Animals-horses

R

Rebecca11

Cathlete
I truly don't want to offend anyone but I believe education is the key to us being a thoughtful, kind, humane nation of people. I love all animals and I am involved in many animal issues, all revolving around humane animal treatment. I am not a radical animal wacko nor do I believe all animals should be set free and live in the wild, I do not condone such agencies as PETA or ALF. There is a very important bill being introduced that will stop Horse Slaughter in our country, this meat is transported to dinner tables in Europe, tainted meat I might add, we worm and medicate our horses regularly, these are clearly marked "Not Intended for Food animals". The horses that are sold are often those that were once loved, carted around our kids in camp, were theraputic horses with kindest of natures, black market, family pets stolen out of pastures and sold to slaughterhouses, pregnant mare's. It not only is the act of the slaughter it is the transport too, overcrowed doubledecker trailers made for cattle. Hours in these trailers without water or food or rest, many get injured. The whole process is inhumane from start to finish. We do not eat horses in this Country, horses have built are country, they have plowed our field so we may eat, they have died in battle for us, they have provided transportation, they are companions. The wild horse is a grand symbol of American and thanks to President Bush they are now after many years of protection bound for slaughter :-(.

Here is the bill we are trying to get through Congress
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d108:h.857:

Please contact your representitives and let them know you support bill HR 857, save a part of America, save the horse.

Here is a link to the Certified Humane Farmers of America, factory farming is just terrible.

http://www.certifiedhumane.com/where.asp

Please do not believe that people like me want to stop all consumption of meat, far from it. I just believe we need to be a humane nation. Please feel free to ask any questions I will try to answer them or point you in the right direction. I won't get so grafic as to tell you in detail how our horses are slaughtered but I will say that horses are prey animals and they fight hard when they feel threatened, many do not go down on one shot, these are kind gentle creatures. Rebecca
 
I also abhor this practice of inhumanely treating animals. We have proven that we are no more responsible for horses than we are for cats and dogs, allowing the populations to exceed what is really necesssary.

The treatment of horses is especially despicable because of what they symbolize to us as humans - freedom, strength, grace, etc.

But let's look at this from a completely different perspective. These are unwanted horses. Period. A despicable truth, but that's the way it is.

If you make slaughter illegal, what do you suppose we do with these unwanted horses? Force the owners to keep them?

There are ceratinly not enough people to adopt unwanted horses. And even if you were willing to adopt one of these animals, you would soon reallize that keeping a horse equals, and many times exceeds, the cost of keeping a child!

There are not enough therapeutic riding programs, with their very limited budgets, to take them all in, and many of these creatures simply are not suited for therapeutic programs. Keeping unwanted horses, healthy or not, is extremely expensive. My friend, who runs her own thrapeutic riding program, says she receives at least 15 calls each week from people asking her to take in their retired horses. Obviously, she can't, and it kills her to turn these people down.

Should you force the owners of these animals to keep them the following will happen -

The broken down ones, who should have been HUMANELY destroyed in the first place, will now be forced to suffer through the pain and agony of growing old and decrepit, with little to no vet care, most likely. It seems for these horses, it's six of one, half dozen of the other. It's a no win situation for these animals.

The healthy ones, with no one to adopt them, will also suffer the neglect of the unwanted. Are you going to take on the expense of feeding them, training them, exercising them, boarding them, floating their teeth, shoeing their feet (corrective shoeing included - major $$$$$$$), buying them blankets, innoculations, and worming for the next 25 years? Or even 30? If you can't who should or will? The ASPCA? They hardly have enough people to take care of the animals we have now! And talk about limited funds!

Unfortunately, this despicable practice of mass inhumane slaughtering of horses will continue until we can figure out a more humane way to deal with these animals.

You may think I am heartless. I'm not. I am not for this practice, and I do not condone its continuing. I merely understand the cold practicality of the horse business. For some people in the business, horses are just that - business. Just like any product, they are disposable. This is the hard truth. Making the slaughter of horses illegal in this country will not stop the problem of what to do with unwanted horses go away. That's the real problem - once you've made slaughter illegal, what are you going to do with all those horses?

I have had to take care of two horses that no longer were able to do their jobs. Luckily for me, the first one was adopted by a friend of a friend. The second had to be euthanized because of cancer. I understand the responsibility I have for each animal I own, and as each one passed from my life, a piece of my heart went with them. No animal of mine will EVER wind up at auction. I would chew off my right arm before that happened!

Unfortunately, not everyone is as devoted to their animals as most of us are. There are many unprincipled souls out there. And until we can change their attitudes, and figure out what to actually do with these animals, the practice of inhumane slaughter will continue.


End of lecture.
 
Thank you for posting this message. I have always been a horse lover having grown up owning, and loving, them. I remember when I was young while in France. I ordered a hamburger not knowing it was horse meat. I almost lost my lunch after I found out what it was. I was sooo upset.
I will definitely support this bill given it's not right to ship these poor horses to the slaughterhouse.

I think we need to stop the puppy mills as well. How cruel is this where the poor bitches are stuck in a cage for most of their lives giving birth to puppies; most of which are sold to pet stores (not always healthy, either).

Just my $.02. Thanks for letting me vent.

Lorrayne
 
I completely respect your opinion, I have several friends who are horse lovers that believe slaughter is a necessary evil, they believe that outlawing slaughter would only increase abuse and starvation. I on the other hand believe this will not happen. Cavel was burned down a few years ago in IL 1 of the 3 horse slaughter plants in the US, abuse reports went down in the 2 years it took to rebuild, unfortunately they are up and running again :-(. Those that abuse and starve will do so regardless, others will leave the business when no money is to be had. A good read on this subject is here:

http://www.trfinc.org/news/TRF_WhitePaper.pdf

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." - Martin Luther King, Jr.
 
eating horses? sorry, that's what just popped out to me...it's a big cultural difference. it's like in china they raise st. bernard dogs for food. we abhor it, but then i see how cows are revered in india...and we raise cows for food...

but still....eating a horse????? :-(

maddie
 
I wish upon a star that there was no slaughter, but the bottom line will always be money, won't it? - that "other" necessary evil.

Here's the way I figure it - Heartless Harold the Horse owner has a old horse that is way past his prime and should be put down. Now, does Heartless Harold call the vet or does he load the horse up and take him to the auction. Let's see..

You and I, because we RESPECT our animals and understand the fact that they do feel pain and probably have some sort of primal emotions including happiness (contentment), anger, and FEAR, call our vets, pay the $$$ to have the vet come out and humanely put down our animal. We then pay $250 to the knacker (I know from experience what this costs) to come and pick up our animal and take it to a rendering plant where we can only hope that someone at least takes the horse's tail and uses it in a violin bow somewhere, so maybe we can dream he has some sort of immortality (because imagining him being ground up into fertilizer is just too upsetting).



Or, HEARTLESS HAROLD puts his crippled animal on the trailer, drives it to the auction, puts the horse in the arena where he knows the meat men are (because people who go to horse auctions ALWAYS know who the meat men are), knowing he can get 15 cents per pound (or whatever the going rate is) for his poor horse. Heartless Harold drives away with an empty trailer and $250 in his pocket.


Thanks for the link. I'm sure it will be interesting reading. I wish I could be as hopeful as you, but I am too cynical about human behavior. This subject has been cause for much discussion in our barn, both pro and con. I'm not really sure if I'm "on" one side or the other, but merely resigned to the lowest common denominator - when money is involved you can count on people to behave their worst.

People are pigs, aren't they? I'm getting pissed off just thinking about it. GRRRRRR...x( x( x( x( x( x(
 
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