How plans are moving forward for Humane Processing proponents

^^Actually, not so ludicrous. Do you know how many perfectly good riding horses go to slaughter every day because their owner didn't have the money to feed them or just wanted rid of them and dumped them at the auction instead of trying to find them a real home?

How many good horses that maybe nobody wanted to look at because they were lame from a minor abscess or a slight pulled muscle so they got snatched up by a meat man?

Given a few days with educated eyes looking at them and educated hands touching them, many of those types of horses could get a second chance.

Actual rehab on problem horses, no, but taking a horse that was once very broke but hadn't been ridden in 2-5-10 years and spending a few days re-acquainting them with their former training is actually relatively easy for folks that know a little bit about horses.

Oh, I'm well aware of the diamonds-in-the-rough dumped at slaughter by lazy owners and breeders.

Point being, trying to rehab horses in a mere 5 days, and on the same site they can hear and smell their brethren being butchered is totally beyond the realm of reasonableness. Sorry I've been handling horses my entire life, and their proposal just ain't remotely realistic.

For those of us who've removed the rose colored glasses, it appears simply an attempt to appear as making an effort to provide horses with alternatives.

LOL, I see the world a lot of ways, through rose colored glasses is certainly not one of them .


Mayhap you are reading too much into what Cherie posted?? Nowhere on there does it say that they will be attempting to rehab the potentially useful horses on the exact same property as they are butchering the others.

Also, you are not the only one here with horse experience. I've had horses my entire life, my father was a trainer, I am a trainer, and I come from a long line of horsemen. No, I am not some naive little teenager from the inner city who's seen "spirit" too many times.

Yes, their proposal is completely realistic...if they can maintain the budget and funding for it.

More than likely, it will be run similar to the cattle industry. Feedlots where horses are fed back up to a healthy weight, treated for any injuries/illnesses, then (when they are deemed fat enough for slaughter but unfit for life anywhere else) they are transported to a slaughter house that is off site. It would be my guess that likely, the re-training facility would probably be located on the same site as the feedlot. The SH would be a completely separate facility on separate property where the animals would have to be transported to.

I see it as a very realistic approach. Everything is determined by value and worth. If a horse is worth more to be resold as a saddle horse and the whole program revolves around making him worth the most that they can, then that is where he will go. If the horse has soundness or mental issues or is just butt-ugly, his chances of leaving the place on his feet are slim.

When I started out training in 1960, I bought a lot of prospects from the Columbine Packing Company on the east side of Denver. They sold them for what they cost + $10.00. They made a $10.00 profit without putting a penny in the horse. Horse Traders buy horses at every sale. The ones that will make money being sold privately on Craigs List or through the paper are sold that way. The ones that can't, will head to the processing plant. It is just plain economics 101.

Right now, there is a horse feed lot in Morton Texas. It usually has from 1000 to 2000 head in it. They are held in big pens that have big square bales of alfalfa in front of them 24/7. Thin horses usually stay there 90 days. I am told that they gain around 4 pounds a day. I have had horses gain 5 # a day on wheat pasture if I turned them on it when they were thin. This is the only US feedlot that I know of, but it is owned by the Belgian Company that owns the processing plant in Mexico. Horses never get out of that feedlot except to go to Mexico. They are not tried for anything else. The owners only want these horses for meat. Once they have left the Traders' hands, there is no 'get out of jail free' card for them.

I watch 'broke' horses go through the local sale every two weeks that have no one bid on them but the same traders that buy killers. They are not set up to fatten horses up and most are not trainers. They have to figure out in a matter of days if a horse is worth trying to sell privately or if they should just send the horse straight to Mexico. I see a lot of possibilities for a set-up like the one planned for Oregon. I see decent horses having a lot better chance of getting out of it on their feet.

I also think more young horses will go to a place like this with their papers. Right now, many young horses are not being registered or the owners are throwing the papers away if they have to sell them at a sale.

So yes! I think a set-up like the one planned is very realistic. I think it is a very good way to go about it.