I hope this is successful. I wish all horses had a safety net.
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I hope so too.
As they say, “all it takes is money.” But it would take A LOT of money to support a safety net for all, unfortunately.
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But can’t the owners simply go to another state to send their horses away? The major auctions are in other states anyway.
I appreciate the gesture, but until it applies nationwide, that’s all it is.
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It seems to me that there is no “safety net”, and that there can’t be a “safety net” for horses. A horse gets sold, the seller may try to place the horse with the “right” new owner. But the seller does not know the buyer, the buyer may not be as skilled as they presented themselves, and the horse may not “work out” well. The horse may be unsound, or unsuitable for the planned new career. So that person sells the horse to someone else. And that person may decide that the horse is not for them after all, that it was all a big mistake. They sell the horse. The horse isn’t doing well, the level of care, training and riding has decreased substantially, and resistances and issues have developed. The horse becomes harder to sell, and it’s value decreases. No one wants the horse any more, and a horse without “value” to it’s owner is in trouble, in danger. Horses without value are often referred to as “shitters” by their owners. “Value” is the key component of a horse’s life. “Value” may be economic value, OR emotional value, but if he’s got “value”, to someone, for something, he will be looked after, somehow. If he doesn’t have value to his owner or to anyone else, he goes to auction and may well get sold for meat. Most all of us humans do support the meat industry, even if we, personally, do not eat horse meat. Many people do eat horse meat. Our pets eat commercial pet food that uses trimmings from all aspects of the meat industry. It seems to me that what is important is to regulate and inspect the meat industry to make sure that it is well run, and that horses that find themselves in this unfortunate situation are well cared for, and humanely treated. Not to try to “legislate” it away because we find it “distasteful”. Or try to fool ourselves that TBs won’t end up going for meat.
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I am fairly certain the way the existing NYRA rule works is if your horse turns up in a feedlot or low end auction in any state, your stalls in NY can be revoked. I vaguely recall some situations of NY horses found in places like New Holland and Bastrop and the trainer being penalized. I imagine this state law would be enforced similarly.
I think it’s more than a gesture. Now there are both NYRA and state repercussions for dumping your horses. That’s a powerful message. But I agree it’s still imperfect given the nature of horse slaughter.
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Well, this is the kind of bill that could stop sending our horses to Canada and Mexico, if passed.
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Much better than the NY one. However, I am pessimistic that it will pass.
Tex is right. I was loosely involved with a recent rescue effort where a mare was found at a kill pen in a different state after being dumped by a Finger Lakes trainer. This was over a year ago and he was penalized.
It’s not perfect. There are still issues with this WRT slaughter. It is much more than just a gesture and is one of many first steps in the right direction towards ensuring the welfare of these horses after their first career is over. Next we need KY to get in line too. NY is a pretty big state and is not a small state in terms of racing. This is a big deal.
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PHBA endorses!
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Well it passed the house! Let’s see how it does in the Senate!
Well, this isn’t good…
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But extremely predictable.
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So sad.
Are TBs targeted for slaughter?
When I read that article, I thought a better word would be “exploited.” People who deal in slaughter-bound horses know it’s a lot easier to run up the price when you can positively ID a TB and put names and places to the horses’ history.
I think a point that gets missed a lot is that racing and breeding connections who truly want to dump a horse at slaughter to dispose of them aren’t running them through auctions like New Holland anymore. There is too much public scrutiny. They are selling them straight to feedlots and middlemen who understand the repercussions of putting TBs online. It would be wonderful if we had a better way to track and intercept horses going out of the country for slaughter.
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More push back against container shipping.
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I wish this was across all breeds, across all states…
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I think that ban is mostly symbolic but agree that it would be nice to have something like that federally. As long as they can be exported for human consumption they aren’t safe in any state.
Very interesting. They are going for TB’s because their “rescue” is profitable for money grubbers.
Good for them for writing up legislation to prevent having TBs in the pipeline to begin with.
It also applies to Standardbreds which could be interesting with the number of them that go to the Amish for several years before going through an auction.
