Horse yard ornaments recently a status symbol, now discarded

Too many horses, too few homes [link]

DARRYN BENNETT | March 29, 2008

NORTH COUNTY -- Too old, too lame, too expensive to care for any more.

Those are the typical complaints that Nicki Branch, a Valley Center rescuer of horses, has been hearing recently from overwhelmed horse owners asking her for help.

Branch owns FalconRidge Ranch Equine Rescue, a 7-acre nonprofit ranch tucked away in Valley Center where she cares for about 60 horses that former owners had to give up.

In the last few years, horse sanctuaries such as FalconRidge have been housing too many abandoned horses and seeing too little demand for adoptions, which is their ultimate goal for the horses they take in.

In recent interviews with equine associations, industry leaders and horse enthusiasts, the consensus was that the problem stems from the faltering economy, rising hay prices and recent legislation that shut down the nation's three remaining slaughterhouses.

Branch and other equine experts said the result is a market flooded with horses, which has led to widespread neglect and a growing population of unwanted horses—those with owners who won't or can't properly care for them.

Although figures for San Diego County weren't available, industry estimates suggest that across the nation, there are as many as 100,000 unwanted horses.

Web sites for Branch's sanctuary and some others feature pages of photos of horses, many severely underweight or suffering with cracked hooves and rotting coats, that need homes.

"Even a healthy horse can't get adopted out right now," Branch said last week. "I can't give them away."

Branch's normal adoption fee for a horse at FalconRidge is $500, but she said she is often willing to waive it if she can find a responsible owner.

With as many as 60 horses coming to FalconRidge each year, Branch said she found homes for less than 10 last year.

"We are in desperate need of equine sanctuaries and more rescue facilities," she said.

A horse in every yard

Americans today own more than 9 million horses, up from 6 million in the mid-1990s, according to the American Horse Council, a national lobbying group for the industry. Furthermore, of the more than 2 million Americans who own horses, roughly one-third have a household income of less than $50,000.

Many professional breeders and trainers contend that good economic times that began a decade ago led to an unprecedented number of people buying horses for the first time.

"All of a sudden everyone wanted Black Beauty in their yard," Branch said.

Retirees and families enjoying extra income purchased large homes with acreage and began buying horses in record numbers. But then the housing market slumped, money got tight and they couldn't afford to care for the horses or bring them along when they were forced to downsize to smaller quarters.

Add to that the price of hay, the staple food for horses, which has more than doubled over the last year.

The surge in hay prices has been blamed on droughts and the rising cost of the fuel necessary to grow and transport the crop. A 50-pound bale of horse hay that cost less than $3 a couple of years ago costs about $6 today.

Branch estimated that the average horse at FalconRidge eats at least 25 pounds of hay a day. She said she spends about $4,000 a month to feed her horses.

The estimated annual cost of providing basic care for a horse is about $2,400, according to the Unwanted Horse Coalition, an alliance of equine organizations.

"The economy is the main problem," said Branch. "Money is tight, people are out of work or losing their jobs. People bought these horses and now they can't afford them."

For example, one family told Branch last year it was facing foreclosure and was forced to move out of upscale Rancho Santa Fe where they'd had room for horses. They called Branch to ask if she would take two underweight horses they wouldn't have room for at their new home.

"They just owned (the horses) because they wanted something pretty in their yard," Branch said. "They were sad to let them go, but they did it."

Dividing the equine community

Until last year, a market for unwanted horses existed at slaughterhouses.

According to data from the nonprofit American Welfare Institute, an estimated 65,000 horses were killed each year at domestic slaughterhouses.

Although horse slaughter is still legal in the United States, the last three factories, in Texas and Illinois, were closed by court order last year.

Also, under mounting pressure from animal activist groups, the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act, a federal bill that stalled in 2006, is moving through Congress again with strong bipartisan support. If enacted, the bill would ban domestic slaughter and bar the exportation of horses being sold to factories for their meat.

The bill has divided the equine community.

Opponents, including the American Veterinary Medical Association, argue that overpopulation will become a bigger problem without slaughterhouses. They say the result will be less economically valuable horses that will be at greater risk of neglect and abandonment.

Proponents of the bill, including the Humane Society of the United States and equine rescuers, say slaughterhouses are profit-driven operations that don't improve the bleak situation horses are facing.

They say healthy horses without homes and lame horses that can't be rehabilitated should be euthanized.

The federal bill would also make it illegal for horses to be transported to slaughterhouses in Mexico and Canada for human consumption in Europe and Asia, where their meat is considered a delicacy.

Shirley Puga, of the Ramona-based Emergency Rescue Team, raises money to buy slaughter-bound horses and transport them to rescue ranches.

She said she buys horses "by the pound" to save them from "killer buyers"—people buying horses dirt cheap to truck across the borders to be slaughtered.

She said foreign demand for horse meat—not a massive influx in unwanted horses—is exacerbating the practice.

"(Slaughterhouses) aren't an American business," she said. "(Americans) don't eat horses. We're vehemently against it because we have always considered them companion animals."

XP—Honestly, how could anyone believe that 100,000 unwanted horses would just disappear? The issue remains that there are too many horses and not enough viable options for solving the crisis. (By the way, Ms. Puga—not true. Horses have long been American table fare. Don't want to eat them? Then don't. No one will force you to. So, why would you force someone else to adhere to your voluntary dietary restrictions?)

Slaughter in U.S. was a better fate than many horses face now

U.S. shelters saddled with unwanted horses [link]

Oren Dorell | March 24, 2008

The forced closure of the last horse-killing facilities in the USA, done at the urging of animal rights activists, has caused a herd of unwanted horses in animal shelters nationwide, according to breeders, ranchers and horse rescuers.

The surplus threatens to worsen if Congress passes a bill to ban the selling of unwanted horses to slaughterhouses in Canada and Mexico.

"It used to be I could take a horse that is unbreedable, untrainable, injured or unwanted and sell it for anywhere between $200 to $700," says Sheila Harmon, who has bred Arabian horses in Eagle, Idaho, for 28 years. "Now I have to pay a euthanasia fee to a veterinarian and a disposal fee to have the animal taken away."

A ban on selling animals to a meat processor will "drive another nail in the coffin" of her business, Harmon says.

Animal activists and some horse lovers say that's regrettable but that the issue is a moral one, not economic. Horses are pets, not an entree, says Julie Caramante of Habitat for Horses, a large horse rescue operation south of Houston.

"There is a global market for dog meat, (but) we wouldn't even dream of selling our pets for that," Caramante says.

For decades, horse farms sold unwanted animals to slaughterhouses that shipped the meat overseas to places such as France and Japan, where horse meat is an accepted meal, even a delicacy. In 2006, close to 140,000 horses were sold this way, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said.

But last year, under pressure from animal activists, courts in Texas and lawmakers in Illinois made butchering horses for human consumption illegal. That forced the shutdown of the last three horse slaughterhouses in those states — and the USA.

Although it remains legal to ship horses to Mexico or Canada for slaughter (in 2007, about 80,000 animals followed this route), there is a move in Congress to close that off as well. Breeders and ranchers say such a move would destroy an important export market they need to stay afloat.

"They've done away with the ability to get rid of inventory that has no other good place to go," Harmon says.

'Kicked to the side'

Owners spend between $125 and $600 for euthanasia and burial or to pay someone to haul away a carcass for animal-feed ingredients or the chemical industry. That can add up for breeders who supply hundreds of thousands of horses every year to the race industry, ranches and the riding crowd.

Paxton Ramsey's family has raised cattle for more than a century in east Texas and breeds quarter horses primarily for ranch hands. Ramsey, who represents the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, says the shutdown of slaughterhouses has led to stray horses showing up in higher numbers on public land and private property. If the USA has to care for tens of thousands of unwanted horses a year, he says, it won't be long before the public will be forced to foot the bill for a half-million horse herd at $2,400 a horse per year.

"There are other things that can be done with government land other than maintain unwanted horses," he says.

Neglected animals are showing up across the country. While some shelters say they have room for more horses, shelters in Virginia, Tennessee and Illinois say they are full.

"I've seen a tremendous increase in the number of people pleading with us to take their horses and we absolutely cannot," says Donna Ewing, founder of Hooved Animal Rescue and Protection Society in Barrington Hills, Ill.

At Roanoke Valley Horse Rescue in southwestern Virginia, Pat Muncy rubs the neck of a brown thoroughbred named Prince that was among 21 horses she has received since September. The yearling's protruding ribs still show the effects of starvation two months after Loudoun County officers seized the horse along with 46 others from a Virginia farm.

Some of the seized horses are thought to be descendants of Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew that "got kicked to the side," she says.

Activists say that no matter the situation it's wrong to kill horses for meat and that industry predictions are exaggerated.

"We are Americans and we oppose horse slaughter," said Paula Bacon, former mayor of Kaufman, Texas, who fought to close a slaughterhouse there.

Bacon says breeders produce too many horses and don't try to improve them before sale.

Tom Lenz, chairman of the Unwanted Horse Coalition, a horse breeders group, says Bacon's assertion makes no sense.

"It costs anything between $1,900 to $2,400 to feed a horse for a year," Lenz says. "Why would you put all that effort into a horse and sell it for $300 (for slaughter)?"

Slaughter vs. risk of neglect

Chris Heyde, deputy legislative director with the Animal Welfare Institute, says the country can handle more horses. Heyde helped write the legislation that would ban the sale of U.S. horses to slaughterhouses. The bill is still being hashed out in committees.

"You can find a home for these horses," Heyde says. "Most people do."

Stephen "Doc" Vangyija, founder of the Equine Rescue & Protection Humane Society, does not support horse slaughter but worries there will be more neglected horses if the bill passes. Slaughter that is supervised and humane is better than allowing horses to starve, he says.

Many Americans seem indifferent to the issue, according to a USA TODAY poll. Asked if U.S. ranchers should be allowed to sell horse meat to food distributors overseas, 45% of Americans had no opinion, 30% said no, and 25% said yes.

"People in the horse business think that people should be able to do what their conscience guides them," says Mike Jennings, co-owner of Professional Auction Services in Berryville, Va.


XP—With the cost of euthanasia and disposal in excess of $500 in many areas, of course many owners will put that last available money into hay, feed and care as they hope for a change in circumstances when the supplies run out. When that doesn't happen, they have a horse that still can't be sold and face additional expenses even if an auction barn agrees to attempt to sell the horse. Fuel to transport a horse to auction may exceed $50-100 depending on location, there is a consignment fee that sometimes is higher than the final bid when the gavel falls. No wonder some resort to abandonment in desperation.

Horses for $5, $10 at auction

'It's 200 times worse' [link]

Karen Binder | March 12, 2008

Horse owners confronted with high hay costs, low horse sale prices and no more domestic horse slaughtering are saddled with a bigger problem—what to do with the unwanted 1,000-pound animals.

"Ideally, there'd be no unwanted horses, but we're already in a sad state of affairs with cats and dogs. It's 200 times worse with horses," Dr. Nancy Kucera, an equine veterinarian, said. "It's pathetic. The poor horses are the ones suffering."

It's a growing problem in Southern Illinois, which contributes to the state's estimated $3.8 billion equine industry, the fourth largest nationwide. There were 77,000 horse owners, 213,000 horses and 15,000 full-time jobs associated with them in Illinois last year, according to the Horsemen's Council of Illinois.

Hay is selling as high as $8 for the smaller square bales and up to $75 for the larger round bales—nearly twice the usual price—thanks to last year's killer freeze that affected most Southern Illinois agriculture. Considering a typical horse eats about 2 percent of its body weight daily, it would cost about $60 a month just for hay, Kucera estimated. This doesn't include grain, pasture or other feed additives. Many horse owners say they simply cannot afford to feed their horses anymore, she added.

Selling them isn't a viable option either these days.

Some horses recently up for sale at the Southern Illinois Equine Sale Barn in Goreville were going for $5 and $10, Garry Jenkins said. Not only is he the sale barn coordinator; he's also the Williamson County Farm Bureau manager.

"Do you know what this means? Those horse owners have to pay us to sell their horses by the time they pay the $25 sale fee," Jenkins said. "And you can't give them away. What are we going to do with 100,000 horses? Who's going to pay for them? You are."

Jenkins was referring to the 100,000 horses a year that were "harvested" in horse slaughter houses nationwide last year. The last three facilities that exported the processed horse meat to foreign countries were shut down by respective state laws in late 2007, including Cavel International in DeKalb.

The state Horsemen's Council also noted the trend.

"Many of the horse community's concerns are basically the same as that of most Americans—the current economy, taxes, the environment, government restrictions and risk management (liability)," HCI President Frank Bowman noted on the council Web site.

Leading economic issues Bowman cites on the Web site include the high cost of fuel and feed, particularly hay because of its scarcity, and the low selling prices for horses.

"Couple these with government policies that are forcing many professionals and top amateurs to move their operations out of Illinois to more horse-friendly states and you have a good idea of what's troubling Illinois horsemen," Bowman said.

On the matter of unwanted horses, Bowman stated that many horsemen, particularly those in the southern part of the state, are reporting instances of horses being turned loose to fend for themselves on public lands and in forested areas.

However, representatives for the Shawnee National Forest and the Land Between the Lakes Federal Lands earlier this week reported no cases of stray horses.

Kucera added that the nearest rescue facility accepting horses she's aware of is in the suburban Chicago area.

She, too, has heard stories about horse owners letting horses loose in the wild.

"There's pretty much no option for a lot of people," Kucera said. "I have no doubt in my mind this will happen. I'm surprised the insurance people haven't gotten on the bandwagon. We all know what it's like to hit a 200-pound deer. Try hitting a 1,000-pound animal."

XP—Ban advocates: take note. Look what you have helped create. People can't sell horses now. They can't GIVE them away. Rescues are full and turning people away. Yet, many can't afford to feed them. Horses are still being slaughtered, but face unknown trauma outside of the U.S. now. In addition, they are being neglected here in the U.S. in sickening numbers. The answer to many of these problems is to immediately reinstate legal horse slaughter for human consumption in the U.S. with government oversight of the industry.