A local voice has now joined the debate over the closure of equine slaughterhouses in the United States. Cowboy poet Baxter Black of Benson, who is also a large animal veterinarian, is one of the founders of a new webpage, www.abandonedhorses.com, established to document cases of equine abuse, abandonment and neglect. Wylie Gustafson, another web site founder, said, "Our first and foremost concern is the horse. There is a real and urgent need for change. Our intention is to reduce the horses' suffering and neglect by creating an awareness of the current problem." The current problem he refers to is closure of slaughterhouses in the United States. In 2007, court action closed the Texas plant and in September of the same year, an Illinois state law prohibiting horse slaughter for human consumption closed the last plant in the U.S. At the same time the plants were closing, the economy was headed south. So in 2008 and 2009, horse owners who had lost their jobs and could no longer feed their horses began turning them loose. The result has been herds of abandoned horses starving on rangelands throughout the country...Arizona Range News
Here info from the website:
America's horse-processing industry was effectively outlawed in 2007. Actions taken within the states of Texas and Illinois closed three facilities where unneeded, unwanted, and infirmed horses were processed for human consumption, pet food, and for zoo carnivores.
The year before the plant closures, 102,260(1) horses were processed in America. Since the closings, there has been an up-tick in the reports of neglected, starved, abandoned, and abused horses.
It costs approximately $1,825 annually(2) to provide basic care for a horse, not including veterinary medical or farrier (hoof) care. The average lifespan of a horse is 30 years (30 yrs x $1,825/yr = $54,750).
Current economic conditions are compounding the problem for cash-strapped owners who find it nearly impossible to sell their animals, regardless of age and condition. Few people are buying.
It is not unusual for a horse to sell for as little as $5 (below), if they sell at all. Commission fees charged owners are frequently more than the selling price. The average fee(4) for a veterinarian to chemically euthanize a horse by intravenous injection is $66, which does not include carcass disposal.
Lacking a market for horses that otherwise would have been utilized through processing (102,260 head in 2006), in 10 years time, America could be faced with caring for a million horses.
2 comments:
It is truely fixable. Yet its the Cattle industry,Overbreeder Association,Backyard Breeders,Auctioneers,and Killers spreding the lies of a crashed market and loose horses. They have created another idea for these irresponsible people to do to justify there stories.The Live horse is worth more in recycling incomes and profits. For instints a well train horse brings in more money. The side profits such as trailers,training,Hay Growers,Feed stores,Park Permits, Police horses, therapy horses are all ways to profit. Its only a few that are just to lazy or just dont have the skills to do such that are only good at crying and spreading lies. Causing our elected officials from fixing the real problems of the economy. Pass our National horse bills and lets get on to fixing the economy..
The first rule of irrigation is "the water has to have some place to go". When the slaughter option was removed, there was no place for the surplus horses to go. The unregistered (grade) horse market crashed. It doesn't matter how talented or trained a "grade" horse may be. No one wants to buy it because if the horse doesn't work out or the buyer's life changes he cannot sell the horse. Most people shrink from shooting a healthy horse. The rescue facilities are full. So people walk away.
This whole situation is long on emotion and short on common sense. Why on earth do you people expect people who cannot make a life-time committment to another person to make a life-time committment to horse??
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