When slaughter is banned;

Cremation cost by the one service in our area is based on the horses weight. Average cost is $1000.

Our Landfill will not take dead animals and the renderer will only take cattle & horses at a cost of $25 for cattle and $127 for horses, foals are $50. Sheep & goats must be disposed of by owners- the renderer will not take them. I don’t know if my county has an ordinance against pyres but I do know livestock, including horses, are taken to the back 40 to allow nature to dispose of the remains.

I suspect the price of having a rendering company pick up a horse will increase should the slaughter ban go into effect- the demand will increase. I’ve asked the rendering company route driver “why does it cost $127 for a horse and $25 for cattle?” and he said “It’s business. Cattle are food products, horses are pets and that is what the company can charge. At the plant the bodies are not separated by species, they all go into the same vat for processing.”

[QUOTE=SLW;1867915]
I suspect the price of having a rendering company pick up a horse will increase should the slaughter ban go into effect- the demand will increase.[/QUOTE]

I don’t understand - the demand for what will increase? For rendering? I can’t imagine it would change significantly. And if it did, then couldn’t all those unemployed slaughterhouse workers find work picking up all those horse bodies for rendering?

What about the horses that continue to live and be cared for? They will eat grain and hay. That’s more income for farmers and Purina. They will need vetting and farriery - more jobs for those people.

yes-

it’s all about profits-cut into it enough, and it will go away.

making it illegal WILL cut into profits.

[QUOTE=bjrudq;1867710]
“I think that all the time, money, and emotions could have been better spent finding ways to transport and new technology to slaughter in a manner acceptable to the caring horsemen”

it’s been DONE! so much effort has already gone into this to NO avail. if you’d been reading these threads and reading articles about this you’d know that people on both sides of this issue have already expended quite a bit of effort in this direction. for YEARS.

the slaughter industry does NOT care.[/QUOTE]

I would not expect the slaughter industry to care, unless they had to by law and monetary penalties.

“It’s been DONE” You mean, other than the bolt gun, there is a quick, humane, inexpensive and effective method of killing a horse that could be realistically and profitably used by slaughter plants? What is it? Why isn’t there a big campaign to pass legislation to require it?

I have also not read of a drive to find funding to pay vets to euthanize all the horses that will need it now. Will the Senate bill have a rider to fund that? The percentage of those 90,000 per year slaughtered horses that will be privately rescued, or placed in donation funded retirement homes is what number? If this bill is passed, what will happen to those unwanted horses that would then not bring a bid at the auctions? I never hear the answers to these questions. BTW, I am taking life long care of two of my own old and injured horses, .

I think the owner of the horse should be responsible for the cost of euthanasia, by whatever method.

Bullets are still cheap. Coyotes will pick a carcass clean within a week. It doesn’t have to be expensive.

[QUOTE=LarkspurCO;1868039]
I think the owner of the horse should be responsible for the cost of euthanasia, by whatever method.

Bullets are still cheap. Coyotes will pick a carcass clean within a week. It doesn’t have to be expensive.[/QUOTE]

Exactly…

There is a big cat sanctuary in my state threatened with closure due to lack of funding to keep up the property and feed the cats.

Some of that horseflesh would be welcomed by the formerly abused and neglected big cats that reside there.

Horsemeat has fallen greatly out of favor as an animal food in recent decades- and for commercial purposes, rightly so. There are medicines given to horses that could very adversely effect, say, a Pekingese or a Cockapoo. However, a lion or tiger might devour the entire horse without any ill effects.

Not wanting to get into another trainwreck, but I just saw an article on this big cat sanctuary in the paper and thought I’d comment. There’s no laws against a horse humanely shot in the head being fed to a tiger; just against it being fed to the French. It wouldn’t be hard to get a couple volunteers who loved the big cats and had hunting experience to offer to do the horse the final service, and transport could be arranged.

When slaughter is banned, solutions like this will come up, and all animals will benefit, humans included. Horses get humane deaths, the big cats get dinner, the zoo gets free dinner for the carnivores, and humans get peace of mind and a little incentive to breed less carelessly.

I heard about the big cat sanctuary problems. Your solution for both the horses and cats is excellent - a real one, vs pie in the sky thinking. Tom Martino,“the Troubleshooter” is involved in a fund raising effort for the cats somehow.

The solution is simple:

Stage one is banning horse slaughter. This should put about 90k horses on the streets, which is no good for horses or public safety. Imagine, people hitting horses with their cars! It would be like the deer overpopulation, except many millions of animals fewer. Still, we don’t want horses to end up like coyotes or hedgehogs or racoons - digging through garbage, infringing on city limits, living under bridges, starting gang wars, and spreading rabies. That wouldn’t be civilized.

So we implement stage two: releasing endangered carnivors into areas of high homeless horse populations. Wolves and tigers will meet at last, and perhaps we can finally discover who the Ultimate Animal Fighter is. But I digress. This way, unwanted horses can be naturally and efficiently eliminated. This could also help the deer overpopulation and cut down the number of animal-automobile accidents. As a helpful bonus, homeless or foolish people would be all but eliminated. And as a taxpayer, my pocketbook would certainly appreciate that.

But we have to be careful, because a lack of stupid people might damage the economy (frivolous lawsuits might be eliminated entirely, but we’d still have lawyers around). Therefore, stage 3 is to instate a fee for disposing of unwanted animals and/or people. For $99 plus tax, companines will spring up round the nation to butter up your chronicly lame horse or relative with garlic sauce (like from Benihana!) and send them out into the street. Much cheaper than euthanasia, and a natural death so you don’t have to feel too bad. And it should make the garlic and dairy farmers happy. Then we’d have a) no unwanted horses, b) no endangered predators, c) fewer morons, and d) a heightened agricultural economy. Everyone’s a winner.

Theres lots of people that think lots of things. The point is the bill didn’t address any of it thats why so many peole and groups could not support it.What anyone on here thinks ts meaningless get your thoughts and suggestions into a bill then maybe things would be differant. Saying it on the internet doesn’t make it law

Something tells me that urban and suburban horse owners dont have the luxury of that method! My neighbors just might complain. :winkgrin:

I also think the owner of the horse should be responsable for the cost of killing it. But in some parts of the country it does have to be expensive. I have a cousin that lives and boards in Chigaco. Against the law to shoot one downtown, not any coyotes running around there either.

When horse slaughter is ended by the will of the majority of the American people, I am positive the American way will start new AMERICAN businesses, like more rendering companies. If there are truly 90,000 horses that will need disposing of when slaughter ends, just think of all the money to be made as a rendering company.

And for the kill buyers. . . every one I have asked said, “no big deal. . . I will simply haul more cows. There is plenty of livestock hauling work to be had.”

I don’t think the will of the people will decide I highly doubt there even going to let us vote on it. More rendering plants? Not unless the attitude of towns and states makes a huge change. No one wants one in their area. They tryed starteing another one up here in Mn. in two places both said no way let someone else have it. Same thing with land fills.

I have only read page one and the last page of this thread. As an avid auction buyer, not neccesarily a rescue, but I have bought from the killer and outbid him, but sometimes I find a super horse buy it cheap and sell it for more, so a trader I will be. Regardless I attended an auction yesterday and spoke with all of the “gool ole boys” and the killer. I have a thread on another board including some pics of horses that they could not GIVE AWAY for 20 bucks…the killer wasn’t buying, he said he had a job hauling other livestock etc. He didn’t buy at killer prices and horses that were skinny, old, and injured ran through and guess what NO ONE BOUGHT THEM. At least with slaughter even the unwanted have some sort of value. I predict a very sad future for a lot of ponies.

Here is a link to the thread on a board in Texas

http://www.horsegazette.com/class/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=18165&highlight=

[QUOTE=KristiC;1863777]
I am happy about the slaughter bill being passed in the house and I am not in denial that there are/will be problems. But I’ve never been one to sweep my problems under the rug(or send my don’t wants to slaughter). So as a nation of horse owners we will have to face our problems.
How do we get started with better solutions for those excess horses?

• how do we get clinics/vet schools to offer more inexpensive euthanasia?
• can these schools use the bodies for teaching?
• can we get government to help fund euthanasia/cremation/disposal?
• will breeders that mass produce lower quality horses reduce their output because it is not as easy to dump their unwanted young horses?
• can we provide better/more animal control enforcement?
• can we get goverment to help fund santuaries/rescues(we’re going to need a lot more of them)?

We need to start focusing our efforts on solutions. How do we get started?
There is a starting place for everything.

I just saw about 4 mares and foals on a well know west coast rescue feedlot. Moron…that dropped them off should be…[/QUOTE]

They should have figured all that out BEFORE slaughter was banned. The slaughter industry kills approximately 100,000 PER YEAR. That’s alot of unwanted horses that no one seems to know what they are going to do with now. Add to that number the 35,000 BLM mustangs standing in holding pens right now, waiting for homes.

Agreed…it should always be the owners responsibility. Don’t be so sure about coyotes in Chicago though…they are moving right into the suburbs these days and stealing cats and dogs out of their yards. In my area, our best scavengers are the buzzards. They are remarkable. I have seen a deer carcass picked clean in hours. I would be afraid they would get to a dead horse before I could get my neighbor over here to bury it. He charges $100 to do that.

Slaughter hasn’t been banned and myself I really doubt it will be unless some actual thought goes into a bill. But your 100% right. The answers to some problems needs to be addressed first not after.

Shooting a horse and leaving it out for scavengers is an option in many areas across the country. I wouldn’t expect it to be an option in Chicago or NYC. But how many people really can’t afford to euthanize and dispose of a horse by currently acceptable methods?

As for provisions in the legislation to account for every possible scenario resulting from its passage, do you expect this for every piece of legislation? After passage, many bills require a long regulatory phase to hash out the details.

I wonder whether legislation making abortion illegal includes detailed plans for preventing unwanted pregnancies, medical care for crack babies and premies, caring for orphans, educating and feeding the additional people who will be born, finding work for the unemployed abortionists (ha!)?

Here’s something interesting to contemplate regarding rendering plants and disposal of dead animals: During the seemingly endless heat wave this past summer, my part of California lost thousands upon thousands of dairy cattle. (Disputing the “Happy California Cows” ad campaign, most California dairy cattle live their short lives in crowded dry lots with hundreds, if not thousands, more of their sisters.) Shade is not always available or adequate. The dairies are not allowed to bury the dead cattle without special permission. One of the TWO rendering plants in the three-county area was down for repairs, and the carcass piles got pretty high. The dairies were, eventually, allowed to bury the bodies, but…as you might expect, the rendering business is expanding here very quickly.

Bottom line: If there is a necessity of disposing of 90,000 plus horse bodies per year in the U.S., you can bet big money that rendering plants will become the new growth industry.

If irresponsible owners miss out on the $100 or less they’d “earn” by dumping their horse at a killer auction, well, that’s just too damned bad, ain’t it? I suppose they can afford a 20 cent bullet; and if the renderer is too expensive, they can haul the body to a zoo.