Horses Killed For Meat?

Horses being killed in South Florida for their meat? - CNN.com

If you haven't been following the above story online, it is terribly frightening. I don't think that it is getting much coverage. I have asked several horse people that I know and they haven't even heard about it. They are saying 19 horses have been slaughtered but they think that many more have been killed. Some people are just not reporting it because they don't want to be involved with the police or the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

The articles are saying that horse meat is bringing $7 to $20 per pound on the black market and possibly even $40 per pound. The strange part of this story is that they aren't stealing the horses but are butchering them right in their own pastures or in their stalls. I read in another article where a lady went out to feed her horses and found nothing but the horse's carcass in the stall. How shocking would that be?

It is not illegal to kill and process your own horses for meat in Florida. So with horses selling at auction for $10 to $250 each or being offered for free, why would someone risk jail time to do this? They are also risking being shot by the horse owners. With all of the unwanted horses out there, it is a real shame that good, well loved horses are being slaughtered.

Angry Rant

Thieves struck once more, we woke up Saturday morning with no phone service and thus no dial-up internet service. They have stolen our phone lines again. I am getting a little put out about it. I can understand it happening a few times but this is getting ridiculous. Like I have said before, they only strike after midnight on the weekends and they are always in the same area, our side of town. Why can't they be caught?

Where is the Lawrence County Sheriff's Department? They must be busy like the Indiana State Police, pulling over dangerous criminals like my Stepdad who is in his late 70's and has never had a ticket before in his life. You would think that with his record they would have just given him a warning for driving a little over the speed limit, but no, they gave him a ticket. They have to get that quota, you know.

I have always been a supporter of Law Enforcement but I think all of the good men must be in Iraq or Afghanistan. What we are left with here at home are just power hungry wantabees, who don't want to take any risks with dangerous law breakers. They just want to collect fines from safe, mostly law abiding citizens who's only sin is traffic violations.

I am sorry but in this day and age, with drunk drivers, dope addicts and peddlers, thieves, murderers, child molesters and abusers. Why are we so worried about an elderly man with a clean record going 5 or 10 miles an hour over the speed limit?

I want to respect Law Enforcement Officers and I know that there are some good ones out there, but it is getting easier to see them all as abusing their power and taking the easiest path. It kind of reminds me of today's cowboys who don't want to ride bucking horses, they just want to stick with the bulls, helmets and protective vests. Hopefully this war will end soon and the real men will come home.

Skinny Horses

When I seen the Vet the other day, I asked him about the number of skinny horses that he was seeing. He had told us earlier that he thought that it would really get bad this year because of the hay situation. But he said that he hadn't seen any that were real bad and that things hadn't gotten as bad as he had thought that they would. Hardly any calls for neglect or abuse and the ones that he checked out were just a little on the thin side but not starved nor neglected. But then he said that he hardly ever sees real skinny horses until March and April.

So, I explained from experience why this happens. Starting in March and carrying on into April our own horses start losing weight. The reason that they do this is because the new grass starts coming on and they get a taste of it, then nothing else satisfies. You can continue to feed hay or have free choice hay out for them but they won't eat it because the grass is just so much better and they are bored with hay by this time anyway. The new grass doesn't have much nutrition and is sparse, so they start to fall off in weight.

The Police start getting a lot of calls for horses and cattle being out, because they start pushing on their fences to reach that grass that is growing thick and untouched on the other side, it is greener too, by the way.