Low market value, high care costs lead to more abandoned horses

Chuck Maxwell has owned many horses over the past 33 years. But the Malta resident has a particularly fond place in his heart for the 10 wild mustangs he’s adopted through the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s wild horse adoption program. A tough economic climate combined with legislation that forced U.S. horse processing plants to close their doors in 2007 has weakened the horse market. Many owners like Maxwell who can’t afford to keep their horses have put them up for sale under the poor market conditions. When buyers can’t be found, some owners have simply abandoned their animals. Minidoka County Fair Board Chairman Dan Kindig said a year ago the market was so bad the fair board took extra measures at the fairgrounds to prevent people from leaving horses there. Twin Falls Livestock Commission Manager Bruce Billington said his organization has seen horses abandoned in its livestock yard, along with sellers who’ve left fictitious names and phone numbers so they can’t be contacted if their horse doesn’t sell. Some of the horses, if they are big and fat, Billington says, will be bought for slaughter and transported to Canada or Mexico. “But for a smaller horse, the freight is almost equal to what the horse is worth, so there is just nowhere to go with them,” Billington said. “People can’t afford it so they just haul them off and dump them out somewhere,” he said. Billington said he’s received calls from people who have found horses dumped on their property, and has heard about people dropping horses in the desert. “That’s really cruel because they don’t know how to fend for themselves or find water,” Billington said. “And those wild horses are mean — they’ll kill a gelding.”...more