Utah: abandoned horse.

Salt Lake City, Utah ...

Authorities searching for abandoned horse's owner [link]
Associated Press | July 17, 2008

Millard County authorities are searching for the owner of a horse abandoned in Utah's western desert. The horse was found June 27 near a gravel pit, about 30 miles west of Delta. Deputies say the 7-year-old horse was emaciated when they found it. It's now being nursed back to health at the Bureau of Land Management's wild horse facility in Delta, although officials say it is not a wild horse. The horse had a brand but deputies say they couldn't determine who owns it. The horse might have to be euthanized if its owner can't be found.

XP

Horses abandoned to wild suffer

Equestrian community still saddled with slaughter debate [link]

Anita Zimmerman | July 16, 2008

The last horse slaughterhouse in the United States has been closed for more than a year, but the bitter debate over horse slaughter rages on.

Beginning in the late 1990s, animal activism organizations, including the National Horse Protection League and the Humane Association, and celebrities as varied as Bo Derek, Willie Nelson and Paul Sorvino, threw considerable weight against slaughterhouses, ultimately succeeding in convincing legislators, state by state, to ban killing horses for human consumption.

The last horse slaughter facility in the United States, the Cavel plant in DeKalb, Ill., owned by a Belgian company that shipped horse meat to Europe, closed after an Illinois law made horse slaughter illegal. Cavel International appealed the ban in federal appeals court and lost; the Supreme Court refused to hear the case last month, thus rendering it judicially dead.

But what sounds like a triumph for horses, owners and equine aficionados everywhere is actually a far more complex issue, because the question of how to deal with unwanted horses, including debilitated, dangerous and abandoned animals, remains unanswered.

In the equestrian community, the subject is so sticky that while everyone is talking about it, no one's using names.

One area veterinarian who wishes to remain anonymous believes the emotional arguments against killing "pet" horses fail to confront the realities of starvation, neglect and death from untreated ailments.

"For some reason, our culture came to view horses not as work animals and later ... food, but pets," the vet explains, noting that animal rights organizations lobbied for the ban against the wishes of the American Association of Equine Practitioners, whose statement reads, "The AAEP recognizes that the processing of unwanted horses is currently a necessary aspect of the equine industry, and provides a humane alternative to allowing the horse to continue a life of discomfort and pain, and possibly inadequate care or abandonment."

Baldwin rancher Buddy Rievard, who keeps around 35 riding horses at his ranch, summarizes the situation. Without slaughterhouses, "a lot of neglected horses are going to get neglected even worse," he remarks.

Time magazine's May 28 article "An Epidemic of Abandoned Horses" corroborates the claim. Its author Pat Dawson reflects on the growing number of horses whose owners, unable to afford their care, released them into the wild "to die cruel and lonesome deaths."

That's not ethical, either, says one area horse owner.

"I'm the biggest bleeding heart, the softest person," begins Georgetta Brown, of Cornell. "I have an extreme amount of empathy for them [horses]."

But that doesn't mean Brown supports the ban on horse slaughter.

"None of us like to think of it, but I believe there's a place for it," she says. The rising cost of feeding animals—hay bales have doubled in price—is creating a "financial burden" for owners, especially since horses have such a long life span, she says.

"To tell me I have to support an animal for thirty years—that's not a viable solution," Brown argues.

Brown believes that "well-intentioned, misguided people" were responsible for passing the legislation, and she feels the current situation "needs to be improved."

The legislation has wreaked havoc on the horse market, adds one local rancher who doesn't want to be named.

Ranchers face the same economic challenges dairy farmers do. Feed prices are high. Gas prices are up. And, unlike farmers, ranchers can't just sell animals at the local livestock auction house.

There is no horse market anymore, confirms Barron Equity Livestock Auction manager Dick Murray.

"Economically, the market for slaughter horses is nothing," he reports.

Undoubtedly that will have lasting effects on the country's horse population. But for now, whether horse owners support or oppose the ban, one word keeps resurfacing: humanity.

For supporters of the ban, the issue is simple: killing horses and selling them for meat is inhumane.

Opposers of the ban say abandoning horses to starve, suffer and die alone is inhumane.

Horses are currently sold to either Mexico or Canada, usually Mexico because it's less expensive, and opposers argue that horses are treated far worse in Mexico than in the United States, where slaughterhouses were monitored by the Department of Agriculture.

Some horse owners straddle the fence.

Although she opposes the ban, Brown says she's seen the footage from slaughterhouses on the news, and she wants changes to be made in the way the animals are handled.

She believes horses should be treated with compassion, even in death.

"It should be done a lot more humanely," Brown says.

XP—We're seeing a rise in neglect, shelters full and owners desperate to find affordable hay ... what happens to the horses when the option to sell or even give them away is gone?

As costs soar, value plummets.

Horses left out as fuel prices soar [link]

DEBBIE HALL | July 14, 2008

Some area horses have become victims of soaring fuel prices as their owners try to find ways to cut down on the costs of hay and transportation, according to area horse enthusiasts.

“We’ve got a problem in this area,” Carol Gilbert said. “People are worried about the cost of gas, and it trickles down to the hay.”

A horse enthusiast, Gilbert lives in Martinsville and boards her horses in Horsepasture.

Recently, Gilbert said she adopted a 2-year-old filly to add to her herd because its owner no longer could care for it.

Pat Muncy of the Roanoke Valley Horse Rescue (RVHR) in Hardy, a nonprofit agency that accepts horses from Martinsville and Henry County and other areas, believes fuel costs are to blame.

“The gas prices are affecting everything,” she said, including the price of cutting, raking and baling hay as well as transporting feed.

In 2006, the rescue agency spent $13,000 for hay. Muncy said by 2007, that cost doubled.

“It’s only six months into 2008, and so far this year we’ve spent $28,000” for hay, Muncy said, adding she used to pay $20 each for the round bales but now pays between $55 and $60 each.

The expense of grain also has nearly doubled, from $6 last year to the $11 she recently spent, Muncy said.

Lena Murphy, who works at the Martinsville-Henry County SPCA, recently added a mare and a colt to her group of horses. Both were given to her by someone in North Carolina.

“Several people have been trying to give me horses,” Murphy said. She also attributes the situation to the high cost of fuel “plus the fact that so many people in this area are out of work.”

The SPCA occasionally gets calls from people who no longer can afford to keep horses, but the calls are rare “because most people know we don’t have the facilities to keep horses,” Murphy said.

Adopted horses are the lucky ones. Less lucky are those “being put out in the woods and left to die because people can’t afford to feed them,” Gilbert said.

Muncy said that is not as unlikely as it sounds.

There are 44 horses at the rescue. At least three were added after being abandoned. One was found in the “backwoods” of Botetourt County, and two others were found roaming Jefferson National Forest, Muncy said.

Others may try different methods to get rid of a horse they no longer can feed. For instance, Muncy said she has heard that when horses don’t sell at a livestock auction, some owners may find an empty horse trailer and leave the animal in it before “just driving away.”

Still others may put their unwanted horse in with those in a neighboring pasture, and “you wake up to find an extra horse,” Muncy said.

Either way, more horses are being disposed of, and “we’re getting more and more calls” to help, Muncy said.

The number of horses at the agency has risen, from 30 at this time last year to the current 44, Muncy said.

The RVHR works only with animal control officers because their cases often are the worst. Horses in the Hardy agency are rehabilitated.

“We put weight back on them because most suffer from starvation,” Muncy said. When body weight increases, “we try and adopt them like the SPCA does with dogs and cats.”

The adoption fee for a horse is $300, Muncy said. Adoption fees are kept at or near the going rate a horse would bring at auction, she added.

The agency operates on donations, and so far, no horse has been turned away.

Muncy, Gilbert and Murphy agree the situation is heart-wrenching.

“It’s not that people don’t love or want these horses,” Murphy said. “It’s just that they can’t afford them.”

Dr. Lock Boyce, a Patrick County veterinarian, said he has not heard of any cases of abandoned horses in Patrick County this year.

XP—More evidence that people are resorting to letting their horses loose, a dangerous situation for people and animals.

Colorado: Animal cruelty sentence.

I don't know anything about this case, but I know a horse that is sick can drop 50 lbs. within days. My own horse dropped over 100, probably closer to 200, within a week when he had what was suspected at the time to be Potomac Horse Fever. Even with daily vet care at a great expense—costing more than buying another horse would have, thanks to the depressed market.

My issue is not, did this person cruelly starve animals, but, does this case set a dangerous precedent where horses that are only 50, 75, 100 lbs. under ideal weight (which can happen during any common colic episode) should be seized and the owner jailed?

There are more factors to consider, more than one way to look at a story.

Woman Sentenced for Animal Cruelty
K Thornburgh | Jul 11, 2008

A Calhan woman has been sentenced for 24 counts of aggravated cruelty to animals.

Gina Johnston will serve five years of supervised probation, and six months in county jail followed by three months of in-home detention.

Johnston, who has a previous Cruelty to Animals conviction in 2004, was found guilty of not providing enough food and water for 19 horses in July of 2006, and six horses in June, 2007. The horses ranged from 50 to 175 pounds underweight. Several of the horses also suffered from lack of dental, hoof and grooming care.

In addition to her probation and jail-time, Johnston has to pay a $1,000 fine, take anger management classes, and individual counseling. Further, she cannot own an animal that weighs more than 150 pounds.

Comments

Posted by lasttrueheart01 on Jul 11, 2008
Although some may think this is her just reward for something they may think happened, all the facts aren't there. As far as people only getting a slap on the hand, take a drive down to Calhan Road South and look and the VERY thin horses there. The sheriffs office goes and talks to the man but nothing else. Or the abandoned horse that has been there for almost a year. People who live on or near that road throw hay to that horse and take him water. Officers say they can do no more then go talk to the man. Theres a slap in the hand.

Posted by anon on Jul 13, 2008
They shouldnt give her any food or water while she is in jail! Pig! Mark my words, she'll do this again.

Posted by Sean on Jul 15, 2008
This is becoming more and more of a bad argument that is subjected to many other opinions. Animal rights activists perceive mistreatment differently than others which leads to hasty decisions and some ambiguity. This lady; from what has been presented no doubts falls into the category of mistreatment and deserves the punishment set forth by the law. But, I have also been scalded by ‘yuppies’ for letting my dog drink out of a creek and not providing the proper “brand name” drinking water. I shoe and trim my own horses but am not certified, I don’t feed them certified hay, and I am not a ‘yuppie’ certified horse trainer looking for weekend work. However, people who do not think animals should be used for anything outside of pets and that they should be pampered with dog hotels and horse whispering and psychics really needs to get a grip. The problem is not what she has done as it is a crime—enforcing the law created by the people and designed without use of emotion.

Posted by Steve on Jul 15, 2008
I agree Sean. Urban sprawl and too many from California and Texas with big city mentality.

Horses will continue to be underfed in this economy, with the horse market in dire straights and owners finding themselves barely able to feed their human families yet unable to sell livestock or afford to feed them.

High cost of hay, grain affects all horses

Hard times nip at horse owners, too [link]

JENN WIANT | July 9, 2008

The increasing costs of food and fuel are forcing McHenry County residents to cut back on extraneous expenses to make ends meet. For Christy Bourbonnais of Harvard, rising food costs also are affecting her business.

Bourbonnais owns Cripple Creek Ranch at 23215 Graf Road, where she gives riding lessons, boards and trains horses, and prepares to show some of her own 10 horses.

But feeding the animals is becoming more difficult all of the time.

A bale of hay, enough to feed a large horse for a day, cost $1.50 or $2 a couple of years ago, said Jennifer Finkelman, co-founder of Destination: Safe Haven Horse Rescue in Marengo.

Now a bale can cost between $4 and $6, she said.

With the increase in fuel costs directly affecting the cost of hay, early season rains putting off the first hay cutting, and more farmers choosing to grow corn for ethanol instead of hay, the cost of horse feed has increased dramatically. As a result, more horse owners are resorting to selling their horses, giving them to rescue shelters, or abandoning them.

Donna Ewing, founder of Hooved Animal Rescue and Protection Society, or HARPS, in Barrington Hills, said she has had to turn away dozens of horse owners who have asked her to take their horses because they no longer can afford to keep them.

“I’m getting calls from Iowa, Wisconsin, where whole herds are starving,” Ewing said. “Our pastures our overloaded; our stalls are filled.”

Nationally, the Bureau of Land Management is considering euthanizing some of the wild horses that it cannot adopt out or afford to feed, BLM spokeswoman Karen Roberts said.

The BLM estimates that about 33,000 wild horses and burros roam their managed rangelands in 10 Western states, about 5,700 more than they believe the land can support. They remove thousands of horses and burros from the lands each year to keep the population in check, but with costs to feed the animals increasing and the number of adoptions declining, they are now considering other measures, Roberts said.

Ewing said the most humane option for many of the horses that could not be adopted was to euthanize them. But even that can cost about $400, she said, so the horses instead are abandoned or sold to someone who will transport them to Canada or Mexico to have them slaughtered. The last slaughterhouse in the United States, in DeKalb, closed in September.

Edeltraud Crabb of the Hooved Animal Humane Society in Woodstock said she would prefer that the BLM neuter the horses and release them.

Bourbonnais said she had decided to sell two of the horses she used to give lessons for financial reasons. She said she also might sell two ponies that she couldn’t afford to feed and train, even though they would be worth more if they were trained.

Older horses and very young horses are the most difficult to adopt out, Ewing said. The older horses require a more expensive feed, and the younger horses have to be trained, she explained.

“Not many people are willing to take them on as just a companion horse because of the economy and because of the horrific cost of feed,” she said.

For those owners who cannot afford to keep their horses, she asks them to be proactive rather than selling them for slaughter or abandoning them.

“If these animals have served them well, they’re going to have to pay to put them down or go to all their friends who can afford them and beg them to take them until things get better,” she said.

XP—When rescues are full and euthanasia is not affordable, what other options are available?

American horses in Mexico face grim end

Weak horses sent to Mexico to be slaughtered [link]

JESSICA MEYERS | July 6, 2008

MESQUITE – The traders at Dallas County's half-filled horse auction knew the fate of their scrawny thoroughbreds even before they herded them into the ring.

And it wasn't to go back to the ranch.

At least half of the horses for auction at the Dallas County Horse Sales last month were likely to end up in Mexico, where money can still be made off horse slaughter. About 25,000 horses have been shipped to Mexico for slaughter this year.

The ones with visible backbones and skin stretched over their ribs – at least half of the 36 horses for sale – would probably end up in Mexico, where money can still be made off horse slaughter.

Texas horse traders say it's the best solution to the combined wallop of forced American slaughterhouse closures last year and one of the worst horse markets in history.

"We don't have anywhere to move them, and they're starving to death," said Steven Oden, a horse trader from Terrell whose prize horses once sold for $8,000 but now go for $800.

Breeders, ranchers and cowboys are struggling to continue a livelihood that extends generations. The closure of the kill plants coupled with the rising price of hay and fuel means rising numbers of horses with dwindling funds to care for them. Horse owners say they're left with little option but to sell their horses to a "killer buyer," or trader who buys the horses at a reduced price and takes them to Mexico for slaughter.

"It's a creed among Texan traders: We know we have to do it; we just don't say," Mr. Oden said.

About 25,000 horses have been shipped to Mexico for slaughter this year, 10,000 more than this time last year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The number of horses sent from Texas has doubled during the same period and makes up the majority of the shipments.

"Killer buyers" purchase weak horses cheaply and transport them across the border, a process that has become more clandestine but also more popular since Congress banned the slaughter of horses for human consumption in 2007.

The number of horses crossing the border has grown six times since then.

Stray horses

Before the ban, up to 100,000 horses were slaughtered annually. Much of the meat went overseas to countries like France and Japan where horse appears on menus as a delicacy.

The bill forced two Texas factories – in Fort Worth and Kaufman – to close and left horse activists worried about a glut in abandoned horses. Some states, such as Colorado and Kentucky, have seen more stray horses in national parks and on private ranches.

But that didn't happen in Texas, where shipments to Mexico are easy.

"Unlike the stories elsewhere, we're actually not seeing wandering horses all over the place," said Jerry Finch, president of Habitat for Horses, the largest equine rescue organization in the region. He said the number of abused or abandoned horses in the state is down slightly this year, although the Houston-based operation averages 380 rescues a year.

But Texas could see more stray horses if Congress passes a proposed bill to ban the sale of unwanted horses to Mexico and Canada. No date has been set for a vote.

Still, advocates haven't stopped their fight to extend the ban. That includes Texas oilman and rancher T. Boone Pickens and his wife, Madeleine, who lassoed enough support to propel the first ban on slaughtering horses for human consumption.

"We'll try to figure out how to get this stopped," the Dallas billionaire said about the shipments to Mexico. Economic difficulties are no excuse, he said.

"It's a killing job, and that's not much of a deal as far as I'm concerned."

Barbara Linke of the American Quarter Horse Association, which advocates humane slaughter over starvation, said she fears an extended ban could bring about more neglect.

"I think we are going to see a lot more cases of animal cruelty and a lot more horses abandoned if the bill passes," Ms. Linke said.

'Nothing will change'

Tom Lenz, a veterinarian and chairman of the Unwanted Horse Coalition, said buyers will find a way to get horses across the border even with tougher laws.

"Killer buyers will simply ship them as riding horses and then resell them for slaughter across the border," he said. "Nothing will change."

Instead, the horse industry should avoid an overabundance by learning to breed more selectively, he said. Last year, the Unwanted Horse Coalition reported 170,000 abandoned horses throughout the country.

"We need to deal more with the front end, decreasing horse production," Dr. Lenz said. Few horse owners choose euthanasia because of the expense, he said. It can cost at least $100 for a shot, and that doesn't include disposal fees.

Mr. Finch said putting horses to sleep is still more humane than slaughter, an argument shared by many animal rights activists.

"We don't slaughter and eat our dogs," he said. "A lot of people think horses are just livestock. They aren't."

But that doesn't help people like Ed Vance, who survives on horse sales. The owner of Dallas County Horse Sales in Mesquite said his sales are running just about half what they were a year ago, dropping to an average of $300 a horse.

"It's the worst I've ever seen," he said, looking at a sickly mare waiting for auction. The price of feed has doubled, and rising transportation costs are keeping some sellers away.

It's a simple case of supply and demand, he said. Right now, the main buyers are from Mexico.

But Mr. Vance says he has made the least amount in annual commission since the slaughterhouses closed.

"Now I've got a lot of poor horses with no market for them here," he said.

XP—No shortage of these articles, folks.

Abandoned horses on the rise

Costs may result in abandoned horses [link]

MATT FARLEY | July 5, 2008

The sagging economy and lingering effects of the Fernley flood have increased drastically the cost of keeping livestock, leaving some local horse owners with tough choices.

"It's not just the cost of feed and supplies," said Willis Lamm, president of the nonprofit horse rescue Least Resistance Training Concepts. "It's the rising cost of everything in people's lives."

Nearly every aspect of horse ownership become more expensive in recent months, Lamm said. Costs for the rescue agency that houses about 15 wild or homeless horses in its Stagecoach facility have jumped hundreds of dollars to at least $1,500 a horse.

"It's not so dramatic that it keeps everyone from owning a horse, but for some people, it's very serious," Lamm said. "We're constantly finding people who want to get horses placed or to sell them at a loss just to get rid of the expense."

According to the American Horse Council, of the 9 million domestic horses in the United States, nearly 4 million are for recreational riding.

And, while horse racing is the sport of kings, 34 percent of horse owners have a household income of $50,000 or less a year.

The price of hay, chief among owners' expenses, has doubled, said Cyndy Oxley, manager of Green's Feed in Reno. A ton of alfalfa-and-grass feed that last summer cost about $150 might now bring $250 to $300, she said.

Record oil prices are responsible for driving up the cost of harvesting and transporting crops, but the issue is more complex, Oxley said.

"Petroleum-based fertilizer has almost quadrupled," she said. "The twine they use to tie bales is way up.

"They use oil to make tires for the tractors in the alfalfa fields, so those are more expensive. And if you have any kind of a breakdown, the cost of repairs is up. It was bad enough last year, and this year is worse."

Further complicating matters is reduced flow in Fernley's new irrigation canal, which replaced the ditch breached in January.

Because hay fields in Fernley, Yerington and Fallon share many of the same waterways, recent decisions to run less water through the replacement canal has reduced production significantly, said Sara Mercer, owner of the Hoggsmart feed store in Palomino Valley.

"More and more growers are selling their land to (home) developers, and the rest are short on water," said Mercer, who raises cattle, pigs and sheep. "(Local) hay gets expensive. Last year, (Hoggsmart) had to buy hay from a place in Idaho just to save money."

Horse market flooded

Karen Givani of Spanish Springs posted a sign on her front gate Thursday offering several of her animals for sale.

"It's just crazy," she said. "Last year I bred and sold four young horses without any problem. Now, I'm trying to get rid of as many (horses) as I can and I'm definitely not breeding any more."

Givani said she probably could continue to make ends meet if she sold one or two of her animals. But in the current flooded market, even that seems unlikely, she said.

"It seems like everybody is trying to sell right now," she said. "People are almost giving horses away."

Mercer said several longtime customers have contacted her about bartering for feed because they cannot pay cash. In one case, an elderly woman was forced to get a part-time job to raise money for her horses, Mercer said.

"A lot of people are selling horses far below their value just to get rid of the costs," she said. "It's a vicious cycle."

Some owners abandon their animals. In fiscal year 2007-08, Washoe County Regional Animal Services dealt with 33 abandoned animals, up from 15 in 2006-07. Rising costs likely played a part in the increase, Animal Services Manager Cindy Sabatoni said.

"It's no better than dumping a dog in the desert," Lamm said. "They might be OK in the spring when there's plenty of water and grass, but when the winter comes, that's it.

"They don't know how to migrate for food or how to protect themselves. It's a different social world out there for wild horses. If your little horse wanders into (wild horse) territory looking for friends, more than likely, it's going to be, 'Talk to the hoof.'"

Val, a horse living at the rescue center since being rescued from a flash flood several years ago, likely was abandoned. Rescue member Shirley Allen said Val was lame, emaciated and blind in one eye when found in a waterlogged pasture.

"Someone used and abused her and turned her out onto the range," Allen said. "It's pretty much the worst thing you can possibly do with a (domestic) horse."

Val is a surrogate mother for incoming foals. While the horse was a minor expense at the time, Allen is concerned the glut of domestic horses is making residents and sanctuaries less likely to accept more animals.

"A lot of folks are slimming down their herds and entire sanctuaries are folding up," she said. "My husband and I have been doing this for 13 years and it's by far the worst I've ever seen it."

Learn to cut costs

Experts encourage horse owners to consider making smaller changes before trying to get rid of their animals. Many owners have stopped shoeing horses and learned to administer shots and other basic veterinary procedures themselves, Givani said.

Lamm said convincing friends to split a large quantity of hay rather than buying it by the bale can mean the difference between squeaking by and losing an animal.

"You have to become smarter and more savvy about keeping your animals," he said. "If I'm careful, it costs me less per week to feed a horse than it does to take care of my wife's two guinea pigs with all their toys."

XP—Yet there is no shortage of people breeding more unwanted horses...

Value of all horses dropped with slaughterhouse closings

They Shoot Horses, Don't They? [link]

GINNY STEIN, WAYNE LOVE, ASHLEY SMITH, VICKI HANSEN | Jul 2, 2008

Animal rights activists have shut down all slaughterhouses for horses

This week, Video Journalist Ginny Stein reports on the most divisive, emotionally charged animal rights debate unfolding in the US—what to do with unwanted horses?

The horse is central to the American legend but what happens when this creature is too old or too expensive to keep?

While in Indiana, Stein surveys what's known as the 'kill pen'.

The 'kill pens' are actually in nearby Canada or Mexico, because wealthy and powerful animal rights groups have successfully shut down America's slaughterhouses.

Now these organisations say the long journey over the border is also inhumane, and they want to end the live export for slaughter trade entirely.

“We need to care for these animals because we have responsibilities. In the relationship between humans and animals we hold all the cards,” says the Humane Society’s Wayne Pacelle.

If the lobbying by animal rights organisations is successful, where will that leave the owners of unwanted horses?

TRANSCRIPT

The American legend owes a lot to the role of that four-legged creature, the horse. There's the popular image, of course, of the cowboy on the range, the native American riding the plains or those horse-drawn carriages in the early days of American cities. But what about horses when they're no longer wanted or are too old to work? That's the question currently fueling quite a debate between animal rights activists and those who sell horses for slaughter. Deep in the heart of Amish country in Indiana, here's Ginny Stein.

REPORTER: The small town of Shipshewana, Indiana, deep in horse country. Here live one of the largest communities of Amish Christians in America. Their faith requires they live a pre-industrial life without engines. Horses play an integral role in their lives. It's an echo of a time when America, before the coming of the railroad, was dependent upon the horse.
It's auction day - people are bringing their horses in from across the region. Amish head to town, always on the lookout for a good horse. The Shipshewana horse auction is one of the largest horse sales in the country. Every week, up to 200 horses pass through these stalls. Some return to the paddock, others are bought to be slaughtered.

AUSTIONEER: He's just a 5-year-old Morgan-cross gelding. He's got a lot of miles on him, but he's got a lot of style. We've got a clean Coggins test on this horse.

For many dealers here, horse slaughter is simply a business.

REPORTER: What's your view about the slaughtering of horses?

CODY, HORSE DEALER: It has to be done—I mean, we live, we die. I mean, it is just part of life. I mean over in other countries where we slaughter horse and send the meat to, they worship cattle. I mean we worship horses. So it is just different religions and different ways of looking at things. I don't know if it right or it's wrong but it's what has to be done. I mean what can we do with them? Nothing. We can't do anything with the horses when they are done and old and over with.

Keith Lambright is both a farmer and a second-generation livestock auctioneer. He can barely contain his anger at animal rights activists who oppose horse slaughter, saying emotion has got in the way of common sense.

KEITH LAMBRIGHT, FARMER: Well I think there is a lot of emotion running high among these animal activists. The reality—it's here and they're making it rough on us. They act like they are concerned about the humane part of the animals but they are not being mistreated. We are only disposing of animals that are no good no longer—they are also lame, or blind or whatever it might be, and the reality of it is that they got to go somewhere.

But the animal welfare lobby in the United States sees it very differently and it is a multimillion-dollar lobby that packs clout. It released this video as part of its campaign to shut down the live export of horses for slaughter.

WOMAN: It is inhumane from the moment they leave in transport trucks to the moment they get inside those slaughter plants and are butchered for their meat for foreign diners. Thankfully all of the domestic horse slaughter plants are currently shut down but a lot of horses are still going to Mexico and Canada for slaughter.

In this country there are more than 10,000 registered charities devoted to protecting animals. The Humane Society of the United States is the largest. Wayne Pacelle is president and chief executive officer.

WAYNE PACELLE, CEO, HUMANE SOCIETY OF THE US: We had last year we had revenues of about $130 million and the year prior, $145 million. So we're probably double the size of our next largest animal protection organization in the United States.

In the face of pressure from animal rights groups last year, courts upheld state laws banning the slaughter of horses in Texas and Illinois. The last three slaughterhouses were closed.

PACELLE: There are sometimes too many dogs and cats. We don't ship them to a slaughterhouse and export the meat. We need to care for these animals because we have responsibilities. In the relationship between humans and animals we hold all the cards. We have all the power. We should use that power responsibly and treat animals decently because they matter. Because they suffer.

At the horse auction there is no pretence about what happens to those horses that end up here. This is the kill pen.

REPORTER: How many horses are you selling today?

AUDIE STOKES: Five.

REPORTER: Why?

STOKES: Can't afford to feed them. The price of grain is too high to keep all of them, so.

Audie Stokes hopes they'll be bought to be ridden, but he's a horse dealer and one way or another, he says, they must be sold.

REPORTER: If that didn't happen and they ended up being sold for kill would that worry you?

STOKES: No. I mean they are down on all these slaughterhouses and stuff but I don't think they have a clue about what it's like to keep a horse and everything like that so I don't think they know what they are doing. I think all they want to do is just say it is inhumane when it is really not. Most of the city people don't have a clue what's going on. They don't have a clue. They don't have a clue.

At the heart of this debate is how a horse is valued. Whether it is farm animal or a companion. Amish farmers who can't speak on camera for religious reasons, but spoke to me off camera, are opposed to the ban. Keith Lambright explains.

KEITH LAMBRIGHT: For our vehicles, it is a horse for them. For our tractors it is a horse for them. When they are salvaging a horse they are slaughtering, it is no different to us getting rid of a used car. Whether we haul it to the junkyard or we trade it in on another new one and somebody else buys it. We get something for it. They have been hit hard that way and probably have lost 70% of its value, of their trade-in you might say, on their farm vehicle or piece of farm equipment.

While there is a greater acceptance in rural communities about killing horses for their meat, not all find it so easy to accept. Kurt Meyer and his girlfriend are not completely opposed to slaughtering horses but they believe the good ones should be saved. Two of the five they own come from the kill pen.

KURT MEYER: Sad, can't believe a lot of them go through the kill pen when some of them are good horses.

REPORTER: If you had the money would you buy?

MEYER: Yeah, I've seen some go through here I would like to buy.

Since the closure of the slaughterhouses the price of horses considered to be at the low end of the market—either too old, or too thin—has dropped.

REPORTER: Give me an idea on price, what you could get and what you get now?

MAN: At one time you could get a thousand dollars for them and how you are getting, $300 and $400 and $500. Over abundance. No place to go.

REPORTER: You're upset by the ban on the slaughtering of horses?

MAN: Absolutely. I'd rather see them slaughtered than starved.

REPORTER: And that's what's happening?

MAN: Absolutely.

On the auction floor, kill buyers, as they're called, choose carefully. The price for a pound of flesh has halved since local slaughterhouses were shut down. But while they've closed in the US, the trade continues across the border to slaughterhouses in both Canada and Mexico, meaning horses now face days of gruelling travel to meet their end. What used to be a short journey can now be more than 2,000km away. Dale Haley is a kill buyer. He reluctantly agrees to speak with me.

DALE HALEY, KILL BUYER: Well they got to go—we went 300 miles before, now you go 1,400.

REPORTER: How do you work out the journey?

HALEY: You don't. The expenses are getting so high, it's just going to completely shut the whole market down.

REPORTER: Where do you take them?

HALEY: To the slaughterhouse? Saskatchewan, Canada. It's 1,400 miles.

REPORTER: When you do the maths on making it, on working it out - you have to buy a horse, you have to transport it, you've got to get an end sale result. Is it making money?

HALEY: Uh-huh. But the margin of profit is getting smaller and smaller and smaller, to the point where it's about ready to just say no, forget it.

REPORTER: So what happens then?

HALEY: Then these horses have no place to go. There will be no market for them. None. No place.

Keith Lambright accuses the Humane Society of failing to think through the ramifications of closing down local slaughterhouses. It's become a bitter issue.

KEITH LAMBRIGHT: I don't think they care what the end result is and I don't think they ever thought about it and now if they look at reality they are being more cruel to the animals than what we were before.

The Humane Society's response has been to blame the agricultural lobby for refusing to back its ban on the transportation of animals for live export.

WAYNE PACELLE: The only impediment to passing this legislation in the United States Congress to ban the live export of horses to Mexico are the very agriculture groups that are criticising us for stopping the activities in the States. If they joined with us in simply banning the export we could pass this legislation tomorrow. So they are hypocrites.

KEITH LAMBRIGHT: So it has really hurt the horse market as a whole and devaluated horses. There are horses that were worth $100-$150 to be rid of them, now they are worth zero because the freight is that much.

As lobbyists argue, it may be the rising costs of fuel that puts an end to the transportation, but already there are reports of an increase in horses being released to fend for themselves, and animal refuges struggling to cope with abandoned animals.

XP—This is the sad reality of the ban. One can not simply drop a horse off at the county "shelter" or at the end of a dirt road like some do with cats and dogs ... what do you do with a horse that NO ONE wants? Euthanasia and disposal costs can exceed $500 ... someone with not enough money to buy hay cannot absorb that kind of expense.

Supreme Court = Fail.

Court Rejects Appeal to Illinois Horse Slaughter Ban [link]

Associated Press | June 16 2008

The Supreme Court has declined an appeal from the owners of a horse slaughtering plant who challenged an Illinois law prohibiting the killing of horses for human consumption.

Cavel International Inc. closed its plant in DeKalb, Ill., last year after a federal appeals court upheld the ban. The company urged the justices to step in to allow the facility to reopen. The court did not comment on its order Monday.

The plant was the last horse slaughterhouse in the United States. About 40,000 to 60,000 horses were processed there annually, and most of the meat was shipped to be eaten by diners overseas.

Two other U.S. plants, both in Texas, also closed in 2007.

The case is Cavel International, Inc., v. Madigan, 07-962.


XP—I'd like to know why. Why is it illegal to kill a horse for human consumption? How long before focus is turned on other species that are commonly consumed around the world? Why does the U.S. feel it must legislate against a cultural choice?

Put HSUS millions to good use.

Horse slaughter ban causing problems, some owners say [link]

Carol Barrett | June 11, 2008

STERLING — While at the Washington, D.C., fly-in, the Livestock Marketing Association group met with the chair of the House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee, Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., to discuss the recent horse slaughter ban.

DeLauro’s subcommittee voted to end federal funding for the slaughter plant inspections, which meant U.S. plants could not stay open.

“We told the lawmakers that horse owners want and need a legitimate, practical and humane way to dispose of their horses that have come to the end of their useful life, but still have value as a slaughter animal,” he said.

Now that they do not have this option for disposing of horses they can no longer keep, many horse owners are taking desperate measures. With the current high price of hay and other feed, some horses are simply abandoned.

Some are left at auction markets or allowed to starve. Others are illegally released with wild horse herds on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) grassland. Many of these lands are already stocked to capacity, so horses are routinely rounded up and taken off the land.

In February, LMA filed an “amicus curiae” (friend of the court) brief with the U.S. Supreme Court, asking it to overturn an Illinois law that closed the last U.S. plant, Caval, as well as the federal appeals court decision upholding that law.

“(Government officials) are now starting to see the consequences of this,” Santomaso said. “I don’t think they really saw what was going to happen.”

The Humane Society of the U.S. (not the more familiar American Humane Society) was instrumental in pressing for the horse slaughter ban and takes credit for it. HSUS is a political activist group. It operates no animal shelters and does not perform animal rescues of any kind.

“When you look at the millions they have in their budget, I would question their real concern for animals,” Santomaso said.


XP—Good point. Let the millions in HSUS coffers buy these unwanted horses.