Unintended consequences

[MadHound]

Four years ago the last US plant that slaughtered horses was shut down. After years of pressure coming from at the state and local level, a number of judicial cases, and public pressure, the slaughter of horses in this country was over, done with, hurrah! A good thing, right?

Fast forward to now. Things have changed, and for the worse. The horse market, like many other markets, has tanked. Even the best bloodlines are fetching prices that are outrageously cheap. At many auction barns they can't even give horses away, given the high price of food and care. Combined with the inability to slaughter excess horses, a horrifying scenario is unfolding on the backroads of America, the horror of horses dying due to negligence.

Let me give you a personal example of what is going on. Saturday I woke up to my wife telling me that we had a couple of horses in our front yard. This isn't the first time such a thing has happened. My neighbor has always had horses on his twenty acres, and up until the past few years, he has taken reasonably good care of his horses. That was before he lost his job, before the market for horses dried up.

Unable to properly feed his horses, he turned them out to pasture, but given that he only has twenty acres, his grass was soon gone, and his horses started jumping the fence into my back pasture. This is seven acres that I lend out to my neighbor, he gets to graze his cattle, and I get a good deal on my beef. But this morning, two horses, a mare and a colt had decided to venture farther afield, into my front yard.

They were easy to handle, the mare had a halter on so I was able to lead her and the colt followed along. I put them in my back pasture and let my neighbor know I had a couple of his horses.

My neighbor came over and we got to talking. He was working sporadically at best, and simply couldn't afford to continue to feed his horses, hell, he's having trouble feeding himself. He couldn't give his horses away, nobody wanted horses. I would have taken the colt off his hands, but I need to finish rebuilding my barn first and that's a year out. He's had to put a couple of his horses down himself over the summer because they came down with some injury or illness and he couldn't afford to get them treated. So he did the kindest thing he could think of in the circumstances, shoot them and bury them in the woods.

If he had the option, he could have sold them to a slaughterhouse. They would at least have had a quick, relatively humane death rather than weeks of agony and starving. And he would have a bit of money in his pocket with which to feed himself. Instead, his horses are slowly, agonizingly starving, and suffering from the diseases that come with starvation. Meanwhile, my neighbor is himself taking desperate measures in order to eat. Here, in a week or so, he is going to kill and butcher one of his horses so that he has enough meat to last him the winter.

My neighbor isn't alone. As I drive the back roads and byways of my county and state, I see the sad, forlorn forms of dozens of horses. They are down to flesh and bone, the pasture they are on eaten down to dirt. The people who live in the adjoining houses are themselves doing poorly I know. Their kids get free breakfasts and lunch at school, and a weekend buddy backpack full of healthy food for them. These people can't afford their horses anymore, but there is absolutely no way they can get rid of them. A slaughterhouse is the last place most people want their horses to go, but it is kinder than letting them starve.

Perhaps we should reconsider this defacto ban on horse slaughter in light of these unintended consequences. Perhaps we should recognize that sometimes, in bad times, it is better to kill a horse quick in a slaughter house than die slowly in the field. Next time, perhaps we should fully understand the ramifications of what we're doing and how it will effect matters during the bad times as well as the good.

I'm going to finish rebuilding my barn as quick as I can, but like I said, that's at least a year out given my own financial circumstances. Hopefully, by this time next year I will have a full time job teaching, and take over the care of some poor, neglected colt. Sadly, I'm sure that there will be plenty available out here, since this economy isn't going to turn around anytime. If I'm teaching full time, I can easily afford one horse, and won't make the mistake of getting more than one. After all, I plan ahead and foresee what can happen in both the bad times and good. Something we, as a society, need to practice more often.

[Brickbat]

1. There is a huge glut of horses and the horse world needs to seriously address multiple issues:

euthanasia, crackdown on backyard breeders, and the failure of breed organizations to police their breeds.

[RebelOne]

2. That is so sad,

but rather than send a horse to the slaughter house where they would not die a humane death, I would rather just shoot it in the head. At least it is a faster and more humane way to go.

[Hawkowl]

3. Fuck that

What would you rather do? Would you rather be euthanized at home or sold off to strangers and tortured to death at Buchenwald?

There is nothing "humane" about a Mexican or Canadian horse slaughter house. Why do you think we don't have cat and dog slaughter houses!

[MadHound]

4. And for those poor people with no money,

The modicum of money they get by selling their horses off to a slaughterhouse could easily mean the difference between life and death for them. And like I said, I would rather see a horse killed quickly in a slaughterhouse than suffering in a field.

Oh, and we do have cat and dog slaughter houses, they're called the Humane Society.

[Hawkowl]

5. Hello?

The Humane Society is no where near equivalent to a "slaughter house". Your ignorance is astonishing at best and disingenuous at worst.

I don't think you would rather "see" a horse killed period. Vets put down horses every damned day. I've seen it. It is tragic but far worse than being tortured by a long truck ride, then forced to wait as you hear your fellow horses screaming in terror for hours in kill pens. Smelling the blood and hearing the humans who used to be your caretakers slaughtering without compassion but for profit.

And people in the third world sell off children so the remaining family can survive. I find your arguments simplistic and repugnant.

[MadHound]

6. Have you ever worked at a Human Society?

I have, and yes, especially during the summer, it is a slaughter house. And for three hellish months I was the butcher. I was the one who decided who lived and who died. After three months, I couldn't take it anymore and left, yet the slaughter goes on.

In most Humane Societies, the ratio of animals you see out front for adaption to the number killed is about one to twenty five. During peak times, that number can skyrocket up to 1 to one hundred.

You speak of euthanasia, which is great, but the fact of the matter is that a vet's visit can easily run a hundred buck, even for a simple euth job. So what then, the person who owns the horse shoots it? Well, never mind that such a "kind" shot can go horribly wrong, but then what do you do with the corpse? Not everybody is like my neighbor, equipped with an old tractor and backhoe. So then what? It costs to have the corpse hauled off, yet if you don't haul it off, it rots and spreads disease.

So get out of your Ivory Tower and tell me what, in practical terms, should a poor person do in this case?

[MineralMan]

7. Yup. Here in Minnesota, if you want a horse, you can always find

free ones on Craigs List. I did a website for an equine vet in the northern part of the state. I think he's closed his practice down since then, just a year ago, and moved somewhere else. Horses are a luxury item, and lots of people are having to give up their luxuries, it seems.

Very sad for the horses, to be sure.

[MadHound]

8. I don't necessarily "want" one,

But like with other animals in distress, dogs and cats, I feel obligated to take care of those that I can afford to take care of.

After all, it isn't their fault that the economy sucks and they can't be cared for in a proper manner anymore. All they want is good pasture, a friendly human, and the occasional apple or carrot treat.

[MineralMan]

9. I think it's very good of you to care for an abandoned horse.

I think you're misunderstanding me. I think a lot of people acquire horses without knowing what is involved in owning a horse. Sadly, that has let to more horses being bred than can be properly cared for.