Horse Slaughter for the uninformed.......?

Question

I am guessing that most of you that are posting about how wrong horse slaughter is are either teens or non-informed people.

Horse slaughter houses have closed down in the US. Now, if the horses are sold for killer buyers, they are shipped to Canada and Mexico, which is still very little due to the paperwork needed to get horses across the border. So let me reinterate to you all that don't understand. Very small amount of horses are being slaughtered.

Now, for those of you that are doing your happy dance because the houses were closed, let me tell you what I see.

Starving, broken legged, sick, diseased horses going through sale barns and no saleing. So that means, that horse gets loaded up thrown back into the same condition it came from and dies a slow painful death. Tell me please, how that is any better than what they suffered at the slaughter houses?

Also tell me please, your proposal to fix this situation that you all have so carelessly created? I'm waiting...

Scott and your proposal for the horses that are left suffering is???

I feel there is a need for slaughter since there are so many ppl breeding unwanted foals each year. You see it on yahoo answers all the time. One person posted they rescued a horse and were going to breed it. So Scott your proposal please??

LOL gold, I'm being factual. However you haven't answered my question??

Not out trying to ruin anyones day, just trying to show you the end result of what people that voted for this never thought of and would like to see your solution?? Got any??

Thanks to all of you that actually understand these issues and use the thinking side of the noggin. I appreciate it!

Howl- do you see anything ironic with the pro-compassion horse ppl posting here having solutions. So far, the bleeding hearts haven't offered one. Everyone that has posted loves horses, including me. But some of us are more realistic and realize that slaughterhouses are necessary.

However if you want to believe a PETA video thats great, but if you want to walk out to ranchers pastures behind my place and tell me the difference in inhumane, I would gladly welcome that also!

Ravanne, so the west and I know other parts of the USA are in a drought. There is no hay, no pasture and the slaughter horses that you say will be rerouted, to where? We don't have out of state buyers coming here to pick up no saled weanlings or well broke horses etc. No one is buying the broken legged horses or diseased ones.

As far as attempting to talk sense into those uninformed wanting to breed, they can do what they want, its a free country. They don't have to listen to me or anyone else. They buy/rescue a mare or stallion and they are breeders.

I agree that I would not want my animals to go to slaughter. I bought a mule 1000 miles away and paid quite a bit of money for her and she was sick. CHF sick. I could of sent her to slaughter to recoup some of my expenses, but I ended up having her put down. I know there are responsible owners out there, that will do the right thing, its the irresponsible ones that are causing this fiasco.

I pay board, I can't go out and rescue all these animals and attempt to find them good homes. There are no homes right now. Its chaos now and its sad and I'm so glad to see so many doing their part to control the horse population and applaud you all. Thank you all for your suggestions, you all have great ideas and valid points.

Howldine, don't you think for a second that the ppl that are pro slaughter love their horses? And as far as killing a villiage, your similarity to putting down diseased,broken legged, beat up horses is a poor correlation sorry. You guys equate horses to humans wayyy too much. Horses have to rely on us, they aren't the ones that make the mistakes, we are. So whose to fix the mistakes, we are. So for your gelding suggestion, whose gonna enforce it? So if they owner refuses because its a black/white paint stud, do the authorities just come out, repo it, cut it or what? Think about what your suggesting and keep some sense to it. To just go boldly in like others have done and shut down the plants is not the solution obviously. Now you need to come up with the plan to fix what you have done..... Hope ya have a great evening :)

Emily, your exactly why I wrote this. Do some googling and update your info...

You still didn't answer my question???

Answer 1

Here I am - a middle aged woman who lives in Canada, with real mixed emotions on slaughter houses. There are still a couple of horse slaughter houses here. That's okay with me.
BUT----
I do not want my horses to even end up there. What will I do to insure that doesn't happen? Well, I suppose I can't guarantee it - but I can do my best. I can make certain that my horses are all trained to the best of my abilities so they will suit many different riders. I can provide good health care so they do not end up foundered or chronically lame and then no one wants them. I can be very careful when I sell my horses, being totally honest and upright so that when they are bought, they are bought by someone who knows exactly what they're getting, and will love and enjoy them. All horses have good and bad points. I want to make sure that my horse's new owner knows all those points, so they will be a perfect match and work well together. That's what I can do for my horses. And I can set aside a few bucks so that if I own an old horse, and he has chronic health problems, I can have him put down by my vet, mercifully, and not have to send him off to an auction where someone else will buy him for meat!
If all horse owners did those things, then there would be very little use for a slaughter house. But we all know there are thousands of poorly bred, poorly trained horses out there that no one wants, even for a few hundred dollars. What happens to them, then?
I'm not saying that a horse needs to be beautiful to be worthwhile, but I am saying that a poorly bred, ugly, bent legged horse is alot harder to sell than a pretty one! And its true that you can train a horse even when it's five or six years old, but not many people want to take home an unbroke one that age and try! So don't breed poor quality horses. Don't buy a young horse and then let it stand around your pasture without being taught how to be rode and worked.
Slaughter houses have a purpose until everyone does what I'm suggesting. And while they have a purpose, its urgent that we make sure there are strict regulations and that they are inforced. There is no reason that a horse can't be put down as humanely at a slaughter house as it can be at a vet's place. Use the best methods possible. Make sure they are shipped humanely, and penned with low stress. Yes, there is stress with horses being hauled to a slaughter house, but my show horse also is hauled and moved into barns with many strange horses around her. The stress is acceptable if we keep it low and treat them well.
By the way, my family are vegetarians. We do not eat beef, pork, chicken or anything else that has a mother!!! I would rather think that no animal is ever raised just to be ate. But if they are - and they are - then it needs to be done fairly and humanely. And that includes horses as well as all the rest.

Answer 2

People also forget sometimes it's a have-to-sell situation. Things happen. Pastures for rent become unavailable - and when there's a short period of time to find a new place or sell them sometimes the one way trip to the auction is the only choice. :-(

Rescues can not and will not absorb the numbers of horses that now are not going to slaughter. Many of the horses - from a kill buyer's view - ideally are the unbroke 4-8 year old horses that have been in a pasture. The typical "Molly's so pretty let's breed her" offspring that become not cute when they're a year old and turning nasty because they've never been disciplined a day in their life. That is not the fault of breeders/trainers.

A couple months ago horses here were $15-20. There is precious little hay and less pasture to be had. Between the drought in some places and the floods in others hay is going to be very scarce this year.

Each person who campaigned for it surely can take 10-15 of these horses - That'd solve the 'overpopulation' in no time - work the magic and make them all into good using horses. Of course many aren't suited to that - I know of a mare once that, sadly, the best place for her was slaughter. She was dangerous for experienced handlers and would hurt inexperienced ones.

And for those saying how we don't do it here...it wasn't that many years ago horse meat WAS eaten here in the US; it was on the meat counter. There's a USDA nutrition site that still has current nutrition content for horse meat. If we weren't so spoiled with plenty here - or if beef prices continue to rise - it wouldn't surprise me the tide would turn again. There was even an episode of All In The Family in the '70s that was about buying horse meat and serving it - and Archie thought it was wonderful beef.

It's a distasteful subject, no pun intended. But there's too many unknowns for euthanasia - no one has answered what will happen when those 50,000+ (depending on what statistic you read up to double that) horses loaded with deadly chemicals reach the ground water supply. Indeed it seems those screaming for euthanasia never think about it nor want to discuss that.

And for what it's worth - if people get hungry enough they'd eat a dog or cat too. :-/

Answer 3

I just recently went to the last horse slaughter plant in Illinois. At first i was like really mad that people would kill off horses like that, but then i also began to understand. There was a few horses so bad that they couldn't walk, another had a foal at the plant, and the mare who had it had really crooked knees, and had a hard time walking. (they gave the foal to a good home) they were very humane there also. But people are doing terrible things to get rid of horses that they dont want. They will leave them in a field with no water and they will die, or just make them suffer! It's way worse than humanely euthanizing the horses. There were also other horses there that couldn't ever be ridden, or were lame for life. I know its a terrible thing for a horse to die, but if some people would quit breeding and breeding, then we wouldn't have this problem. I hope this helped!

Answer 4

Slaughtering horses sucks but like Me, Yourself and Others have said in the past it's a necessary evil. I my opinion the solution to the problem is reopen the "slaughter houses" get rid of all the sick, broken, and unwanted horses and then control the over breading of these great animals just like they doing for dogs and cats. To many people breading their mares trying to make a buck or to many people buying horses with no idea how much it will cost in the long run to keep it.

Thanks for bring this up to the weak minded people that sit back and criticize and probably don't even try to save a horse from slaughter

Answer 5

Good question.

Slaughter is ugly, but I still think it is an ugly necessity. I think all would be better served if the efforts invested in getting rid of slaughter were invested in enforcement of humane conditions during transit and slaughter.

No one is for sick animals or animals with broken bones or gaping wounds riding for miles in crowded trailers and standing for days without food or water waiting for their turn to go under the live bolt. NO ONE. But I can't get over the idea that dead is dead, whether it is a live bolt skillfully administered or a shot in the vein.

Euthanizing large animals is not like euthanizing dogs!!! Don't get me wrong, please, I am NOT saying it is cruel, but they do not generally drift peacefully off in a portrait of sad but serene beauty. If yours did, great, be thankful. My point is we have this dual mentality based on imagery. Demanding humane conditions and methods is a real solution that addresses the issue...not a "feel good" measure that merely moves the problem of abused, unwanted, and neglected horses out of the public eye.

I wonder, how many of the anti-slaughter people in this forum are the same ones that give a hearty thumbs down every time a person speaks out against casual (that's a nice word for careless or sloppy) breeding? Can people not finish the equation? Maybe you have to see it first hand.

I'm all for a lifetime committment to my pets...but society can't get people who've made that same sort of committment to the other parent of their children to honor it, and it doesn't even try...so how can you accomplish this for a pet? I love my pets, but I love my children more. So you make this lifetime committment to your 9 horses and God forbid you become ill and your carefully planned safety net collapses around you. What then? Does anybody really think when they sell or breed a horse that it's going to end up at a slaughter house? No. But they sure do, don't they?

Years ago a man wrote a beautiful, impassioned letter to the editor when our local officials put forth strict policies to encourage people to spay and neuter their pets and to penalize financially those who didn't when their pets produced litters. This guy artfully spoke of the "tragedy" of depriving his children the opportunity to witness first hand the "beautiful miracle of life."

I wonder, did he also share with them the tragic reality of the ugliness of death by taking them to the shelter to see hundreds of unwanted animals euthanized? Probably not.

Answer 6

Good points ;)

I totally agree with you. Plus how can so many people be so STRONGLY against horse slaughter when they eat other meats, its like the same thing. And for the people who are vegetarians, it really isn't doing the animals a favor-- if everyone was a vegetarian then the animals would over populate and there wouldn't be enough food for them and they would starve, and as you said die a slow painful death.

*edit* As for solving the problem-- The only idea I have is to limit the number or percentage of stallions an owner is allowed to own ungelded , but that might not work out as it would cause a lot of controversy to the farm that rely heavily on breeding.

Best wishes!

Answer 7

You are absoultly correct.

There is not a rescue with in 3 hours of where I live that will take new horses, they are literally overflowing with horses, and have no funds to care for them. The people that think with their emotions rather than there heads are the ones want to save the world and end slaughter, yet they don't see what the rebound effects of ending slaughter are. Those who are opposed to slaughter should be out there raising huge ammounts of money for rescues that are despritly needed.

Since sending unwanted horses to rescues is not an option, the other common solution people give is to humanely euthanize unwanted horses, but most non horse people do not realize how expensive euthanazia is due to the cost of disposing of the horse's body. When someone can't afford to even feed their horse, chances are they can not afford over a 1000 dollars to put a horse down, and dispose of the body. So then the horse gets to sit out in the field and starve...

Orginizations like PETA do not help with their biased, extremist propaganda, people don't realize that almost all of the horrifying PETA videos are taken in Mexican slaughter houses, where the regulations are completly different.

My solution: Heavy regulating on breeding. I think that there should be a licencing process to own a stallion, and have it stand at stud. This will eliminate people breeding horses that are low quality, and unwanted. Since most people seem to think of horses as pets, they seem to think its ok to have a foal out of their mare, and some random persons stallion, after all they "will love it no matter whati it comes out like", well after the foal is born, they of course try and raise it like a puppy, so it not only grows up to be a total monster behaviorally, but it is so low quality no one else wants it. With limiting breeding, this senario will be less likely as it will require a degree of knowledge to breed, not only will there be less low quality horses in the world, horses for the most part will be raised by knowledge able people, resulting in overall better quality in horses. Since a well raised, good quality horse is more expensive, then people that really cant afford a horse won't be able to easily get a 'deal' for a couple hundred dollars on someone else's screw up, then find out how much it costs to keep a horse, then ditch the horse elsewhere, eventually ending up in an abandoned horse.

Bottom line: Of course all animal owners should be responsible, but reality is, we need a system that accouts for the fact that there are some very irresponsible people out there.

Answer 8

Mule -
I completely agree with you on this topic. There are horses abandoned all over this country who are starving, injured and sick, they are past the stage of re-cooperation and will never see health again. I believe that it is our RESPONSIBILITY to put them down as we are the ones that bred them then tossed them out as though they were last weeks trash. How can we as a race create life then disregard it so easily? It says something about "people" doesn't it?
I do wish that the slaughter houses were more regulated and they were put down without fear but that is the animal lover in me. And I do believe that what you see on the internet is the worst of the worst. Do you think they are going to post photos of the "nicer" more "humane" slaughter houses? No, that isn't what is going to tug on those heart strings. But go and look at those abandoned animals fighting to stay alive and ask yourself how you feel about those slaughter houses now. Are the protesters of slaughter houses going to take in every unwanted horse and nurse it back to health?
In a perfect world every animal would be loved and cared for by responsible owners and it is sad that so many are not. I am for slaughter houses as I do not want to see them suffer, the fear in their eyes for the last few minutes of life is nothing compared to the weeks, months of misery they must endure while dying slowly due to OUR lack of respect and responsibility.

Edit - I have to add, after reading people talking about saving unwanted horses like we do dogs and cats, that it takes the right people to own a horse and most people out there can't do it. There are far fewer PROPER homes available for these guys. Suburbia can take in many dogs and cats but are we supposed to put the horses in the backyards? It's just not the same which makes it harder.

Answer 9

YES, YES, YES. Thank you for posting this, as responsible horse owners I think we need to keep saying it, over and over like the "horse lovers" for the ban did to get their way.

Here is my proposal for all those that are FOR THE BAN. EACH AND EVERY ONE OF THEM SHOULD GO OUT AND "RESCUE" A HORSE, NOT BUY SOME SHOW ANIMAL BUT RESCUE A HORSE IN NEED. Get out there and spend the money, care for and pay for all medical expenses, board, all the necessary care needed and continue to care for the animal until its last days on earth.

And, to make another note. Where were all the responders (for the ban) when we were looking for help for the starving horses in Burns Oregon????????????? Hypocrites!

Go ahead guys, give me thumbs down, say I'm cruel and mean. I care for a large number of horses everyday, day in and day out. I don't just go to a stable for an hour a day, or every other and ride around in some circles. I'm one of the people who cares for your horses (not saying this applies to everyone) but from what I have seen here, alot of the people who are for the ban, either don't own a horse or don't have to take the time to care for them on a daily basis. All they do is ride a little and cut a check to pay someone else to the work! So, rescue one and cut the check for the people willing to do the work for you, atleast you'll be backing your statements and doing something to help "save the horses"!

Answer 10

the # of horses transported to canada, mexico and japan raised from 2000 to 7000 in the short time that the plants have already been down. there are no vets to go along on those long rides to make sure they are safe! there where infact vets at the slaughter houses and horses where put down as humanly as they saw fit. its an ugly business either way you look at it, but until the unnecasary breeding stops and cruelty ends, its an on going thing that will not stop. if they arent being shipped of to close slaughter plants, they are going further or sitting in there own pain and illness until nature takes its turn. granted there are some nice horses that go to slaughter, but a lot are old, sick, dangerous or badly injured. shutting it down i think was just as big of an act of cruelty as having them open, or just as cruel as the people are whome neglect thier animal and the people who breed just because they think their mare is pretty, but are completely clueless to the horse world. well theres my 2 cents........

blame the people that over breed and dont care for thier horses, for this cruelty and slaughter. horse slaughter is nasty and cruel, but as long as people keep popping out unwanted horses it willl not stop.