Killing Horses for Humans to Eat!

[Jay262]

Quote:
Horse = bologna?

 

[chickened]

Elmers' glue always had a cow on the bottle but horse was the main animal used.

 

[ChickenfootDuckbutt]

Quote:
Horse = bologna?

no, no

Hologna

sounds SOOOO much better

 

[violetsky]

Somebody mentioned earlier, and sorry I can't find the quote, about the animal welfare leagues, "guilting" people. I would like to
add most of these leagues are money making organizations and operate just like politicians by waving around something that pulls
at the heart strings to get votes or money but really they are really offering no practical solutions. In my own town, for example,
there is a local org. that is taking care of the homeless, around 200 people a year. (They hold counts for federal money). The Federal
government gives 3 million annually to my town. Do the math. That same group collects money privately too, probably more. A lot of the people working
there are good good people but do the math. I've seen the same thing going on with animal welfare leagues. One of my neighbors
has a very well built building on their property that houses "lost" "unwanted" cats. It has vet hospital quality appliances. These people
collect neighbors pets and frequently run an ad for their own cat that was lost years ago and keep the cats they get. I never see any ads
trying to find the cats owners. This family works for a national petshop chain that trys to collect a dollar with every sale. Anybody watch
animal planet Houston and think, hmm, the puppy/dog/horse looks ok that's being taken away. Sure there are animals in a bad way that needs intervention, but
after an organization gets too big I think they start pulling from the street. Don't be "Guilted" anymore. Those big business orgs are probably
taking advantage and I'm guessing there are some whopping salaries and expensive rents being paid based on our emotional decisions.
There are 7 billion humans on this planet so there always will be too many and too little of something. I'm just sick of the "Guilting" for money crap going on.
If you don't want your horse to be slaughtered then don't send him off to be slaughtered. I plan on protecting my own horses as best I can
but I don't want to pay tax dollars or see horses cheapened by anti-slaughter laws.

 

[tdgill]

seems to me that it is more respectful to the animal to make the best use of it. rather than just dispose of it or let it starve to death.

 

[Avalon1984]

Quote:
It is a very touchy subject. You need to remember, for most horse owners, their horses are pets. It'd be the same as saying "Well, I'll just have my dog/cat processed into meat when it starts to get old." Most horse owners have a very deep relationship to their horses.

 

[shadowpaints]

8 years ago, hay was just 100$ a ton here. not bad. jobs were easy to come by , things werent so bad. there were always trail ride that people with big horses (including me) were willing to drive 200 miles with the horse trailer, and spend the day/weekend trail riding. all these things were recreational and gas prices were just 1.73 agallon. when i would drive around, i would see 99% of horses, fat, sassy and saw plenty of people ridding. my step dad, a farrier had regular customers that would have him trim and shoe their horses feet every 8 weeks like clock work

now?

hay is $ 230 a ton for alfalfa hay and thats cheap! its hard to find a job even the gas stations are being more picky on hiring.i sold my biggies because i couldnt afford to go trail riding any more and couldnt afford to go to the arena and ride. it didnt seem right. so i sold them to a local cattle ranch where they will be used, because as much as i love them, they are livestock and have a use. gas is 3.20 a gallon. my step dad now only trims horses feet 1 day a week its no longer a full time job and he is constantly seeing peoples horses that have terribly overgrown feet or other hoof problems. they can only afford to trim their horses feet maybe 3 times a year
now i drive around and see skinny horses in dead feilds, eating tree bark, grasslands etc. you cant give your horses away now. and there is no room at the rescues, no where for unwanted horses to go. many have turned their horses loose in the canyons, or woods. hoping they will be OK . last spring there was a horse whos rear was reduced to hamburger because a cougar had tried to hunt it . the horse had a sever infection and would have died in a matter of days. how sad. how inhumane.
what is more humane? a horse slowly starving then dies in the cold winter months, being turned loose to get attacked by cougars or what not OR going to a slaughter house where its over in a matter of minutes?
i DO think that they should have better humane transportation to the slaughter houses, and when the kill is made it needs to be humane. but i see no reason for slaughter to stay closed.
yes it is the our fault for breeding. just like it is our fault for so many cats and dogs. each of us must do our part. do not breed if you cant keep said animal till it passes away. horses can live to be 30 years old. dogs/cats 10-15 years on average.

but see, over population will always be a issue. 30 years from now you think we will have the same issues?? im sure we will. the guy who takes horses to slaughter houses told me that he has been doing it for 30 years. SO it was a issue 30 years ago too

i know people who made a living breeding amazing qh and paints who no longer can sell their foals. so they quit breeding period. they are down to 5 horses where 8 years ago they had 10 that were just breeding mares, several junior mares, and 2 stallions
they also gelded one of their stallions

i know that there arent many QH and paint breeders still breeding in my area. and if they do breed, its 1-2 foals every few years.
BUT there are many many people who dont geld their stud colt, who is not registered or registerable to that grade mare JUST to have a cute foal. there are many ads on craigslist. 'foal for sale' 100$ the ads many times will say that they cant handle said foal. yadda yadda.

i can tell you now there are at least 10 ads on my areas craigs list for unregiseterable horses. i am sure there are more than that.
i know that registered horses go to slaughter also.

another thing to keep in mind is, though you may say 'if you cant keep your horse euthanize it' there are no vets that will shoot a horse here anyways. and if any one is inexperianced in shooting a horse, not smart to try. there is no other thing in this world worse than taking that shot and not getting the right spot. and having to watch your horse writhe in pain as it dies

so the only other real option is, the 'pink stuff' many people have sold their horse trailers to pay for hay or other costs. so, here is the outline of what it would cost me in my area to euthanize a 1500# horse
Farm call-130$ if its a emergency, add another 100$
Vet exam- 45$ remember most vets will not put a healthy usable animal down. this includes dogs
the pink stuff- 300$ sometimes takes more...

so vet visit alone is 475-575
then if you have the land to burry the horse you must buy a permit to do so. 100$ (permits only last i think 60 days)
if you dont have the land to burry the horse, then you hire somone to haul it off to god only knows where. that is usually about 250.

so 675-775 is the cost to euthanize a horse

many people are being frugal and cannot see spending that amount. and that type of money is just not as easy to come by and the horse dies, that means more waste or the possibility of conamitanted water if the horse isn burried in the right area.

where you can take a horse to the 'kill buyer' say good bye, bring in 200 or 300 $ and the horse is rendered into dog food. the horse dies yes, and it isnt as pretty as 'going to sleep is' but at least its body is being used for something


here at our farm we use everything. our male goats that dont sale or that we dont want as bucks, get castrated and months later butchered, chickens get butchered when they are too old to lay. roosters get butchered around 4 months old
no im not going to butcher and eat my old mares or colts that i dont sale. BUT if i had to have food i would even though it would be hard.

some cultures, the cow is like a horse, and they dont eat beef but will eat horse. horses were for food first, not ridding.
i do my part in trying to help the unwanted horses, i donate to rescues that rescue the useable horses . i get mad when i see a rescue wanting funds to buy senior feed for a 35 year old horse, who cant be ridden, or driven. i know there were younger horses that could hhave been adopted in that older horses place.







we also sold our trucks becuase there was no point in keeping the trucks we couldnt afford the gas

i have miniature horses. to me they are pets not really livestock. BUT if i had no food for my kids , would i eat them or let my kids and i starve? you bet! my hubby is a truck driver. he is gone for 6-12 weeks at a time. truckdrivers used to make good money . not any more.

and i would be willing to try horse meat, who knows i may like it, i didnt think i would like goat meat but i do!! lol

just so you know, this is my opinion, i dont want to fight, i respect your opinion so please respect mine

 

[Avalon1984]

Quote:
I do and I love your adorable minis

We need to do a photo shoot sometimes with my big ladies and your small cute horses

 

[OldChurchEggery1]

There was a well-written article in Rural Heritage magazine a few months ago called "Are we breeding too many horses?" The article cited the average horse lifespan to be about 30 years. The average number of owners in a horse's lifetime? Between 5 and 6. There are "horse people" who seem not to have a problem with this. Instead they want to kick up a fuss about the federal government authorizing inspections of slaughterhouse facilities for horses. The numbers tell me that there are a lot of people who get horses and then, for whatever reason, don't want them anymore so the animals get passed from person to person. If horses are already treated as commodities, being sent from farm to farm, what's the big deal with wanting to eat them? As a student, I dissected horse legs at Virginia Tech's labs. The meat looked a lot like venison to me and I'd certainly eat it.

I would rather there be a regulated industry of meat facilities than people abandoning and/or starving horses they can no longer afford. If the US can legitimately fill an overseas market for horsemeat, all the better for our economy.

 

[NC ChickenKate]

Re. what Shadowpaints in Idaho has to say about the realities of the horsemeat market...you are so right.
I lived in the very northern part of Idaho (North of Sandpoint) from 1981 to 1984. There were always horse haulers at every auction buying up the horses no one wanted and hauling them to Canada where they were turned into meat exported to France. That there was an "end use" for unwanted horses kept the price of any registered horse up. Folks who could only imagine horses as pets were up in arms about it!
I attended a multi million dollar Texas cutting hose sale in the mid 1990s where champage flowed like water and weanlings went for six figures. Later that year the federal tax code changed and suddenly there were no write-offs for "hobby farms". At the next year's sale, they couldn't give the same horses away!
I was in the llama business from 1981 to 2004...when the bottom fell out of the market around 1999-2000 there were llamas being snaped up cheap at auctions for the meat market. (seeing the writing on the wall we stopped breeding 3 years before the crash) People who could only imagine llamas as pets were up in arms about it!
People who continue to breed more animals/livestock of any kind for pets without regards to the possible final fate/disposal of these animals are in it only for a quick buck. Breeders who do not pay attention to the cyclical nature of every pet/livestock/animal breed, who bury their heads in the sand about rising feed costs, who continue to do what they are doing because "that's the way they've always done it", doom the animals they breed to unhappy lives.
If I had to choose between feeding my family and feeding my flock...of course I'd choose my family. May we all be protected from ever having to make such a decision.