Posted on 12/02/2008 9:03:12 AM PST by B4Ranch
RENO, Nev., Dec. 1 (UPI) -- Authorities in Nevada say an increasing number of domestic horses are being abandoned by their owners because of the worsening economy.
The horses are being turned loose to fend for themselves, but lack of survival skills and often end up being killed by predators, hit by cars or dying of starvation, said Darrell Peterson, a brand inspector for the Nevada Department of Agriculture.
Abandoned domestic horses have little chance of being adopted by wild bands of horses and often are attacked by them, said Peterson, noting he has picked up six domestic horses in recent months.
"It's not very often that you find a domestic that is not being torn up or kicked out of the herd," Peterson told the Reno (Nev.) Gazette-Journal.
Unclaimed domestic horses are sold at livestock auctions and face two options: becoming saddle horses again or being sold to slaughter houses in Mexico or Canada, he said, noting it is illegal to abandon a domestic horse and carries a fine of as much as $1,000.
Obama’s fault.
People who go to auctions or shows are finding abandoned horses tied to, or even loaded into, their horse trailers.
I have a redneck friend that bought a truck and some horses and then lost his job.
The repo man came by to repossess his truck, so he started riding his horse to town.
It is my understanding now that horses cannot be taken across state lines for slaughtering purposes.
Also, we have no more slaughter houses open in the U.S. because of the bunny huggers.
It is sooooooo stupid.
Why not sell them? Aren’t horses expensive?
The ban on slaughter in the US was well intentioned, but it has turned out to be crueler than what it replaced.
In Tucson, it is easy to buy a decent riding horse for $500.
An owner of thoroughbred horses told me that there is increasing concern in the industry that horses that don’t make it racing are being turned loose IN KENTUCKY to fed for themselves.
Just what we need—a feral horse population of thoroughbreds! Thank you PETA! Now the animals won’t be slaughtered-they’ll STARVE! I guess they figure it’s more humane.
Who’s going to buy them? We need the slaughter houses back. It would be the right thing to do. We need some sanity back.
Veterinarians can shut this activity down. I saw my dad take that route when I was a youngster.
They’re pretty expensive to keep.
Why not sell them? Aren’t horses expensive?
When buying a horse always remember that the amount you pay for it is small compared to the cost of taking care of it.
Feed,vet bills,land,barns, etc. adds up big time. I want to say it averages about $185/month give or take.
Any of you cowboys correct me if I’m wrong.
The horses sold at American livestock auctions are now being vanned to Mexico and Canada for slaughter. Believe me, the long haul to Mexico and the slaughter conditions there are far more cruel than slaughterhouses here ever were. Thousands of horses, including beautiful and intelligent Thoroughbreds, are sent to slaughter each year. It's unfortunate that they were bred in the first place.
—yep—the ban boogied through our Congress in about three days, several years ago—proving that the incompetent collection of dunces can even do the wrong thing in a hurry—
In this economy horses are cheap to buy - you can find sound, rideable horses being given away to guaranteed good homes - but they are very expensive to feed. The giveaways I know of are from people who can't afford to keep their horse(s) any more, but who care about their fate enough that they don't want to see them end up on the meat truck to Canada or Mexico.
Thank you MORON CONGRESS! They banned the US slaughter houses so now an old horse has zero value, and negative value if you have to buy it food all the time.
Expensive to feed and care for, yup. Finding someone to buy them is the current problem.
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