I never said that all auction horses were there from financial hardship, I merely pointed out that we don’t know. And yes, it is possible to go downhill that quickly. I’ve been in that boat. Granted, I didn’t have horses at the time, but we went from very comfortable to having the breadwinner out of work, great health insurance to nothing, and 20k+ of medical bills to boot. Nevermind the $500 a month in prescription medication. In less than 2 months we went from being comfortable to nothing. If I had horses at the time, I would have had to make some very hard decisions. Even with family helping us get back on our feet. I went from being a stay at home mom to working two jobs to bring us out of it. And it still took months of hard work, and a lot of help from family/friends to make it possible for me to even work those two jobs. Horses would have been impossible.
I’m not saying they made the decision I would have made, or that the reason these horses are there is hardship. Could the former owners be blackhearted bastards who didn’t care anymore? Very possibly. But we can’t know that. So I’m not about to scream for their heads/refuse to do business with them until I know the whole story. Especially when they haven’t been the ones to call me an idiot.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to install some padding on my soapbox. It appears I’ll be spending more time on it than anticipated :winkgrin:[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=MyssMyst;5660503]
If you’re going to call for other people to not do business with an owner who sent their horses to slaughter, keep in mind how many people on this board you just called idiots. Rather than costing those owners business (since we don’t know who they are yet), you probably just cost yourself.
…
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to install some padding on my soapbox. It appears I’ll be spending more time on it than anticipated :winkgrin:[/QUOTE]
Hey, move over, I’d like to join you on your soap box. :lol: I can’t speak for others, but we’ve known ise@ssl for years. She speaks her mind and does not suffer fools. She used a perfectly acceptable word in an appropriate context. I have no problem with her comment what-so-ever and I’d purchase from her every day of the week and twice on Sunday. :yes:
But her comment is not the issue, the issue is the conduct of this rescue, and in a larger sense the feeling that life is expendable and disposable.
As for the underlying problem, I can’t help but look to the mentality we see on this forum and elsewhere that goes something like this, “I have a mare, she can’t be ridden and has never done anything in competition, so I’m gonna breed her. I don’t have a clue about structure or bloodlines, so could someone recommend a stallion that will fix everything about her and produce a foal I can sell for $10K. And god forbid anyone tell me I shouldn’t breed this mare, because this is America and I can do as I please… right up to the point where I can’t be responsible for the choices I’ve made, and then someone better step in and pick up the pieces for the mess I’ve made, 'cause I’ll be in rehab or on public assistance or both.” :mad:
[QUOTE=ise@ssl;5660474]
. And YES - they do head to CANADA in over crowded transports to be killed and made into meat. It’s a big business for Canada!
.[/QUOTE]
No it’s not. I live by a major plant and many people do not even know it is there. The oil sands is major business, horse slaughter is very minor.
I am sure the only reason we still have slaughter is because we are aware of the issue of unwanted horses. At the end of the day many people do not have the money, knowledge or nuts to do the job properly. This is just a fact that is not going to change any day soon. That and there is too many horse in proportion to those that can give them proper homes. I am for humane slaughter, never for any of my horses, but for those that need it. If done properly, the horse would not know that they are going for meat instead of to the family plot. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Alberta
" In 2006 Alberta’s per capita GDP was higher than all US states, and one the highest figures in the world"
I also think it is pretty ironic that most of us having this discussion on this thread are breeders and as much as we all rationalize it there is always the possibility that a horse we brought into this world ends up in this exact same situation. Believe you me, I have thought hard for the last few years about bringing more horses into the world. Considering the situation that even high-quality horses fall into it should give one pause about producing more horses. There is no way, if you have bred more than just for keeping a horse yourself, that you can guarantee that a horse you produced won’t come to this kind of end.
[QUOTE=RougeEmpire;5660408]
When my Brontosaurus of a Thoroughbred mare was put down a few years ago it did NOT cost a grand! My vet charged a hundred dollars to put her down (she was already undable to stand) and it was another hundred to have the rendering company take her body away. Seriously who the heck is paying upwards of a GRAND to put a horse down??? That’s insane and I don’t know an actual person who has ever paid that kind of money.
A bullet is a VERY cheap and extremely humane option. [/QUOTE]
I’m not sure where in New England you are from but I spent $450 just to have someone take away my pony (obtained from AC4H less than a month before) after it was euthanized. I can assure you it cost me more than $100 for the vet bill. And I am not 500 ft away from all of my neighbors so I do not think a gun can be discharged legally on my property. I would have no problem with a horse being shot properly, especially if it meant it could legally be buried on my own property.
Your world is not very large if you have never known anyone to be forced to incur considerable expense to have a horse euthanized and removed.
[QUOTE=stoicfish;5660567]
No it’s not. I live by a major plant and many people do not even know it is there. The oil sands is major business, horse slaughter is very minor. I am sure the only reason we still have slaughter is because we are aware of the issue of unwanted horses. At the end of the day many people do not have the money, knowledge or nuts to do the job properly. This is just a fact that is not going to change any day soon. That and there is too many horse in proportion to those that can give them proper homes. I am for humane slaughter, never for any of my horses, but for those that need it. If done properly, the horse would not know that they are going for meat instead of to the family plot. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Alberta
" In 2006 Alberta’s per capita GDP was higher than all US states, and one the highest figures in the world"
That is the reality, isn’t it.[/QUOTE]
RE: what I bolded, unwanted horses is not why the slaughter plants are still churning them out. If that were the case the number slaughtered would have gone up dramatically in the last few years with the deplorable state of the US economy and the availability of cheap/free horses everywhere. It has not.
Slaughter exists to provide those who wish to consume horsemeat with a product… Ford does not produce more cars than they project they can sell, building spec houses without buyers lining up is not smart nor profitable, and slaughtering meat for buyers who do not exist, or in a quantity beyond what you can sell is also not smart. The plants process what they have a demand for. Period.
If you think that the slaughter plants in Canada and Mexico are doing us a service, disposing of our unwanted horses, you should think again.
And if you think slaughter could ever be humane or regulated to be so, again you need to study the industry and other like industries wherein the importance of speed and efficiency far outweigh humanity or care and consideration. In this industry every mile a less than overfull trailer travels trims your profit, every extra minute it takes to down a horse in the knock box means time on the clock for workers standing idle all along that assembly line waiting to dress the carcass. This is not a business founded in doing favors for those less fortunate or unable to dispose of their animals, it is a business, like every business, with a bottom line.
I understand both sides of this debate, bad horse owners who dump their lame horses at auction, rescues who work with kill buyers after the kill buyers have marked up the price of the horse they purchased the day before by upwards of 50%, questionable rescue practices, etc.
The real question is there anyone here who goes to New Holland every Monday and is in the position to purchase horses to be rescued? Or is there a person who will go there every Monday and build a relationship with the kill buyers so that the healthy and sound horses can be held for a week so that they could possibly be saved?
Has anyone personally dealt directly with the kill buyers at auction and left with a good experience? I am not protecting AC4H but who else is doing what they are doing? Horses are being saved, and yes, at a profit, but they are being rehomed. AC4H exposed the Paragallo Race horses and has been open about horse slaughter to the major news operations. So they make a profit. In this day and age, I am finding more rescues that are ‘making profits’ as well as helping horses.
I guess my real question is that according to AC4H the Warmblood mare and gelding need more funding to be rescued. So I guess they are safe thanks to some donors that have bought them time.
Angela,
I disagree. Canada, like the US could ban horse slaughter, regardless of whether there is a feasible market or not. There is a market for cocaine and that is not legal in Canada, so when I “thought again”, I just found your logic flawed.
The main reason that we as Canadians have not chosen that route is due to the issue of where would our surplus animals go. It is a huge issue and until resolved, it would be an even longer trip to Mexico from Canada and it is one of the major reasons why many people in the horse industry do not lobby the issue.
I grew up on a cattle farm, in the cattle capital of Canada. And yet there are small abattoirs everywhere that were able to process our animals. They would come to the farm or we would take the animal in and the animal was done immediately and individually and humanely. There is no reason that that sort of system could not be set up. If there is money yet to be made when loading an animal up in the US and hauling half way around a continent, then it is probably feasible to have regional locations where horses can be processed.
Think of it this way: According to one of the Humane sites there is 93,000 horses a year slaughtered in Canada (this site says 100K in total for the US). If the 50 states and the 10 largest Canadian provinces each processed their own horses that would be 1550 animals a year/per state or province. Divide that by days in the year and that is 4.3 animals a day per state or province. Even if you doubled up to include the horses sent to Mexico that is 9 horses a day per state. That is not a huge number to logistically process humanly.
I do not see many people raising horses solely for meat. Even where land and food is cheaper, raising a horse for $400 is not a great way to make money and you could defiantly put the land to better use. Most unwanted horses are a by-product and most people just want a disposal method. .
Has anyone personally dealt directly with the kill buyers at auction and left with a good experience? I am not protecting AC4H but who else is doing what they are doing?
You could just go to the auction yourself and buy an animal. Or leave a standing order with the auction people/buyers that you are interested in a certain type horse. Kill buyers are just another butt sitting at the auction. They have no more power than anyone else.
Not against making money, it is the emotional extortion that is troubling. If the rescue owns the horse to be able to ask $1200, than why is it threatened to go to slaughter? And if they don’t own it, than it is a meat horse and worth $50 more than the kill buyer can sell it for. If the killer buyer is not interested in “more”, it is because people are giving him “way more” because the horse has a picture up and he knows that that horse may bring more than the next horse that is going to slaughter. Just buy the next horse or support a different rescue.
[QUOTE=naturalequus;5660555]
Eta: the point is, we don’t know and if we don’t know, how can we find it fair to judge?? Even if we do know, much simply represents differing opinion.[/QUOTE]
Sorry to be the complete A-hole about this. But yes, it is acceptable to “judge” without every last bit of the story.
Why? Because owning horses is a luxury with a predictable and/or reasonable set of expenses. Just about any time it gets to expensive, you can find some way to euthanize it.
Living paycheck to paycheck or losing your job? Fine. Put $1,000 in a bank account to use for euthanasia after you have exhausted all other options for your horse. Don’t have a grand? Fine. Get a cash advance or borrow money from friends. But don’t let your animal suffer because you didn’t plan ahead
The whining about “can’t shoot” or “can shoot but can’t bury” is facetious. You know whether or not you can do euthanasia and disposal “the old fashioned way” up front! You know the upper-level estimate of euthanasia.
You know (more or less) the value that you horse will have on the open market. You know how much time/effort/money you have left to put into finding a new owner for your horse before you run out of these.
But NO ONE who had enough money to buy a horse in the first place has a good reason to dick around until their hands are tied and they need to send their horse to a meat auction.
[QUOTE=mvp;5660895]
Sorry to be the complete A-hole about this. But yes, it is acceptable to “judge” without every last bit of the story.
But NO ONE who had enough money to buy a horse in the first place has a good reason to dick around until their hands are tied and they need to send their horse to a meat auction.[/QUOTE]
MissMyst - I don’t really want customers who are of the opinion that the people sending the majority of horses to slaughter had an over night tragedy that rendered them without any money. It’s just not true. GO to these killer sales and see what shows up - pregnant mare, foals just pulled off their mares, LOTS AND LOTS of draft horses (you know those poor Premarine babies that were shipped in from Canada and rescued by people with big hearts, empty pockets and NO knowledge that Draft horses are big eaters, not easy to train and take up a lot of space), unwanted camp horses and a lot of really nice competition horses that served their owners but are not viable for showing so they are just an expense. And in many instances these horses are shipped from other states - hundreds of miles away.
We cut back our breeding 4 years ago because we foresaw the economic downturn. We are selective in our sales and in only one or two circumstances were the horses re-sold to another owner. If anyone that owns one of the horses or ponies that I bred was going to send them to the killer sale - I would gladly pay for to have them put down and taken away. Cartier can vouch for the fact that I don’t make statements I don’t stand behind.
Given the current economic circumstances I feel Veterinarians could do their part by euthanizing unwanted and unsound horses for cost.
And just in general - I can’t be the only person who sees people who have lived from paycheck to paycheck during the BOOM and are now expecting someone else to pick up the pieces (or the Horse) when everything has gone BUST.
[QUOTE=Angela Freda;5660743]
RE: what I bolded, unwanted horses is not why the slaughter plants are still churning them out. If that were the case the number slaughtered would have gone up dramatically in the last few years with the deplorable state of the US economy and the availability of cheap/free horses everywhere. It has not.
Slaughter exists to provide those who wish to consume horsemeat with a product… , you should think again.
And if you think slaughter could ever be humane or regulated to be so, again you need to study the industry and other like industries wherein the importance of speed and efficiency far outweigh humanity or care and consideration. In this industry every mile a less than overfull trailer travels trims your profit, every extra minute it takes to down a horse in the knock box means time on the clock for workers standing idle all along that assembly line waiting to dress the carcass. This is not a business founded in doing favors for those less fortunate or unable to dispose of their animals, it is a business, like every business, with a bottom line.[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=Finnegans Wake;5660828]
Horses are being saved, and yes, at a profit, but they are being rehomed. AC4H exposed the Paragallo Race horses and has been open about horse slaughter to the major news operations. So they make a profit. In this day and age, I am finding more rescues that are ‘making profits’ as well as helping horses.
I guess my real question is that according to AC4H the Warmblood mare and gelding need more funding to be rescued. So I guess they are safe thanks to some donors that have bought them time.[/QUOTE]
I dunno, I guess everyone has their own definition of ‘saved’ and what rescues can/should do? To me, these horses are not ‘saved’ as much as they are sold to the first person who comes up with the cash- there is no contract that protects anyone other than the dealer and the ‘rescue’. So these horses go to an unknown entity, or sometimes to a known entity [I could name several they gave/sold horses to] without any protection, who in many instances ended up being less than stellar examples of horsemanship and yet they kept selling them horses.
Is that what rescues do or should do? Not in my book.
As for the profit thing… if AC4H claimed to make a profit, ie cited on their 990s what portion of the $300k or more each year they took in they personally pocketed, I would also be fine with that. They insist that they take $0, which honestly has always been hard to believe in light of the fact that even people who know the rescue primaries well state that none of the primaries actually hold 40+/- hour a week jobs. So it just does not gel.
As for the Paragallo horses… I would beg to differ on who exposed the situation there. AC4H likes to claim all the credit for that but there were several other key people who played a crucial role in not only getting the thing rolling, but getting Ernie prosecuted… and other rescues who rehabbed horses without getting complete restitution for, while I understand AC4H got a sizeable check cut to them by Ernie.
Ok you guys keep discussing / debating. Any idea if the horses were pulled/rescued/ sponsored. Anyone dig any deeper and find anything more out about them etc ?
[QUOTE=stoicfish;5660850]
Angela,
I disagree. Canada, like the US could ban horse slaughter, regardless of whether there is a feasible market or not. There is a market for cocaine and that is not legal in Canada, so when I “thought again”, I just found your logic flawed. [/QUOTE]
No and no… horses are not slaughtered simply because there are so many of them, if that were the case more would be slaughtered in the last few years… the demand drives production. You do not make widgets if no one is going to buy widgets simply cause you have the parts lying around. Particularly when it costs so much to ship the widget parts, pay to make the widgets, and then ship the widgets to market.
[QUOTE=stoicfish;5660850]The main reason that we as Canadians have not chosen that route is due to the issue of where would our surplus animals go. It is a huge issue and until resolved, it would be an even longer trip to Mexico from Canada and it is one of the major reasons why many people in the horse industry do not lobby the issue.
I grew up on a cattle farm, in the cattle capital of Canada. And yet there are small abattoirs everywhere that were able to process our animals. They would come to the farm or we would take the animal in and the animal was done immediately and individually and humanely. There is no reason that that sort of system could not be set up. If there is money yet to be made when loading an animal up in the US and hauling half way around a continent, then it is probably feasible to have regional locations where horses can be processed.[/QUOTE]
The reason there is money to be made though, in those plants is because of volume. It costs $x to build and run those plants, whether you process 10 or 100… many of your costs are fixed. It is the Henry Ford assembly line method that makes it ultra profitable
That would never make it profitable to build a plant in each state and province [cha-ching] and then run that plant. And no plants for other animals are not suitable nor humane, thanks to the difference in conformation of the animals, to be used for [for example] cows, and horses. Horses need separate and designed/reconfigured for them plants.
there’s another stat out there about several years when slaughter production was down considerably compared to the years previous… a similar number to the 100,000 presently being slaughtered, and what those stats show us is that with that significant decrease, we did not have horses wandering the streets, etc. There ARE other ways for owners to dispose of their animals besides slaughter.
Where would the horses go? We are all ok with an inhumane industry cause we’re worried that there’s no where for the horses we do not slaughter to go? I do not accept that.
[QUOTE=stoicfish;5660850]
I do not see many people raising horses solely for meat. Even where land and food is cheaper, raising a horse for $400 is not a great way to make money and you could defiantly put the land to better use. Most unwanted horses are a by-product and most people just want a disposal method. .[/QUOTE]
Then I think euth. clinics are a better [more humane, more reasonable considering the investment needed, etc] ‘disposal’ plan, honestly. Those CAN be done locally, and without needing a pricey facility, staff, insurance, worrying about the impact on the neighborhood you build in, how it stresses the infrastructure [think sewers and the other issues the plants in TX and Ill had], etc. like you described those local abattoirs. Could they dispose of a horse for free for an owner of pay him/her $200 for the animal? Probably not. But I pay for my dog and cat to be put to sleep and disposed of, and as a steward of my horse, I accept the responsibility to do the same for him.
The bottom line is that the horse is the owners responsibility… before it enters the slaughter pipeline it has an owner. THAT owner should/could, if slaughter disappeared tomorrow, find a way to ‘deal’. Further, I would suggest that the need to figure something out, again if slaughter was banned overnight- which it would not be, would force us to do just that, to figure something out… the last few years we all wring hands over it all, spin our wheel, argue back and forth and come up with nothing. And thus continue to condone a hideous, inhumane industry by lack of action. The saying goes our humanity is measured by how we treat those who can not speak, or something like that… I say allowing this industry for fear of ‘what will we do!’ is atrocious.
The real question is there anyone here who goes to New Holland every Monday and is in the position to purchase horses to be rescued? Or is there a person who will go there every Monday and build a relationship with the kill buyers so that the healthy and sound horses can be held for a week so that they could possibly be saved?
Has anyone personally dealt directly with the kill buyers at auction and left with a good experience? I am not protecting AC4H but who else is doing what they are doing? Horses are being saved, and yes, at a profit, but they are being rehomed. AC4H exposed the Paragallo Race horses and has been open about horse slaughter to the major news operations. So they make a profit. In this day and age, I am finding more rescues that are ‘making profits’ as well as helping horses.[/QUOTE]
I certainly do not go every week or even regularly, but I do go occasionally to NH and, more likely, to Mel’s, and occasionally to the firehouse sales in the spring. I have gone enough that some of the dealers and auctioneers recognize me as a viable buyer of ASBs, morgans, hackneys, and the like. I have approached known kill buyers to buy a horse out of their pen and succeeded. I am respectful and clear about what I am after - older or quiet, potentially usable in a lesson program after some reschooling. I do not come across as a bleeding heart, but as a business woman/horse trainer intent on a deal. I am clear what I will spend and have never been asked to spend more than $400 for a horse out of the loose horse pen. (And that $400 was alot because he knew I wanted to the horse bad despite my best efforts to seem ‘cool’!) Buying thru the sale ring, I expect to pay less. I have also bought horses thru AC4H broker program. I will not buy anymore thru them - the markup is just too extreme. I won’t jump thru the hoops. The situation makes me uneasy and I chose not to play the game. But, I have the ability to go directly to the sales to buy, that others may not…
No and no… horses are not slaughtered simply because there are so many of them, if that were the case more would be slaughtered in the last few years… the demand drives production.
Your still missing my point. I never said they are slaughted becasue there are too many. The bottom line is that slaughter (and the methods) exists in Canada because it is legal. THE REASON WE HAVEN’T CHANGED THE LAWS IS BECAUSE OF THE ISSUE OF UNWANTED HORSES. See the difference? I suggested the laws are not changed because of a surplus, not that slaughter is cause by a surplus. The actual facilities, that exist within the laws, are due to the market –never suggest otherwise if you read my post. I am not sure why you keep explaining the free market system.
And if you can organize Euth clinics how can you deny that humane slaughter would not be feasible? One uses a bullet and utilizes the animal, the other uses drugs and has a cost associated with it for animal disposal. Even if the meat was sold locally as pet food it would create enough of a market to make it worth while. There is so much rhetoric on the subject that has been recited over and over again that people forget it doesn’t have to be choice A or B. I think sometimes those who are against slaughter are those that deny the marketability of humane slaughter because it very well MIGHT work. But of course the underlying value system of that ideology is based on a perfect world or no domestication of animals, or that it is better to have the animal cremated or buried instead of using the meat to subsidize the process. The biggest problem with humane slaughter would be to get the public to be comfortable with the idea that feeding their dog horse meat would actually enable horses to have a more dignified death.
Europeans can supply their own meat for human consumption, it is a market and it is not a absolute necessary that we participate in it. Asia eats dogs and it is a market -doesn’t mean we supply them with product. Governments can create policy to enforce value based concerns and those policies can be (and most of the time are) in conflict with free market operations. For instance- http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-13692211
[QUOTE=mvp;5660895]
Sorry to be the complete A-hole about this. But yes, it is acceptable to “judge” without every last bit of the story.
Why? Because owning horses is a luxury with a predictable and/or reasonable set of expenses. Just about any time it gets to expensive, you can find some way to euthanize it.
Living paycheck to paycheck or losing your job? Fine. Put $1,000 in a bank account to use for euthanasia after you have exhausted all other options for your horse. Don’t have a grand? Fine. Get a cash advance or borrow money from friends. But don’t let your animal suffer because you didn’t plan ahead
The whining about “can’t shoot” or “can shoot but can’t bury” is facetious. You know whether or not you can do euthanasia and disposal “the old fashioned way” up front! You know the upper-level estimate of euthanasia.
You know (more or less) the value that you horse will have on the open market. You know how much time/effort/money you have left to put into finding a new owner for your horse before you run out of these.
But NO ONE who had enough money to buy a horse in the first place has a good reason to dick around until their hands are tied and they need to send their horse to a meat auction.[/QUOTE]
So what about the person who cannot afford care however finds a (seemingly) appropriate home for the horse, as an alternative to euthanasia? That isn’t acceptable? There are so many different possible scenarios and that is the point.
At the end of the day, sending a horse to a plant versus euthanasia is a matter of difference in opinion. It might not sit well with you or I - especially as it relates to the disposal attitude of society - but it is still a difference in opinion.
At the end of the day, there is still a Dutch mare and an Oldenburg gelding at risk.
But they are not the first warmbloods to end up in kill pens, and they won’t be the last. Some on this thread have already said it, but I will repeat. The economy is still in the doldrums, and it is not going to get a lot better anytime soon. The middle class that used to be the primary market for nice low to mid level horses has been severely squeezed by job loss, lower wages, devaluation of 401K/IRAs, higher prices on EVERYTHING from food to fuel to clothing to health care, and even higher taxes. Many “boomers” who used to fuel the AA market by buying horses for themselves or their daughters are now faced with trying to help support elderly parents while paying college costs at the same time, and in many cases, they are the primary breadwinner in their family because hubby was let go and cannot find employment anywhere (and God forbid, he is in the 50+ age group - no one will hire those folks anymore). Add to it the burden of medical care for a serious health issue, and you can see there is NO MONEY for horses anymore except among the wealthy (and I have a very different standard for “wealthy” than our President).
I laud and support breeders but I am dismayed to see many who have not slowed down their production. How anyone can continue to breed in this economy is beyond me. Even if I were in the position to breed, I would be too worried about what the future holds for every foal.
[QUOTE=naturalequus;5661832]
So what about the person who cannot afford care however finds a (seemingly) appropriate home for the horse, as an alternative to euthanasia? That isn’t acceptable? There are so many different possible scenarios and that is the point.
At the end of the day, sending a horse to a plant versus euthanasia is a matter of difference in opinion. It might not sit well with you or I - especially as it relates to the disposal attitude of society - but it is still a difference in opinion.[/QUOTE]
Of course it’s acceptable to find a new owner who wants the horse you have! I was taught that your responsibility (to the horse) as a owner/seller is to represent the horse fairly and to find the person who wants exactly what the animal is. These folks also advise me not to follow the horse after that. Their point was that “bad things happen to good horses” and that if I couldn’t live with that, I was wrong to sell in the first place. I learned this in “flush times” because these people had a longer-term and realistic view of horses as “using animals” with limited careers.
That having been said, the seller/owner needs to be honest with themselves about what they have. If they know the horse has a limited market or value, it’s only fair to ask if they should, in fact, imagine a happy ending for the horse. I just don’t like people lying to themselves and letting a horse suffer on his way to slaughter when they could have done otherwise.
If the owner really does have “a different opinion” that I and thinks slaughter is better than euthanasia, then fine. But own that idea. I suspect most wouldn’t baldly do that. Instead, they speak in euphemisms of “rehoming” and hope that, despite some long odds, the horse they don’t want and most others don’t want will land in clover.
It’s not the dishonesty that bothers me. It’s the risk to the horse’s quality of life that does. As I said initially, the cost of euthanizing a horse seems a small price to pay for knowing that you haven’t been involved in causing one of your horses to suffer. I don’t see why this is surprising. No one advocates letting a horse stand around while colicking badly or with an unfixable injury rather than euthanizing promptly while the horse belongs to them. What’s the difference between being callous while the horse is “on your watch” and doing that when you sell him to someone else?
