Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Governor’s Lead… Don’t They?

This story is tragic. Immediately, Governor Fletcher should showcase leadership. He should become involved.

From the Lexington Herald-Leader:

The bidding for the black pony started at $500, then took a nosedive. There were no takers at $300, $200, even $100. With a high bid of just $75, the auctioneer gave the seller the choice of taking the animal off the auction block. But the seller said no. "I can't feed a horse," the man said. "I can't even feed myself."

Kentucky, the horse capital of the world, famous for its sleek thoroughbreds, is being overrun with thousands of horses no one wants - some of them perfectly healthy, but many of them starving, broken-down nags. Other parts of the country are overwhelmed, too. The reason: growing opposition in the U.S. to the slaughter of horses for human consumption overseas. With new laws making it difficult to send horses off to the slaughterhouse when they are no longer suitable for racing or work, auction houses are glutted with horses they can barely sell, and rescue organizations have run out of room.

Some owners who cannot get rid of their horses are letting them starve; others are turning them loose in the countryside. Some people who live near the strip mines in the mountains of impoverished eastern Kentucky say that while horses have long been left to roam free there, the number now may be in the thousands, and they are seeing herds three times bigger than they did just five years ago. "There's horses over there that's lame, that's blind," said Doug Kidd, who owns 30 horses in Lackey, Ky. "They're taking them over there for a graveyard because they have nowhere to move them."

It is legal in all states for owners to shoot their unwanted horses, and some Web sites offer instructions on doing it with little pain. But some horse owners do not have the stomach for that. At the same time, it can cost as much as $150 for a veterinarian to put a horse down. And disposing of the carcass can be costly, too. Some counties in Kentucky, relying on a mix of private and public funding, will pick up and dispose of a dead horse for a nominal fee.

The cost is much higher other places, and many places ban the burying of horses altogether because of pollution fears. Sending horses off to the glue factory is not an option anymore. Adhesives are mostly synthetic formulations nowadays, according to Lawrence Sloan, president of the Adhesive and Sealant Council. And because of public opposition, horse meat is no longer turned into dog food either, said Chris Heyde of the Society for Animal Protective Legislation.

Eventually, anti-slaughter groups insist, the market will sort itself out, and owners will breed their horses less often, meaning fewer unwanted horses. Nelson Francis, who raises gaited horses, a rare, brawny breed found in the Appalachian mountains, said the prices they command are getting so low, he might have to turn some loose. He houses about 57 of them, double his typical number. "I can't absorb the price," Francis said. "You try to hang on until the price changes, but it looks like it's not going to change. ... What do I do? I've got good quality horses I can't market because of the has-been horse."

"Kill buyers" used to pay pennies a pound for unwanted horses, then pack them into crowded trucks bound for slaughterhouses that would ship the horse meat to Europe and Asia.

However, public opposition to the eating of horse meat has caused the number of horses slaughtered each year by American companies to drop from over 300,000 in 1990 to around 90,000 in 2005, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Only one U.S. slaughterhouse - in Illinois - still butchers horses for human consumption.

"What do you do with them all?" said Lori Neagle, executive director of the new Kentucky Equine Humane Center in Lexington. "What do you do with 90,000 head of horses? That's something that has to be addressed. It'll be interesting to see if people financially can do the right thing or if they will leave their horses to starve."

Federal law prohibits the use of double-decker trucks for transporting horses to slaughter. Many members of Congress have also been pushing a national ban on the butchering of horses for human consumption.

While California is the only state that has expressly banned horse slaughter, in a 1989 ballot initiative, similar measures are under consideration elsewhere, including Kentucky, Maryland, New York and Illinois. Connecticut has made it illegal to sell horse meat in public places, and many states have tightened up the labeling and transportation requirements governing horses bound for slaughter. A federal court ruled recently that Texas must start to enforce its long-ignored 1949 ban on the transportation and possession of horse meat. That put a stop to horse slaughter at the two slaughterhouses in Texas that engaged in the practice. While the market price for horses has plummeted, the cost of food, lodging and veterinary care has not.

Kathy Schwartz, director of Lisbon, Md.-based Days End Farm Horse Rescue, which adopts abused and neglected horses, said that rescue operations that choose not to euthanize horses are generally full. "We had one horse we brought in that was a rack of bones - in pain both from starvation and parasite infestation and injury," Schwartz said. "His owner thought life was better than going to slaughter. Well, life is - if you're going to feed it and take care of it."

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The pro-slaughter lobby has been fairly successful in convincing some horsemen that the problem of unwanted horses is a result of a ban on slaughter. In fact, there is no US ban on horse slaughter.

Records show the number of US horses slaughtered now is almost the same as before 3 US slaughter houses were closed by state law in 2007. The foreign owned horse slaughter corporations simply set up shop across our borders.

As Bill Clinton said years back, It's the economy, stupid.

Slaughter is an emotional issue, but it is also an economic one. The truth is, USDA records show that the number of US horses slaughtered keys off European demand, not our economy. Abuse cases and horse stealing numbers actually go DOWN when slaughter is banned. Kill buyers, as they are called, fill corporate quotas, they do not provide humane euthanasia.

Some horse people now are "bargaining" with the horse slaughter idea, trying to believe it can be done humanely, to bail out over-breeding and the poor economy. That's never going to happen.

Reports coming back from Canada in early 2009 are chilling: 30% of US horses slaughtered in Canada now are not properly "stunned." They are conscious and sensitive to pain during their butchering. We have no control over what they do in Canada or Mexico, and "bargaining" with horse slaughter will contiue the 2,000 horse a week export of our horses to a painful and protracted death.

I think that most horsemen, if they knew what went on behind closed doors of horse slaughter houses and trailers would throw the full weight of their support to Federal legislation that will stop the unacceptably inhumane slaughter of American horses. They would stop looking backwards to the good old days of slaughter and get busy creating state initiatives to deal with real world problems with common sense and solutions approach.

It's time we all got together to prepare for the not-too-distant future when for-profit horse slaughter is no longer available as an easy out.

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