Horse Articles

Articles of horse abuse, neglect and starvation.

Kentucky's unwanted-horses crisis spiraling

Rise in number of neglected horses

Hungry, Hungry Horses

Slaughterhouse legislation may worsen horse market

Middle Tennessee's horses going hungry or selling cheap

Lack of foresight

The premise that without horse slaughter there will be no incentive to continue breeding horses doesn't make sense. I don't know of anyone who breeds horses for slaughter anymore than people breed dogs to be euthanized at the local animal shelter. Thousands of dogs die everyday without the incentive of slaughter. Horse ranches who run large bands of broodmares that number in the hundreds with stallions, who never touch their young stock until round-up time when they are taken to auction, will continue to do what they have always done, it's their way of life, even if they are getting $50 per head.

Also to say that closing the packing plants is not contributing to these problems is more fantasy thinking. Not every state had a drought last summer and to say that the slaughter market is still very much alive in this country is a clueless remark as well. Killer buyers are just not buying the same number of horses that they were. They are making more money per head when horses are cheap or free and with the cost of gas and the longer transports out of the country, they are only going to take the cream of the crop, certainly not thin or crippled horses who might not make the trip. Isn't this just common sense?

I predict that the Humane Society will come up with a solution soon. They will take over the horse slaughter industry to make sure that it is done humanely, and then we can pay them to dispose of our horses, further devaluing the horse.

What the anti-slaughter people are trying to do is noble but not possible. They want to change society. They want people to have feelings, be compassionate and loyal, in a society where animal and human life is not as important as their own comfort and finances. When an animal has no value, then it has no value and will be treated as such. I heard Rush Limbaugh once say that if you want to save an animal from extinction then you need to start eating it. This is unfortunately true.

Many people have already stopped registering their horses, because they aren't going to put anymore money into an animal that is already worth nothing and while I can understand that, it is still heartbreaking. At times in the past we have had people buy horses from us and tell us that they don't care about papers because you can't ride papers. We always tell them that the papers aren't for them, they are for the horse, they give the horse more value. Even if they think that they will keep the horse forever, you can't see the future and something could happen to force them to sell, that horse will have a better chance at a good life if he has paperwork that goes with him than if he doesn't.

This is all about the devaluation of the horse. If you want to help horses then you have to give them value, not only in your eyes but in the eyes of everyone. Believe it or not, there are lots of people out there that don't even like animals of any kind. They could care less about horses or they especially don't like horses because they fell off of one once. Sometimes we can only see with our own eyes and think everyone thinks and feels just like we do, they don't, they don't care if animals are mistreated and even mistreat animals themselves.

I have a friend who is a big softy now but tells horrible stories about the things that he used to do to animals. He didn't have any feelings of compassion at all for them until he started getting older and got a house dog, now he has four dogs in his house along with three birds, he worries over them to no end. I know other people like this, I also know some people who just live in their own little world and think that animals are dirty and nasty creatures. But most people do care about money, I don't know anyone who thinks of money as dirty and nasty, though most of it is. Give a horse some dollar value and it will be treated with more respect.

I have a question? Why would anyone have a Mustang stallion? I just recently saw where someone is expecting a foal by their Mustang stallion. Can you adopt Mustang Stallions? Why wouldn't all Mustang stallions and colts be gelded? From what I read she adopted this stallion at 9 months old directly from the BLM. Why is our government closing horse packing plants and then promoting the breeding of unregistered horses?