Horse Slaughter

There was an article in the Wall Street Journal this week about horse slaughter.  There were some pretty interesting facts about horse slaughter.  Some horses are selling for as little as $10 in the US and being slaughtered in Mexico.  Over 50,000 horses per year are being slaughtered there under poor conditions.  Some horses are not selling at all and are being abandoned to slowly die of starvation.

Now we would like to think that every horse we have known has a great home but we know that is not the case.  Even in our area we see horses that are thin and poorly cared for.  There is one horse down the road that has had a big wire cut and nothing has been done about it.  A friend in San Diego County says that one veterinarian group in her area is euthanizing over 1,000 horses per year and that few people are spending money for surgeries or illnesses.  There are areas of the country where horses have simply been abandoned.  Rescue organizations have to pick and choose what horses they will save.

We don't like to picture horses being slaughtered.  But in other parts of the world, horses are specifically raised for slaughter, just like cattle are raised here.  In Sweden, there is a government program where they raise 40 Galloway horses per year; 20 horses are sold for riding and 20 horses are sold for eating.  We were told this by the official government veterinarian while we were juding a show in Sweden.  He thought it was a great program.  In Australia, even the cheapest, ugliest recipient mares cost $500 a piece because they are worth that by the pound.

Every day in the US horses die that are abandoned, starved, and mistreated. Some people mistreat horses because they don't care and some people mistreat horses because they simply cannot afford anything better.  We don't like to see horses die, but we would rather have them die quickly and humanely than die slowly.  We think horse slaughter needs to be reinstated with humane transportation and humane killing. The horse would have a better fate than many horses have now.


Take a look at the Wall Street Journal article: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052748703808704576062064022541024.html