Economy puts horses in peril [link]
Elissa Harrington | Sep 18, 2008
JUNCTION CITY, Ore. - The horse industry has hit a low. Experts say horses are just too expensive to keep and supply exceeds demand.
"There's 9.2 million horses in the United States," says Bruce Anderson of the Eugene Livestock Auction. "The problem is there's not 9.2 million people who want them."
More horses than ever are being sold, auctioned for as cheap as $20, malnourished, and even abandoned.
"They're finding dead carcasses with shoes on which means it's people abandoning horses," says Anderson. "I guess people feel good sending them back to the wild. That's probably the saddest part. They think they're saving themselves money and doing something good for the horse by turning it loose but it's probably a far crueler demise for a horse than anything I've ever heard of."
So just how did it get this bad? Experts I talked to say three main reasons.
One, the price of fertilizer and hay have skyrocketed. Feed prices have doubled and it now costs around 100 dollars a month to feed just one horse.
Two, record high fuel prices. This affects farmers who grow the feed as well as horse owners who haul the animals to rodeos and shows. "It costs a lot of money to cone from Washington, Idaho, and California," says Dewey Hofar of H & E Feed in West Eugene. "So the numbers at shows are dwindling."
Three, the recent ban on U.S. horse slaughter. Explains Hofar, "If you have an older horse you have nothing you can do with it. Now you're flooding the market with horses."
So what's being done? There are some local horse rescue agencies but Anderson and Hofar tell me, unless the economy drastically improves, the future of these animals could be in jeopardy.
People agree on one and two. The emotion reaction to three keeps horses in danger of a slow, lingering death by neglect and malnutrition.
By the way, there is no federal ban on horse slaughter, however, a ban on transporting a horse to slaughter could effectively end that option.
1 comment:
The fact is although there are many horse rescue agencies, the fact is that they do not initiate to meet the needs of the huge number of unwanted horses. A survey says that, basic care for one horse is around $1,500 to $2,000 per annum.
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