The following article states in a far better way than I am able the consequences being suffered by horses
as a result of slaughter being halted.

I am sorry it is so long but it is worth the time to read.


http://www.denverpost.com/ci_8284227

No room at the pen

Slim wallets and an end to U.S. slaughterhouses flood rescue centers with horses and few options for dealing with them.
By Michael Booth


A dying dog is 40 pounds of family sadness.
A dying horse is a physics problem, and 1,000 pounds of emotional debate over what we should do with the iconic Western companion at the end of its useful life.

"The bottom line is there are more horses than there are people with properties who can adequately care for them," said Keith Roehr, a veterinarian with the state of Colorado.

Overbreeding has saturated the horse market, driving down values, while feed-grain prices have tripled. At the same time, changing ethical standards have shut off a generations-old relief valve for ranchers — slaughtering horses for meat to be consumed in foreign countries.

The glut puts more horses in peril every month. More are being abandoned on public lands. Neglected horses crowd rescue shelters. The pool of farms willing to put Old Paint out to pasture is shrinking.

Strains in the horse world prompt ranchers to accuse city folk of a patronizing ignorance for opposing slaughter, animal-rights groups to accuse horse sellers of intolerable cruelty, and all "horse people" to argue about how an animal's life should conclude.

Is a horse a friend or a responsibility? A retired servant or a liability on the hoof? When it comes right down to it, pet or meat?

"Horses are starving," said Janiejill Tointon, a breeder-rancher in Boulder and Walden. "Shutting down the processing (slaughter) plants was probably the worst thing they've ever done for horses. It makes me crazy when animals are suffering."

Tointon has had to face the problem directly. She has shot her own horses, had them put down by vets, buried them on her own property. She is a vegetarian and a lifelong horse lover. But she sees it as a steward's duty to get the most from a well-treated horse, even as income from horse meat.
"We domesticated them, so we have to be brave enough to do what's right."

Even rescue centers fail

Overpopulation among horses has become a public problem. Officials seized neglected horses from a Larimer County rescue called Animal Angels late last year. Park County animal officers confiscated 44 horses from a rescue ranch early this year. Boulder County says three of its worst horse cases were in the past two years; vets and rescuers say they are facing record complaints and impoundments.

The growing herds of mistreated horses complicate an emotional issue Congress will debate again this year: shipping unwanted horses to slaughterhouses, where meat is prepared for France, Japan and other cultures where horseflesh is not taboo. The last U.S. "processing" facility closed in 2007 under legislative and court pressures, but horses from Colorado and other Western states are legally trucked to butchering plants in Mexico and Canada.

Congress will debate shutting off that route with the Horse Slaughter Prevention Act, favored by animal- rights groups who argue the processors are inhumane, but resented by ranchers who say passage would keep another 75,000 to 100,000 unwanted horses in the U.S. market.

"I don't think normal people living downtown in a city have a clue," said Vaughn Cook, a northern Colorado rancher who believes the processing option should remain open, even if he wouldn't use it himself.

Animals-rights proponents, he said, "spend their money on attack ads" — scandalizing alleged cruelties — "but ask them how many bales of hay they have bought for these horses. How many dollars have they given to horse-rescue operations? "

The Cooks take calls every week from horse owners trying to sell unwanted mares to the Cooks' breeding program. Horse people's homes are always crammed with magazines and newsletters, and the Cooks share doomsaying articles quoting tales of abandoned horses in Michigan and $5 prices for surplus stock. Some of the Cooks' callers even offer to pay to be done with the animals.

"Some of them we can use, many we can't," said Cook's wife, Jill, a veterinarian. "Talk to the horse rescues — they are full. It's always hard to say, 'I'm for slaughtering horses,' because you sound like a bad person. But I am in favor of slaughtering horses. It provided an end-of-life alternative for some of these horses that are no longer useful."

Animal-rights advocates, meanwhile, have had great success in defining more rights and protections. They don't apologize for their immovable anti-slaughter stance. There is a realistic, long-term solution for the problem: Breed fewer horses.

"Just like with cats and dogs, we need to get a handle on the overpopulation problem," said Stephanie Bell, a California-based cruelty caseworker for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

"We believe these animals deserve a humane end. A humane slaughterhouse is a contradiction in terms."

Walk in ranchers' shoes

Go live on a ranch and figure out what to do with a half-ton of ailing horse, respond Westerners like Tointon. Last fall, she had a 5-month-old foal named Peaberry who pulled up with a broken leg after ramming a telephone pole. "She was my prize baby. I knew it couldn't be fixed. I shot her. It was awful, but I couldn't stand to see her suffer for one second."

As shocking as a pistol shot may sound to city slickers, euthanizing can be harder to watch, Tointon said. Drugged horses may flail around even if they're not feeling pain, and the convulsions are disturbing.

At the Tointon family's larger horse spread near Walden, they can bury shot or euthanized horses on their own property, but not in Boulder. She pays about $125 to a renderer who will pick up a dead horse and break it down to useful materials.

Some of Tointon's aging horses get put to pasture at the Walden ranch. It's simply not realistic, though, to imagine a Shangri-La where all good horses stand and graze until their last natural second.

She urged protesters to "spend their energy making the processing plants into good places."

Options narrowing

Colorado's oldest horse shelter, Colorado Horse Rescue in Longmont, is neutral on the slaughter question. When any of the shelter's 50-odd horses must be put down for health reasons, a vet euthanizes the animal with drugs and a hauler takes the carcass to a composting landfill, said director Hildy Armour. But removing the slaughter option nationwide adds to the pressure on rescuers — Armour has seen consecutive high years for impounds of neglected horses, and she is running out of options for placing them.

Armour's ranch, tucked in between rolling homes and ranchettes west of suburban Longmont, features neat rows of bridles and meticulous stacks of hay laid nearby for months of backup supply. Armour and her crew stand in conscious contrast to the failing rescues and bankrupt boarders who made news in the past year with starving horses.

Her research identified about 6,000 legitimate spots for rescued horses across the nation. The 100,000 horses that used to be slaughtered in the U.S. every year are now lingering on the market. "The math is pretty compelling," she said.

Ranchers, horse advocates and law officers all fear current economic pressures. The roughly $3,000 annual cost of horse care may be out of reach for many marginal owners. Wrenching choices about the value of a life will be made and veterinarians or sheriff's departments left to clean up the results.

"Someone's not willing to pay $100 to suture a wound when the horse is only worth $300," said Jill Cook. "That horse used to be worth $2,000."
The U.S. slaughter market used to provide what ranchers call a "floor" value for horses — unwanted or surplus horses were worth up to $750. Many Americans with a casual relationship to horses find that abhorrent, but buyers in other nations enjoy horse meat as leaner and sweeter than beef.
"I know horses are considered pets by many, but for many other people, it's still a business with economics that have to work,"said Gary Baxter, equine section head at Colorado State University's veterinary school.

But the technicalities of that business worry some. Animal-rights lobbyists highlight videos of alleged abuses at Mexican slaughterhouses — the Humane Society website features video of a Colorado auction barn where "kill-buyers" supposedly stock up on horses for shipping.

Ranchers and horse associations who support a slaughter option say processors can and should use humane kill methods, including the same pneumatic bolt used on cattle. On the other side of the debate — the side with momentum — animal-rights activists counter that the bolts shouldn't be used on cattle, either: There's no humane way to butcher meat.

More neutering a goal

Some rescuers, as individuals or organizations, buy the cheapest animals at auction barns to keep them away from slaughter buyers. Ranchers scoff at such tactics, saying those bargain-basement horses will only overtax rescue shelters and are unlikely adoption candidates.

Armour's rescue always has more requests to take on horses than it can handle. She plans to step up her grant-writing efforts this year to find money to bolster her own finances.

Shelters and rescue ranches want to organize, set care standards and make gelding and spaying of horses more common.

Horse advocates who feel a humane processing option should still be available in the States know they are on the hard side of the debate. Given the political and legal climate, operators have not stepped forward to reopen a U.S. plant. Instead, horse associations are emphasizing restraint in breeding, and education of marginal horse owners about options for an unwanted animal.

"Can the industry declare this an emergency?" asked Katy Cater of the American Horse Council in Washington, D.C. "We don't know, but there are signs. And overbreeding is a big problem. People breed a foal and then realize, uh oh, I can't afford to feed it."

Yes the horses starving to death is a much better option your right

Yes your right they should starve to death because few can afford to feed them, expecially with the rising prices of grain, hell we are concerned with being able to afford to feed people, due to raising prices. Italy is concerned with the price of wheat and not being able to afford pasta, farmers are exstatic because of the raising prices, or they are jumping ship and growing corn for ethenol blended fuel, even more money there, and the reason that grain prices are raising.

Have you ever watched the news? Did you even read the story? Yes it is sad, but over breeding and over population are a big concern for the horses. If people for to rescue how many do you think take the old horses that can not even be riden by children? Expecially when there are young horses available quite often? They did a horse rescue a couple of months ago not far from me where 2 dozen horses were dead, and another 60 I think were close to it, yep that was soooo much better for those horses then slaughtered, the staving to death slowly in a field because the owner could not afford winter feed.

Forum Rules

Do not use ALL CAPITAL LETTERS
Must be over 13yr old to use.

And FYI I think a couple of the forum rules apply to you, maybe you should read them.

When is spring break over????

ha ha very funny not!

***Edited By: lilly101 on 3/26/2008 4:27:18 PM***
Reason: nothing

aww did I hurt your feelings??? Poor poor kiddies with nothing better to do than talk about stuff they have no clue about

i have a clue about horses and that your an idiot!

***Edited By: lilly101 on 3/26/2008 4:27:49 PM***
Reason: nothing

You know when someone sends me a PM:
From: lilly101
Title: look
Date: Wed Mar 26, 2008 2:25 pm
Message: look at horse slaughter again

directing me to come look at a thread I expect to come and see a somewhat intelligent well thought out responce, but instead I come to this, wow, the school system you attend must be very very proud.

So I will take that as a no you do not watch the news, nor did you bother to read the story good enough.

It is hard to have an intelligent debate with some people, expecially when they show up unarmed

You think it is bettor for horses to starve to death and i am an idiot riiiiiight.

how old are you? ha ha ha

i'm stopping i'm not bad maned troos

WTH are you trying to say?

let's start over

we shouldn't be talking on this ok

I have a horse and I would hate if anything would happen to it, yet alone let it be slaughtered. I hate that since the population of mustages went up so that they started catching them and slaughtering them for DOG FOOD!!!!!!!!!!! I am very happythat some people catch them and tame them so they don't have to be slaughtered. I know that they might not get on this sight, but I just want to say THANK YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF OUR HEARTS!!!THANK YOU< THANK YOU< THANK YOU (Now repeat that about 900,000,000 times more) .gif"/>

pen wrote;

The portion of this article, which was somehow overlooked (unless I missed it) is the fact that in Canada anyway, thousands of horses are dispatched because of PMU lines.
All around me are farmers who have become rich off the back of the pregnant mare, who is tied in a stall for the duration of her whole pregnancy, THREE HUNDRED AND FOURTY DAYS, many with injuries from tight halters, and poorly fitting devices to catch the urine.
The sad and even more horrific part of PMU, is the weaned foal, is shipped away to be killed, so that it's mother can stand in the stall for close to a year, again, and the cruel cycle continues.
I've had many an argument with PMU farmers, and they just don't care. Sad.



pen;

Misinformation is the primary reason that slaughter has been stopped and now rescues are overcrowded with horses, many unfit and unsound of mind or body. You live in North Dakota, the only place where there are PMU ranches outside of Canada subsequent to 2005?

I would far rather no horse was ever marched off a truck to meet a captive bolt ever, but, if the choice is dead or starving/abused/staked for a 'gator I'm voting for dead.

As to us Canadians slaughtering huge numbers of weanling foals @.30 a pound/ 120.00 a carcase then why are there still many American organizations advertising rescued PMU foals @ 600.00?

Have you considered looking at the racing industry where draft mares are bred then their foals are pulled and sold so that the mare can nurse a thoroughbred foal, giving it a growth advantage because they have more milk? Or the OTTB geldings who are now in limbo after they quit winning money/break down.



At the risk of repeating myself, this is a previous post I made;

Posted: 11:07:46 PM 3/11/2007
There are currently less than 70 PMU ranches in production and they are being retained on 2 year contracts by Wyeth (as of 2005). This is a reduction form the original 400 in operation a few years ago.

PMU ranching is no different than any other form of livestock farming, you only get out of it what you put in. Crowded, filthy, sick pigs/cattle/fowl/horses fail to thrive, do not gain weight/produce milk/urine. They do however occupy space and eat food hence costing money.

The average farmer is servicing a million dollars (plus)in debt and is in possession of an agricultural degree, where is the logic in neglecting his meal ticket? Farming is the only occupation that I know of where the owner frequently works a second job to support his primary one. I cannot count the number of farmers I know who are truckers, electricians, plumbers.... They don't do this because they hate their way of life.

I live on a farm, my daughter is married to a farmer, my son is married to a farmer's daughter and will probably inherit her grandfather's farm. I am not just talking out the top of my head. Most of the farmers I know are neither mean or stupid.

A long time ago the PMU rancher's discovered that their foal crop was a valuable by product and that if they produced "Good" foals they were worth more money. There were ranches in Alberta producing registered Appaloosa foals, registered Quarter Horses, bucking horses and Sport horses which were sold at production sales, frequently for a lot of money.

I am not saying that there may not have some abuses but these operations were regulated to the ears, how much bedding the mares must have, how clean the stalls must be, how much stall room they must have, how many hours of turnout they should have/ week (with a premium being paid for more turnout time). Toad, my 3 y/o dun gelding comes from a PMU farm belonging to a relative of my best friend. After I bought him at a production sale I got to tour their barn (after they were shut down) and meet his mom as well as all of the horses they still had left. She knew them all by name and could quote their history. The barn was easy to clean, roomy and had lots of light. They had just spent half a million dollars raising the roof on the barn 2' to meet the expectations of the regulators only to be shut down a year later.

Where is the logic in putting up a 2 million dollar barn, filling it with hundreds of thousands of dollars of livestock then giving them substandard care?

I think it's sick that someone can own a horse, be too irresponsible or lazy to keep it in good health, and then make a profit by having it slaughtered. If you can't afford to provide basic care for a horse than you shouldn't own one.

What would the woman who shot her horse had done if slaughtering were an option? Would she have let her foal suffer while she waited to sell it at an auction (they only have them on tuesdays where I live)? Would she then let the horse continue to suffer while it spent a week in a crowded dirty trailer on the way to the slaughter house? All just to save a couple hundred in disposal fees.

I agree that AR groups are ignorant hypocrits. I think that it would have been better to phase out the slaughtering as opposed to stopping it all at once. The best way would be to make it less profitable for people to be irresponsible horse owners.