My essay on Horse Slaughter

Time for another glass of wine.....ah heck, I'm not re corking the bottle

The idea was to discourage the casual thinking "well, it doesnt' matter if I over breed cause I can get rid of it later". Make breeders a bit less likely to overbreed.

IT's jsut an idea, and since I do not breed, I confess it's just a theoretical idea.

The point is to make slaughter less likely to happen, but keep it safe , humane and legal. ANd work toward a world where the only horses slaughtered are the ones that really aren't rehomable. Dream? Maybe . . .

We did too, only the kill buyer was the one who contacted us - we never attended any of the auctions. He, like most meat buyers, was a horseman. He would separate the ones he thought we might be interested in from the kill pen and give us a call. We'd check them out, handle them, see what they knew/didn't know, etc. and we never paid more for the horses we chose than the original bill of sale (reimbursing him his out of pocket).

It is indeed ironic that people here are giving the OP crap about sourcing facts. This post is pure fabricated delusion, and yet I don't see those same people asking for sources here, hmmmm....

HSUS runs THE LARGEST EQUINE SANCTUARY IN THE UNITED STATES. Google Cleveland Armory Black Beauty Ranch. They also run the Doris Day Equine Rescue and the Duchess Equine Sanctuary, and two wildlife sanctuaries. 70% of the money they get goes to animal programs and their salaries are less than other similar animal welfare groups and their CEO makes a measly 25% of what the Farm Bureau CEO makes.

Who’s Really Over-Compensating? « HumaneWatch Info

Lady Trails You are wrong when you say HSUS does not fund rescue. They run two large horse rescues.

Two points here - I didn't say you can make money breeding horses for slaughter. Breeders (who investigations have shown are the primary sources for slaughter horses), are using slaughter as a way to cut the losses on culls. Today many of them are using it to disperse herds, since they didn't curtail their breeding as the market was drying up.

Secondly, transport time hasn't changed a whole lot. The slaughter market can only viably support a handful of plants in North America. Hence why we only had 3 plants in the US; two in TX and one in IL. Horses then had long trips then, like they have long trips now. And tens of thousands of US horses went to MEX and CAN even when the US plants were open.

What did change after the US plants closed was the worst economic downturn since the great depression. This led to crashed demand for horses and increased supply. Since price is a reflection of supply and demand (economics 101), prices crashed. Same way demand and prices for houses and all non-essential goods were similarly decimated. It's basic economics.

Good man.

Jumping Paints,

I'm having trouble following your your reasoning. First you said

[quote] And selling horses to slaughter - which has NEVER ceased to be an option for horse owners - only provides an incentive for further lottery-style breeding. Take away the cull option and the market will force people to breed responsibly [quote]

Which seems to say that breeders didn't respond to market pressure previously, but that they will now? Or they will if they plants in Canada and Mexico close as well?

I also found this statement confusing -

[quote] Breeders (who investigations have shown are the primary sources for slaughter horses) [quote] Do you mean horses sent *directly* from the breeder's farm to slaughter? Otherwise that statement doesn't have a lot of meaning, because the only two sources of horses would be breeders and feral horses. Whose investigation?

I agree that overbreeding is a big part of the current problem, and that racing and certain types of show breeding are the worse offenders, becuase it is acceptable to put 10 foals on the ground to get one winner, and everyone focuses on the winner, not the the 9 that will have to find other homes and careers.

But I don't agree with your hypothesis about the role the American slaughter facilities, or slaughter in general, plays in the equation of the current glut of horses at the bottom or the market or the market itself.

[quote=maura;1403282]

[quote] Breeders (who investigations have shown are the primary sources for slaughter horses) FWIW, I'm having an equally difficult time understanding your logic also. I'm applying proven (basic) economic principles here, not some 'hypothesis.' What IS a hypothesis that defies proven economic theory, is that moving the slaughter plants killed the horse market. The demand for US horses for slaughter remained constant. As a rule, you can't attribute something that remained constant as the agent of a changed result. And denial of a massive economic downturn and its devastating effects on the horse market doesn't help slaughter pushers' credibility either.

It took many breeders several years of poor demand, caused by the economic downturn, to scale back breeding sufficiently, and they're breeding too many horses for the market to sustain. Decreases in AQHA new foal regs (QH breeders being the worst offenders in breeding horses where there's no demand) are running about -12% each year from the previous year. Can you imagine if home builders only cut back 10% each year?? It doesn't help that AQHA encourages overbreeding with their policies and incentives, but many breeders continued thinking they could cut their losses using the meat option, not understanding that with the increased supply of and reduced demand for horses, that meat prices would fall also.

And this isn't a hypothesis. I heard many breeders admit to using slaughter for culling on equine forums.

Animals Angels went to auctions around the country and observed the horses being brought to auction and who the owners were. They saw lots of loads dumping off 10 to 15 young horses, almost always QHs and paints. And lots of TB trainers bringing their horses and often making deals with KBs right in the parking lot (and not running them thru the auction). Also, lots of nice trailers and rigs dumping off these horses.

So I did not read through the whole essay there a some spelling and grammar errors that need to be fixed.

One thing that jumped out at me is : "Unlike the old, crippled, sick and used up dairy cow you eat in your hamburger, the majority of horses slaughtered are rejects from breeding farms."

I am pretty sure that a huge majority of beef is young, healthy animals. I know the ones we sent to slaughter, were about 40, 9 month old healthy animals, that went to a feedlot to be fattened up.

Just my 2cents
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