Article looks at dealing with disposing of a horse carcass.
Getting rid of horses no easy task [link]In my personal experience, disposal of a dead horse cost over $500 nearly 10 years ago. This is not a viable option for many.
NANCY HICKS | Jul 22, 2008
Carol Johnson grieved when her 28-year-old quarterhorse had to be put down. His knees were bad. Shots from the vet weren’t working. One night, Johnson and four friends couldn’t get Jack to his feet, so she called the vet. What happened later was even worse than seeing Jack die. Johnson’s husband called a local rendering company. But they were too busy. A second company agreed to pick up the horse for $150, but only if it was left by the road. So a neighbor with a tractor helped drag Jack to the fence line, where he lay all day. The rendering company said the horse was too far from the road. So the next night, the neighbor dragged Jack to the roadside, where he lay, covered by sheets for another day. “It was a sad scene. He didn’t deserve what he went through.” Disposing of a horse is not easy or inexpensive. Euthanizing a horse can cost from $55 to more than $150. Rendering plants charge about $150 to pick up an animal, if they don’t have to drive far. The cost of cremating a horse will average about $450, depending on the driving distance. Burial can cost several hundred dollars. “You’re probably talking $200 to $400 if you have to rent a backhoe.” Nebraska state law allows a person to bury a horse unless the county or city says otherwise. Only animals that weigh less than 150 pounds can be buried in Lincoln, or in Douglas County. Horses can be burned, buried or rendered. A horse that weighs fewer than 600 pounds can be composted, but few horses are that small. Some landfills take horses; others do not. And some ranchers may drag a horse into a blowout and hope no one finds it, but that’s illegal. It’s also dangerous to other animals. Barbiturates used in euthanization can kill wildlife that feed on the carcass.
Check out this related article by the same author.
1 comment:
Wow, so cutting apart an old faithful companion makes more sense to spare yourself seeing your horse dead, in fact, what amazes me, is you didn't call the rendering company and schedule the pickup on the same day they planned to put him down, your miscalculation is NOT A reason to re-open slaughter plants, I had three horses die from lepto-so we have all been there, we had to contact someone with a backhoe (free) and put the horses down, check for heart beat and it was over. Sorry for your loss, its greatly saddening, but you have to be prepared, as for the barbituates in the drugs to put a horse down, what about the drugs in horses that are spread throughout the environment and peoples bodies that have killed dogs and cats in pet foods til it was banned outright Federally?
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