I really love horses. Always have. I have owned my own since I was 10yrs old and have never been without one or many since and I'm now 55. I won't go into my many professional pursuits within the horse industry over the last 35+ years but lets just say they are many, and they have been vastly diverse. I have loved every minute.
Now let me shock you (probably a lot). I am and have always been in support of horse slaughter. You see I have enjoyed much of my life in the trenches of the horse industry and unlike the horse hobbyist, or suburban housewife that reads about horse slaughter and instantly "knows" it should be banned, and is unspeakably wrong,"I" have another perspective.
The fact is we breed too many horses, too many horses never get properly trained, too many horses contract incurable and chronic conditions making them useless to their owners, and too many horses become impossible to market to a new buyer for a whole host of reasons. This is where the "kill buyer" used to get his meat horses for human consumption overseas where PEOPLE eat horse meat.
Animal rights minded people might find it fairly easy to shame the average person unhappy with a pet dog or cat into keeping that size animal for the duration of its natural life. A lot of people likely can be guilted into accepting the idea that they themselves should suffer personal unhappiness for the sake of a house pet they acquired for the 10-15 years of its life, but... a horse that lives twice that long on average, and costs a whole helluva lot more to maintain, "Houston we have a problem" Even the PTS (put to sleep) option is not always a viable one for a horse owner. In many states its illegal to bury, and cremation is very expensive. Even if you can bury old Dobbin under the old oak tree its the cost of a backhoe rental and either the vet or your gun if you know what your doing, The only thing inexpensive in that scenario is the bullet. We are talking a low end of $300 and a high end closer to $3,000.
All that aside, for me, this is the bottom line. Just look at the picture above. I took that a couple of years ago at a local low end auction. There were lots of pens full of horses that were starving. I had never in my 45 years with horses seen one that emaciated that was still on its feet with a heartbeat. Whats worse is that until the "do gooders" got horse slaughter banned in the U.S. I had very rarely saw a skinny horse at such a sale even though I frequented such sales three times a week for several years. See they used to be worth something in good flesh. Now with such a low bottom dollar they are not worth keeping healthy for what they will bring at the auction. You do not see this problem with cows because they do have a healthy slaughter value.
Not to mention the trailer ride for these horses is longer than it has ever been. Add to that, that they all must cross the border into a another nation. We have no say in the methods used, or have any U.S,D.A. oversight to ensure the humane handling of the animals in that pipeline. The truth is those nearly unmarketable horses have it far worse than they have ever had it in history. All because loud and clueless people decided the reality of what happens to low end horses was unpalatable to them. Unless you favor suffering over death, I beg to differ.
Yes...it is "politically correct" to loudly proclaim you are against the slaughter of American horses for human consumption if your a horse owner/lover. However...that "political correctness" has made far further misery on those horses while playing a significant role in devaluing all horses spare the very best of the best ones. None of those things are good for horses. So I stand firm in my refusal to be "politically correct" I care way too much about horses to do that to them.
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