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Are you familiar with horse slaughter?

Horses are prey animals with an extreme sense of danger. Unlike when cattle are led to slaughter, the horses instinct of danger kicks in and they basically go wild in the shoots and are hard to get a clean kill shot in the head. Many are injured during the process of leading them in. This is what the animal rights activists use to portray the cruelty of horse slaughter.

You are correct that many people buy horses as you described and some release of them in the wild. Others simply cannot afford to feed them and they also release them. This can create huge ecological problems as horses are designed to eat almost constantly and they will eat the wild grasses down to the ground and then pull the roots out and eat them too. That is why you typically see horses in dirt pens because they have eaten all the ground cover and in relatively short time there is no more grasses to forage so they move on.

Until people realize that horses need to be slaughtered as humanely as possible, this cycle will continue.

What happened here was nothing more than evil and no animal should be hunted just for the pleasure of seeing it done.

And yes, I do raise and breed horses as they are truly a magnificent animal if trained properly. But they are also a huge pain in the ass, as a bored horse can be quite destructive and even harmful to themselves.

And your evidence that these animals were killed for pleasure rather than because they needed to be culled is what exactly?

It makes you feel good?

A journalist who wrote the story said so with no evidence?

You never lived on a farm so there can't be a reason?

Because horses are pretty?

Investigation would be hard?

What reason?

I am going to point out to you that when the government banned the use of horse meat for food and most uses for dead horses were outlawed that a whole lot of people who grew up around farm animals pointed out that this and a lot of other consequences would predictably follow.

Have an “I told you so.”

I don't sympathize with your little feelings, and your rant doesn't make you a good person.

One more thing.

If you were one of the people who were clamoring for the laws I mentioned then neither your indignation nor your sympathy with the horses nor all the people who were with you in the herd that stampeded off the cliff leading to the consequences of horses dumped in some out of the way spot when culled remove your partial guilt for getting America to this point by demanding irresponsible changes in the law.

You can't legislate agriculture strictly on sheltered feelings.

"What happened here was nothing more than evil and no animal should be hunted just for the pleasure of seeing it done."

Agreed! I've been saddened by seeing neglected horses, too. As a teen, I took a quarter horse that would have been put down otherwise. His ribs were showing too much, but he built up really good with good feed and plenty of exercise.

A friend was a farrier and showed me how to trim Sunset's hooves without quicking him and provided shoes when needed. Had to raise his leg with a rope the first time, but he was okay with it after that. Called him Sunset, because his coat reflected a very bright red in the sunset.

He was over 2 years old and not cut, so I just left him a stallion and broke him. Broke him mostly soft and patient except for a time or two of stubbornness on his part. Turned out pretty good and rode him alone for a few years (alone because stallion).