Starving horses crisis in Kentucky?

This is why slaughter shouldn't be banned! Apparently, I read somewhere that there is an Act wanting to come through to make horses become classified as pet animals, not livestock animals - which is why the slaughter houses were closed. It is illegal to slaughter a pet animal (a dog, a cat...) for meat, but it is not illegal to slaughter a livestock animal for meat (cows, goats, sheep, horses).

Some moron who doesn't understand the fact that there is a horse over population issue; that there are owners more willing to throw their unwanted horses out in a back field and forget about and let them starve to death rather than waste a bullet; that there are not enough people to care for, house, and treat properly all these unwanted, broken, lame, sick, or otherwise not-needed horses; and people like that decided what a great idea it would be to classify horses as pets, not livestock - which all tied into the NAIS as well.....

So now, we have an enormous amount of "pet" horses dying of starvation and total lack of care, major over population issues, and overcrowded and underfunded rescues. This is all supposed to be for the good of the horse?

I love horses, too, and I would never send mine to slaughter, and could never imagine turning my back on the basic care that they need, even with 2 out of my 4 being totally unuseable as riding horses to me due to back problems, but I still think banning slaughter, classifying horses as pets, and creating rules where all horses have to be chipped, is a terrible idea. Just terrible.

I don't like the idea of slaughter, but I like the idea of unwanted horses starving to death or dying of west nile, EIA, encephalitis, or serious injury in somebody's forgotten back field or in some overcrowded lot, far far less. At least slaughter, while brutal, did put a quicker end to these animals' sufferings.

Personally, I'm a meat eater - I could eat a nice NY Strip every day if I had the money, and I just wonder - with cows, sheep, and goats, all being treated the exact same way at slaughter; what makes slaughtering horses so different; and are they going to ban slaughter of all animals?

People say horses are so much more emotional, so much more like a cat or dog in the sense of human bonding - I tell you what, though; from being around goats and pet cows - if you really get to know these animals, they are equally as emotional, equally as bondable to humans; they might not have the same entrigue and romantic flair as horses, but cows and other livestock still have emotions, still have intellignence, and are still slaughtered.

I live in Central Georgia. We've had record draught in the northern part of the state but is hasn't been so bad here. In anticipation of a hay shortage this year farmers have bailed hay from sources that normally doesn't get bailed. I've seen farmers bailing the grass in pecan orchards and other fields that normally has been left to grow naturally. I think that because the farmers had the foresight to do that we haven't had the shortages this year that we suffered last year. I really don't blame the slaughter house closings on people not doing right by their animals. That is a people problem. Like the man who threatened to shoot his animals before watching them starve, I will put my horses down before I allow them to starve. When they become unusable, or have no quality of life I will put them down. If a time comes that I cannot afford to feed them I would make every effort to rehome them with someone I know would care for them. Slaughter has never been an option I would choose, no matter what.

I see the same thing here in Texas. And they are predicting a heavy drought this year, so hay is going to go thru the roof (it is alraedy high at $14.00 a bale). And I am seeing horses like this all over the place. Went to the sale on Sat. and horses were being given away. $25-$100 for a papered weanlings and yearlings. $300 for a riding horse. I think that the people in Congress who oppose the horse slaughter ban should have to support what they are causing. Maybe they should have a horse (or several) dropped on the front door of their fancy townhomes and maybe they will open their eyes to what they are voting for. While I know that there a many who oppose slaughter, I think that this is setting our country back 200 years in progress. And the same people who oppose it are the first ones who will breed their long tailed mare to the neighbors stallion so that they can have a "cute" baby. Without ever thinking about the long term effects. I only see this problem getting worse as fuel prices continue to rise and the lack of rain persists.

Hay is available. Yes, the price has gone up significantly but there is still hay to be had. There were several horses seized in my area due to lack of feeding, but this was because the owners didn't want to feed their animals (or to pay the elevated price of feed), not that they could not buy hay.

What the slaughter ban has done is drastically decrease the bottom-feeder buyers who were able to buy horses that owners were looking to dump for a variety of reasons. I'm sure that there are owners who would be very happy to sell off horses that they cannot afford to keep any longer and don't mind that slaughter may be the ultimate fate for their unwanted horses, but I think that the slaughterhouses being shut are only a single factor in this problem, not the primary cause. Horses still get sold and are still sent to slaughter.

In the article, one of the horses found abandoned was shown to have suffered from long-term mistreatment. In other words, him being abused had little if anything to do with any hay shortage. Horses have suffered abuse and neglect long before this past six months when hay prices started going up. The shortage is often cited as an excuse for not feeding the animals properly. If one really cares about their horse, they tighten their own belts as much as they can to make sure that their horses are fed.

I know of owners that are canceling vacation plans, taking part-time jobs and doing whatever they have to so they can cover the extra cost of feeding their animals. Their horses are being cared for properly. I'm a firm believer that if one wants a horse, you have an obligation to that animal to do right by it even if it's a financial hardship to some degree. Those who fail to care for their animals often do not need the excuse of higher feed prices. If feeding a horse will be too much of a hardship, the owner can opt to have the horse humanely euthenized, which costs about the same as 1 month of feed and board. That is the kindest thing to do with horses who's owners can no longer keep them or who have reached the end of their commerical value or use.

Pro slaughter people write articles for publication as do the people against slaughter. There is still a booming slaughter market. Canada had 4 plants. Since the 3 slaughter plants in the U.S. closed 3 new ones have opened in Canada. U. S. horses are coming in by the thousands in double decker cattle cars for slaughter. Natural Valley at Neudorf Saskatchewan is killing 500 horses a day. That is only one facility. Most of these are young perfectly healthy horses. A nut case near me had 42 arabs last year. All half starved, not trained and not registered. Ten of these were stallions, stuck in dirty little pens . The couldn't afford to castrate them because she would then not have been able to buy hay. She shipped 15 for slaughter. She still has 6 stallions and a stud colt. I am not for slaughter but I think shipping them was kinder than the life they had. She has a new live in at the moment so the horses are doing a bit better. as long as he kicks in a few dollars. She buys hay as she feeds it by the pickup load summer and winter. Hay here is $6.00 per a 60 lb bale. I see nothing wrong with shooting a horse rather than shipping it. There is no stress or mistreatment involved as there would be on a long crowded desperate trip to a slaughterhouse. You tube has slaughterhouse videos. I can't watch them. There is 2 sides to every story.

I got a young small pony from a horse rescue last summer. He was one of 72 live horses and about 5 dead ones on 35 acres. They were all skinny and full of worms and almost all of the mares were pregnant by various ungelded horses out in their field (probably related to them). It was a mess, and this was before the drought hit (they were rescued in December '06). Slaughter wouldn't have helped these horses, since the owner thought she was taking care of them, but that she just "had a little more than she could handle" right now. After rescue, many babies were born and a year later most are still at the horse rescue facility.

So I think the lack of slaughter facilities might be causing some of these problems, but I think more are caused by stupid owners who don't feel they're mistreating their horses.

Where I live, this is not as much of a problem - mostly because of several large cities, not a lot of people have large head of horses. There are a few breeding farms around here, but not backyard breeding farms of 50 head that seems to be prevalent in Kentucky.

It amazes me the amount of people on this forum own or know someone who owns a stallion. You don't get that around here - very few stallions. If you go to Hill Top Farm, yeah - four or five warmblood stallions, but that's different - they are a well established breeding farm. The people that own my farm do own a stallion - they were going to breed their one mare to him and the people said they could not afford to keep him anymore, so the owners bought him. In four years, he has sired four foals.

This seems to be contrary to the horses further out west and south where land is less expensive and people can afford 50 or 100 acres of land and likely let a stallion run with a herd and have 30 head born every year.

The auction closest to me is a killer auction and always has been. This is not to say that killer buyers are the only ones that go there - the Amish, lesson barns and others go there. Two of my horses came from there. The place has cleaned up greatly in the last decade - you used to see greatly emanciated horses there, horses with legs dangling or sores all over....

I think the article that Boxer Lover linked to is correct, there is definitely an overbreeding issue in the US. Sometimes I want to yell at people on this forum who want to breed their little grade pony to some stallion because they think she's cute and a baby would be cute. Or they want to breed their purebred with major confirmation issues because they want a baby. People need to start looking deeper into why they are breeding and how many more horses they actually need.

Hay is a problem here in southern IN, but it appears that things are softening up a bit. I took two calls today from people who had horses that they were "terribly concerned about how thin they were". One was feeding junk round bales, the other said she "wasn't feeding hay because there wasn't any to be found." BULL. It's there, it's just expensive, compared to normal for our area. This gal had been feeding her horse 1 SCOOP of hay cubes per day, and 1/4 CAN of grain. Figured out to less than a pound of grain, and less than 2 pounds of alfalfa per day. And she wondered why her horse was getting skinny???!!!!

On the same thing....I just had a gal GIVE me a lovely palomino TWH mare. 4 years old, broke to ride and drive, registered....she'd tried for 3 months to sell her with no luck, so she just told me to come and get her. I didn't NEED her... didn't WANT her....but then I rode her this last weekend. I can't find any holes in this mare, other than she's a bit thin. With groceries she may be different, but so far, it's a sad statement for the market so far as I'm concerned.

I am from Iowa and hay prices keep jumping higher and higher. The hay is at $6.50 a small square bale for alfalfa/grass mix. The last story i heard was 28 Horses seized south of Des Moines for starving horses. AS hay prices climb more and more horses are getting neglected its so sad. We have rescued 2 and we are now up to 14 Horses.It's going to be just getting worse.

It's happening here in Oregon. You can just drive around and see underweight horses. Haven't seen "starving" ones yet, but most horse people around here have some story about the "starving" ones. Some haven't "worked" their horses this winter, because they didn't want to burn any extra calories off their horses.

I just got offered a job breaking/training a backyard bred yearling. The classic case of "wouldn't a baby be cute?" A Quarab, bred to the neighbor's mustang. So, they have a yearling stallion, that's never been touched. And penned with it's mother. I "suggested" they get him gelded, and they tell me, they can't get near him. ARGH!!

They offered me payment in hay, so I'm heading over there. Sad though...another horse that has no future, as long as it stays where it is. It'll be fed, but who's gonna handle it if the vet needs to come? They seem to think "one" lesson from me...will fix the problem. sigh