its good to see like minded people
When all that about shutting the slaughter houses down began I knew that it would be like this. The market is now flooded with low grade horses and the better grade horses have felt some impact too. Ive been going to stock auctions a long time and i know for a fact that when a horse was injured or sick people would auction them off for meat rather than pay the vet bills. I know its horrible but thats how alot of people think..... now these horses are left standing in barns or fields with no care and no help. At least they were put out of misery before and now theres no end for them utill they slowly deteriate and die. Most auctions in my area will no longer sale horses at all due to people unloading them and just leaving. Strangles runs rampant due to over crowding and shuffling horses from one place to another. Even the horses that get bought are in for misery, because they go so cheap poeple are buying them that have no experience with horses and so those poor horses are in for misery ahead and usually end up right back at the auction worse off than before. not to mention the people who buy these malnourished or ill horses soon decide from experience from them that they never want another horse. its bad for horse related economy on many levels.
Of course not everything that comes out of these auctions are bad....I bought my dearest equine companion out of compassion at one of these stock auctions, got her for a song. she had bounced around many places before i came along and she has a life long home with me. I have bought several of these horses ad rehabilatated them, it takes several months of grocerys and patience to get them anywhere near right again, and i know in one instance when i rehomed a certain old stallion he wound up right back in the same condition with his new owner that he was in when i found him.At this time I dont know where he is.So be careful when selling your horses. people sometimes seem knowledgable and caring but when they get over the novilty of a new horse they often sell it again or stop caring for it.
When you buy a horse you buy a 30 + year commitment.
Another thing that burdens my mind is the fact of the large outcry about the slaughter houses being closed.... yet people dont seem to care about the fact of millions starving every day,or abortion, or homeless people standing on our very own street corners. Yes it is sad that horses sometimes meet a bad end. But its even sadder that so many people are more concerned about horses than humans.