It's Raining Cats and...............Horses?

Lately, every time I pick up a horse publication, listen to horse or animal talk radio, read blogs and chat room verbal wrestling matches, I hear the same stories over and over:  Horses are being abandoned by the thousands due to a horse market that is bulging at the seams with unwanted horses and no way to deal with the overload since we no longer have slaughter. 

 

Help…its raining horses.

 

Nonsense!

 

During the hay day (no pun intended) of equine slaughter in the late 80’s to early 2001, over 300,000 horses were processed yearly.  There were also only a handful of active equine rescue and sanctuary organizations trying to bring to light what really happens to ole dobbin when he is sent to the local auction. 

 

By the late 90’s not only had Prop 6, the anti-horse slaughter legislation passed in California, but the demand for horsemeat and the number of operating slaughter plants in the US was also declining.   So the number of horses processed went from the mid to high 300,000 to approximately 70,000 which spared, conservatively, three million horses from ending up on a dinner plate in France.

 

So, what, pray tell, happened to the three million horses?  Were they running wild in the streets?  Were they abandoned or turned out on the range with wild horses?  Were they left to rot and starve in someone’s back yard?  Were their bodies piling up in landfills?  The answer is no to all.   What the AVMA, the AAEP and numerous horse registries do not tell you is the fact the three million horses were simply absorbed and the horse market took care of itself. 

 

During that downturn in slaughter of horses no one was running around telling us the sky is falling.  There was no increase in abandoned horses. There was, however, one difference.  The slaughter industry, and by that I mean the whole funnel that shoves horses toward that end, was not trying to reassert itself on US soil.  They were still processing horses, just fewer of them.  Therefore there was no reason to manufacture the mystical urban legend that we now have being reported as fact.

 

And here is another fact the chicken little crowd are not telling you; with the decrease in demand for slaughter horses, the passing of Prop 6 in California and the Cavel plant in Illinois burning down - which eliminated over a third of the processing capability in the U.S. - the number of cases of horse abuse and neglect and theft started to decline.

 

All of this does one thing to the supposition that horse slaughter is driven by the need to dispose of unwanted horses; exposes it for the lie it is.  Slaughter is a market driven business.  When the demand for horsemeat is up, more horses are needed for slaughter.  When it is down, fewer horses are needed.  Slaughter horse buyers are not suedo animal control agents who, as John Holland put it “go around the country like dog catchers gathering ‘unwanted horses’ as a public service. 

 

So, let’s call all this erroneous information what it is….. fabricated manure…..regardless who is producing it.

 

Watch for my next op-ed piece about the term “unwanted horse”.

Comments

[George Edwards]

I could be wrong, but, I read Craigslist.org Farm & Garden all over the U.S. and see more and more low to no cost horses!

I am waiting with baited breathe for your links to prove the above point that 3 million unwanted horses were absorbed!

[George Edwards]

Oops! I just looked at your topic post date and realize there are no other people reading your blog! That is why I did not see anyone challenging your numbers.

[FRANCES BAILEY]

I WANT TO SET UP A DONAION, BUT NEED A PHONE NUMBER TO DO SO. PLEASE SEND ME ONE.

[Suzanne Moore]

George ~ You're seeing a lot of people having to give up their horses because of the ECONOMY. The same thing is happening to other pets as well. Shelters are brimming with dogs and cats. Still, I don't see anyone advocating we start slaughtering dogs and cats for "their own good."

Let me ask you one question: If slaughter is the answer, why hasn't it worked? The "slaughter option" as they love to call it was never gone for ONE moment. We have always sent thousands of horses to Canada and Mexico for slaughter and we still are. The kill buyers for those plants were ready willing and plenty able to pick up the slack. Anyone who wants to send their horse to slaughter can just go on down to the local auction, and poof! The unfortunate horse is on a one way trip to Hell.

Also, the 3 million horses that are referenced in the post were horses that were slaughtered in the 80s and 90s before the demand declined by that amount. Those horses were absorbed in the late 90s and early 20s. You need to read more closely.

See, I owned horses and lived in Dallas, TX during that time, and believe you me, I KNOW what was happening. Horse theft was epidemic. NO horse was safe and we owners were terrified and furious. Have you ever been inside a horse slaughter house? I have. Trying to help my friends find their stolen horses before it was too late. Dallas Crown was in Kaufman and Beltex was in Ft. Worth. This period was worse than the worst nightmare you could possibly have. The cruelty is beyond belief.

Besides all that, we now know that, because horses are not food animals in the US, they are routinely exposed to substances that are strictly banned from the human food chain. and plainly say so on the labels. Almost every thing we put on or in our horses states: Not for use in horses intended for food. It is ILLEGAL to sell these horses for human consumption, but naturally, the kill buyers are not playing by the rules.

Canada has a bill in Parliament now to ban the slaughter of horses in that country precisely because of the problem of drug residues in American horses which comprise 90% of the horses presented for slaughter there. They feel they can't take responsibility for a product they can't guarantee is safe to eat.

The problem is the big breed registries like the AQHA, Jockey Club, etc. They want to be able to breed thousands of horses out of which they might keep two or three and send the rest to slaughter. This is what they do, and it's why they are pro-slaughter. They want to be able to rid themselves of their thousands of culls and get paid for it! Nice work if you can get it, right? That is if you have absolutely NO heart or scruples.

The numbers are correct. You want statistics? https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=1TNIZ-waCIXd8-9MN_QGsgA7EetjCKZpcRJ8Dmvh50oWMPYaKyB8lprMko4yX&sort=name&layout=list&num=50

[Joyce Breeding]

"Look back at our struggle for freedom; trace our present days strength to its source. And you will find man's pathway to glory is strewn with the bones of the horse." Author Unknown - (unfortunately)

This reminder needs to be stuffed down the throat of each and every greedy spineless coward responsible for the sick and inexcuseable slaughter of the magnificent horse. Without the horse..what a hopeless history.