Horse Slaughter facilities continued

[beefy]

it must be diffrent where i am at in utah. they have a horse and burro auction and adoption 10 miles from my location and out of 42 horses only 7 got an opening bid of $125. the rest were loaded back up and sent to the the taxpayers feedlot .        <cowboy>

 

[knabe]

every social welfare government program is mostly run the same way.

 

[bart22]

What i don't get is people saying horses are slaughtered INHUMANELY,they are slaughtered exactly the same way cattle are killed,no one I love cattle!es about the way cattle are slaughtered.It is sad to see hoses slaughtered but if you don't we will have so many USELESS animals wandering around and competing for food,and i think that is INHUMANE.

This is what scares me about this issue. If PETA and animal rights actavists had the power to get the slaughter of horses stopped in most places and our elected officials are dumb enough to go along with it, then how long until they try to stop the slaughter of all livestock? Even with all of the negatives this horse thing has brought out (wasted tax payer money, wasted land, ect.) our legislators and most of the public are still in favor of this program. This stuff worries me.     

 

[lowann]

every social welfare government program is mostly run the same way.

You are right about that. Our government sure knows how to spend, spend, spend, and nothing in return!!!

 

[knabe]

http://theweek.com/article/index/210749/time-to-start-slaughtering-horses

hmmm

 

[herfluvr]

Pull up a chair cattle people.  This is a horse girl.  Have had them close to half a century and I am FOR the HUMANE REGULATED slaughter in this country.  Here is why:

I do not wish for any animal to have to travel  in tight quarters to be slaughtered for too long a distance.  Right now, it is not uncommon for these horses to travel up to 20 hours with no stops to get north or south of this country to get to what might or might not be a humane quick ending. 
We need at least 4 slaughterhouses across this nation so we can eliminate this argument.
Horse meat is eaten in more countries than we know.  If it is valuable the dumbass government should see through humane treatment and slaughter there is profit to be made here.  I know...government??profit???  Hard to put those two words together

If people are worried about stealing, we are so technically advanced why not put a chip in their horse.  Trackable should they end up by mistake at a facility and an alert has come up for that horse, it can be returned.  You could even track this horse through it's lifetime of owners, vets, sales.  Duh!  You want a saleable product that you can charge a premium for, then be able to show where it came from.

Here is a hairy one.  Drugs.  You cattle people think you use drugs?  My cattle friends ask me what we are using for soundness issues and to keep them calm.  Hm mm, I wouldn't eat a show horse if I was near death cause it is probably gonna kill me.  No, they don't all do it but I wouldn't take the chance.  Bite, ace, the heart drug they use to keep them slow, insulin...get the picture?

As for the BLM.  It is a GOVERMENT RUN AGENCY!  Enough said

I am for preserving the wild horse in a venue that all can live with.  I DO NOT believe any person tr yin to make an honest living on THEIR land should have to put up with any nuisance animal.  Wild horse included.

Now we have to consider the drug companies that harvest pregnant mare urine to make Premarin.  These mares stand in tie stalls for their pregnancy and are hooked up to a bag that collects the urine.  The colts are then either killed or sold.  Talk about creating a a product from the misery and probably death of animals!  For you ladies out there that must have the natural hormone in your replacement therapy, it really sucks that it has to come from this method.  These colts are pretty much worthless.  So how does the government going to handle this?  For those that don't want the BLM horses run to death, what do you do with a company that the byproduct of their business is a junk foal?  That foal is "dead"before it even is born.  The mare is re bred on foal heat-9 days after foaling- so she can return to the line.

And who votes on this?  The people we have in government that most live in the most populated states on the east and west coasts who I bet have never had an ounce of shit on their designer shoes.  You guys in between don't have enough people to garner the votes in Washington to make a difference.  How fair is that? 

To the beef growers, horses helped start this industry back in the early days and continue to move cattle in many places.  Horses DO help you and probably always will have a place on a working cattle ranch. 

As for PETA and HSUS, you bet they will be looking at the next industry to meddle in.  They have succeeded in the veal barns.  Chicken ranchers have long been a target.  So  get ready.  If we don't all take a proactive stance to them, their deep pockets can and will make a huge difference in the profits of the beef farmer.  By shutting down the slaughter houses in the US we horse people have nothing to base the bottom of our industry on.  Go check out your local sale barn, you can bring a horse home for nothing.

So open a well run slaughterhouse in 4 areas of the US.  We need them.  There is no place to sent the rogue horse.  There is no alternative for the person who cannot feed or care for the animal.  Neglect of any animal is never the way to go.  And yes, there are horses being slaughtered for their meat illegally.  It is not urban legend.  Horses dropped at state parks.  True.  Trailers are now checked for the number going in and the number going out in the trailer. 

So this horse girl and pretty much all the people I know are FOR the slaughter of horses.  I am FOR the regulation of breeding.  Mares and Studs should earn the right to be bred and the associations should be aware that foal numbers don't mean they are breeding the best for the future.

Joan

 

[firesweepranch]

Pull up a chair cattle people.  This is a horse girl.  Have had them close to half a century and I am FOR the HUMANE REGULATED slaughter in this country.  Here is why:

Joan

I TOTALLY agree Joan! Well said. We have owned and shown horses for 40 years, and it KILLED the horse market when the slaughter facilities closed down. Now, you can not take your horse to an auction without having to pay money to get rid of them. You can not GIVE them away, these are the "average" horses that don't quiet make it in the big show industry, but are better than the nags and lame psycho ones that are out there. If someone else wants to eat horse meat, I am all for it! Make money, instead of losing it!
Well said, well said!

Kris

 

[jaimiediamond]

I have been PRO horse slaughter since I was 12.  Every young girl has a moment where they want to make that difference and mine was when I  bought the two fillies at an auction for the grand total of $500.  At this sale I learnt a few hard lessons about life, this person had bred these horses (10 stallions running with a band of 500 mares) these horses weren't fed or looked after in any respect.  The fillies I bought were sold as 3 year olds but turned out to be a yearling and probably a 2 year old. After the sale one of my fillies (assumed 2 year old) had literally ripped her side open exposing 7 ribs and parts of the abdominal wall, no vet could get near this filly to euthanize her so our next best option was to take her to the slaughter house for what is deemed a mercy kill as per veterinary recommendation.

While at the plant I was looking through the feed lot pens for a animal to replace the filly I hadn't been able to save, and out of the 1000s of horses I saw that day I didn't see one horse that was salvageable.  There were broken thoroughbreds, standardbreds, ancient horses of various breed types, horses of dubious natural soundness, and of course the crazies.  I also couldn't help but notice that they weren't crowded in their pens had free choice feed and water, so really not as bad a end as some of the alternatives.

Another important point for Canada is recently our PMU barns became illegal, leaving a surplus of mares on the market, not to mention that in Alberta our race track was closed and the one that was supposed to open was delayed by now 5 years (it still isn't finished) on top of the rising prices of hay due to poor crops. If there wasn't slaughter that would leave a lot of unwanted  horses in bad situations such as starving or being abandoned. 

 

[PaFFA Proud]

I agree too with Joan <beer> imo wild horses are like deer....they run through fences, raise insurance on cars, damage hard worked fields. Not too many people complain about deer hunting...but when you mention horse slaughter everyone freaks. Most of these wild horses are too crazy to work with and dangerous to have around. Its not just wild horses as pointed out earlier...thank the show industry, people over work these horses, push them too hard, breed irresponsibly, and buy without thinking. Our local auction has gotten soo bad no one is buyiing because most of the horses are so screwed up mentally or physically. I bought one pony that was dead broke for kids only to get her home and later that night was tearing our barn apart..the next month she was back due to bending a stock gate all the way down and about landed on my 1 yr old daughter...i was ticked to get $25 off of her but was glad to have her out. Also with our sale barn is being called horse mourge there are horses coming in sick and and close to dying because people are more than willing to pay a little fee then to pay a vet to put them down and then to dispose of the body...people are struggling to make ends meet and putting down a horse and disposing is out of the question. Also the race horse industry is killing"average horse" prices by breeding too much, but thats a whole story its self. Also IMO american horses need to be chipped or freeze branded like in other countries like england to make sure of ownership and numbers in a state and country. I used to be big into horses but there is just no money in it, I am a responsible horse owner..ive never bred my mares, over worked them, they have always have had vet and farrier care. For my 2 show horses..ive found permenant homes at PSU equestrian team and my mare I have now is 22 years young and is in excellent health that i have had since she was 10...so I am a example of what many other people that own horses need to be..commitment is a must with horses...not just cause you loose one show you sell it right away! 8)

 

[knabe]

horse slaughter update

http://reason.com/archives/2013/05/11/the-case-for-legalizing-horse-meat

there are over 1 million abortions each year and the left hates any attempt at regulation on that but continues to complain about horse slaughter.

way to be consistent.  i guess the line to draw is that its ok to kill human life by the millions, but not horses.

amazing how both the left and the right hate regulation of any kind on specific issues but can't seem to understand that minimal regulation is the key to the velocity of money and increased opportunity for all segments of the economy. 

 

[Sterling Cattle]

We live in the middle of cutting horse country. Also many families have a horse or 2 and simply can't afford to feed them. Horse hay $100 a roll and the price of steam rolled crimped oats. Horses are dumped out on back roads and become the burden of the county to feed and auction off for cheap. The thing to remember is rendering houses would make the price of the average horse more valuable because of the increased price of salvage value. That would make horses more valuable.

 

[RyanChandler]

The value aspect shouldn't even be a consideration in the debate.  All opening these plants does is provide a fascilitator for these horse mills to keep pumping foals out in hopes of breeding that great one with no recourse or repercussion for the disposable mindset that afflicts these people. 

 

[chambero]

If horse slaughter were legal, I'm not sure what the difference between a horse mill and a commercial cattle operation would be.

I honestly have less problem with the typical tree-hugger/PETA member than I do the "horse lover".  I don't get the logic why its ok to ship large numbers of cattle/pigs/etc in a truck to get slaughtered but its not horses?  The answer is because of movies, etc.

In my business (environmental and engineering), I once personally helped the Army analyze the pros/cons of various methods to remove a couple of thousand feral horses (yes - they are feral - not wild- per court decision) in the southeastern US.  As you might guess, horses running around firing ranges, concertina wire isn't the healthiest environment for them or soldiers that frequently drive around at night withough lights on or parachute in at night into the middle of drop zone where about 100 of these things might be sleeping (picture that chaos).  This particular herd also has a very high incidence of equine infectious anemia.  We knew better than to even start to propose selling them for slaughter.  The end result of this study is a document called an Environmental Assessment (a kind of environmental impact statement).  I have written these documents for projects that affect endangered species, reroute rivers, take private land, etc and none of them have ever generated the uproar that the proposed removal and adoption of these poor little horses did - from people all over the world that didn't know they existed till someone put up our document on a message board.  Needless to say the horses are still there.

We have a friend who helps us out a lot with odd jobs.  Over 10 years ago, we helped him out by agreeing to let him keep his teenage son's horse at our cow lot when the place he used to keep it at got sold.  The son - who is off at college - hasn't laid eyes on that horse in about 5-6 years.  The mother - who probably hasn't laid eyes on the horse since he showed up at our place - won't let the dad get rid of him because it reminds her of her son.  Dad doesn't want to rock the boat - we don't want to hack the dad off by making him move it because he does help us a lot - SO we have fed this **** thing for 10 years now that nobody has ridden in at least 8 years.  The "idea" of the horse in our culture is one of the stupidest things there is.  99% of them aren't worth anything but meat.

That feels better.  We run about 300 head of cows and they have never laid eyes on a horse.

 

[firesweepranch]

The value aspect shouldn't even be a consideration in the debate.  All opening these plants does is provide a fascilitator for these horse mills to keep pumping foals out in hopes of breeding that great one with no recourse or repercussion for the disposable mindset that afflicts these people.

And the problem with this is what? Do we not do that in the cattle industry? Horses are, in the end, just meat. Grow them out and sell them for slaughter just like we do cattle, I see nothing wrong with that! I own 4 myself, and bred them for years when I was younger. I am all for slaughtering horses for meat.

 

[Sassy2899]

The value aspect shouldn't even be a consideration in the debate.  All opening these plants does is provide a fascilitator for these horse mills to keep pumping foals out in hopes of breeding that great one with no recourse or repercussion for the disposable mindset that afflicts these people. 

  Does this not happen today?  Yes it does and what happens to those horses?  They end up becoming the wild horses that the BLM "takes care of."  This situation is always going to be there.  Everyone wants to hit it big and this is just the out come.  I think  you are a wrong on this one.  Horses are a market just like cattle, sheep, pigs, etc.  They create income for people, whether its raising them for sport or pleasure.  I think with a matter like this emotion needs to be set aside.  Instead, horse slaughter should be looked at as another way of thinning the dinks and creating a more diverse culture and as well as keeping the population under control.  If this was on the other foot, we would see numerous amounts of cattle and would have the same problems.  this is JMO, knock it if you want, tell me that I am wrong, but if you set aside your emotions and think about it....i think I bring to the table some just cause. 

 

[RyanChandler]

The value aspect shouldn't even be a consideration in the debate.  All opening these plants does is provide a fascilitator for these horse mills to keep pumping foals out in hopes of breeding that great one with no recourse or repercussion for the disposable mindset that afflicts these people.

And the problem with this is what? Do we not do that in the cattle industry? Horses are, in the end, just meat. Grow them out and sell them for slaughter just like we do cattle, I see nothing wrong with that! I own 4 myself, and bred them for years when I was younger. I am all for slaughtering horses for meat.

You may not but fortunately the overwhelming majority of Americans oppose the breeding of horses for meat.  Your blatant disregard is the problem.  We re not talking about managing feral herds here. We re talking about eliminating the demand for horse meat through legislature. WHERE THERE IS NO DEMAND, THERE IS NO SUPPLY. 

Sassy, why would you set your emotions aside? Empathy and the ability to reason were set in your heart to seperate man from the rest of the animal kingdom.  To remove either would be to remove what makes you human.  I find no moral opposition to slaughtering horses. It's the industry's disregard for these animals that's bothersome. I see very little honorable intentions in horse breeding. True, there are some genuine uses for horses but I'd like to see those number represented as a % of the total population.  A lot of those guys remind me of the same types that fight Pitts. They are their pride and joy until their deemed useless. Then slaughtered they get. 

 

[knabe]

We re talking about eliminating the demand for horse meat through legislature.

sounds like plenty of demand to me if you have to legislate away demand.

why are dogs or cats any different?

the outrage should be the same.

same with people who have children and abort them before term.

seems like we should legislate away demand for sex.

 

[RyanChandler]

Kinda like prostitution. There's a PLENTY of demand for it but because we as Americans don't support the practice -at least not on paper  (lol) - we deter/try to eliminate the demand by enacting legislature that cracks down on the supply. 

 

[knabe]

Kinda like prostitution. There's a PLENTY of demand for it but because we as Americans don't support the practice -at least not on paper  (lol) - we deter/try to eliminate the demand by enacting legislature that cracks down on the supply.

and all it does is provide job security for lawyers, cops and politicians and prostitutes and drive up the price.

 

[nate53]

Kinda like prostitution. There's a PLENTY of demand for it but because we as Americans don't support the practice -at least not on paper  (lol) - we deter/try to eliminate the demand by enacting legislature that cracks down on the supply.

Abortion.  There's plenty of demand for it because we as Americans in general do support the practice (abortion) as a remedy for what our society views as a problem (pregnancy).  We support the demand by enacting legislation that is pro abortion (pro choice).  We support the demand by encouraging the cause.  Why would you set your emotions aside? Empathy and the ability to reason were set in your heart to seperate man from the rest of the animal kingdom.  To remove either would be to remove what makes you human.  (clapping)

Horses sure are pretty, but I don't like them (they are too fast for me).   Wander what they taste like?  If they tasted good would that create less demand for beef?  I have a feeling America won't ever support eating horses, dogs, or cats.  But they might support not eating beef, pork, and chicken.