of the BLM’s solution to the over-population of mustangs on the western range: they adopt out the few horses they can, and the rest they’ve gathered up that cannot be adopted out go to “pasture” - where the BLM puts a bunch with various vendors who meet minimum requirements on a six-month basis. Lowest bidder for pasture gets the horses.
You, I and ever other taxpayer are spending about $3/head/day to pasture a bunch of utterly useless mustangs that were removed from HMA’s because they were destroying the range. It’s insane.
If the county picks up dead horses where you are, you are very lucky. In PA there is no such arrangement. It cost us $500 to have the vet come out and put down a 22 year old mare with what the vet said was a fatal colic so she wouldn’t die on her own later that day in excruciating pain. Then there is the issue of what to do with an 800 lb dead horse. It is illegal to bury them.
I notice you didn't mention the wife.
While it would be a good idea to have some regulations on this — like on the caliber of bullet and age of the person firing the shot —
Hmm, your experiences sound nasty and discouraging.
Between lots of reading, asking the old-timers and free training seminars our vet puts on for our county youngsters, we have learned about general doctoring/maintenance. We can’t afford to have the vet do the things we can do so we do it ourselves.
I am not a guy. My husband has nothing to do with the horses so we girls have figured out a lot of this stuff on our own, by watching, reading and asking. Also, being part of a the 4H community has been an invaluable experience.
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