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A kind end for a lifetime of equine service
By Gina Spadafori
July 17, 2009
As much as the economy is challenging people who are trying to keep and care for their pets, the situation is even worse for horse-owners. Edie Lau of VIN New Service reports that:
Results of a survey released last week by the Unwanted Horse Coalition show that sales of unwanted horses by owners have doubled in the United States during the past year, while donations and euthanasia are up 50 percent.
The nation’s rescue and adoption facilities, many at or near capacity, are turning away an average of 38 percent of the horses brought to them, according to a summary of survey results.
Advocates for horse-slaughter say this makes the case even stronger for re-opening slaughter plants in the United States. Worse than being transported and killed for food, they say, is being turned loose or being starved to death. Or being transported even farther to slaughter in Mexico, where even the most minimal of humane slaughter standards are routinely ignored. (Do not Google-search “horse slaughter” if you are not ready to hurl at the images, but Salon has a good article on the subject.)
People who are against horse-slaughter argue that horses aren’t livestock in the way that cows or pigs are, and that many horses have lives that more closely resemble those of pets, with human love, handling and attention lavished on them until they become too old or injured to ride. That such animals deserve better than slaughter — they deserve euthanasia.
The pro-slaughter group counters that while that may well be true, slaughter is a necessary evil with no real alternatives. And that horses in the end aren’t pets, and only city people think so.
It’s not true that there are no alternatives to selling an unwanted horse for slaughter.
The humane disposal of a horse won’t put a few coins in the owner’s pocket at the livestock auction when a kill buyer offers the top bid – it will in fact cost a horse-owner money. But I believe the horse’s special niche – as much companion as livestock — means they deserve the consideration of a painless, fear-free death. (The VIN News Service story says the reported cost of equine euthanasia and disposal is less than $400. Yes, it’s a chunk of dough, but it needs to be counted into the cost of getting and keeping a horse.)
The HSUS has come out with a review of alternatives to sending horses to slaughter, a comprehensive state-by-state review of disposal laws and resources. Every horse-owner needs to be aware of these humane alternatives. It’s super work by the research team.
The Prevention of Equine Cruelty Act (H.R. 503/S. 727) is currently in the House. Contact your member of Congress and ask him or her to push for a kind end for the nation’s horses.
Hat tip to Fugly Horse of the Day for the link to the alternatives to slaughter. The Fugly blog makes the case on a near-daily basis that the long-term solution will require people to think before breeding. (And if you read Fugly long enough, you’ll start thinking the breeding she wants stopped is of idjits.)
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on the pro-slaughter side - why waste 1000 lbs of meat that could be used to feed carnivore pets, including numerous zoo animals that thrive on, some say require, red meat?
I’m a horse owner who keeps her horses for life, but I also know I’m a blessed horse owner that has available lands and funds to retire a 1200 lb grazing “dog” in comfort. Should people who don’t have that be required to board a partially healty animal for years? We’ve all stated the the thought that people who get dogs/cats should only be those of s certain (high) income level is wrong. Is this not the same thing? Do these owners of the big “dogs” not also have a right to do with their horse as their income dictates - including using it as a food product as an end of life option? Why is a horse different from say, a pet cow? Don’t give me the nobility speech either. Cows have an equal right to a decent life and a humane death as a horse. Even if they aren’t as “pretty” or “nobel” in your eyes.
On the con-slaughter side, I do not believe that most, if any horse slaughter is humane at this point. Transportation is not definately. I believe it could be. This would be something HSUS could really help with - get Temple Grandin involved, and show us how to handle horses in a manner that their deaths can be fear and pain free.
Comment by Wendy — July 17, 2009 @ 11:36 am
Luckily, I was able to find a purchaser for my horse even in this market. A purchaser who has the means to care for my horse for life (and has provisions for her in case something happens) and I even have visitation rights if I wish. (I don’t, but the idea is nice.) BUT the horse has excellent manners, is easy to keep, easy to manage around other horses, is at the prime of her life, no health or soundness issues and easy to ride. And is pretty to boot. And I was willing to take less than what she’s worth to find her a good home. That’s what it takes in this market.
Friends of mine tell me that in PA, people are just turning their horses loose in the Appalachian foothills. Not good. Near here, a man who runs an exotic cat sanctuary routinely finds horses tied to his fence when he starts his day. Just a couple of years ago, he was offering to haul animals away and dispatch them for a nominal fee. (Like $50 or somesuch. Much less than euthanasia and routine disposal.)
BUT, even in this market, another friend faced scorn from fellow horse owners (none of whom offered to take the horse off of her hands, BTW) when she euthanized a healthy, but scary, gelding after the nth time he tried to kill her. (She’s an experienced trainer and a damn good rider.) His pedigree said that he should be beautifully conformed, but he looked like he was put together by committee; even a future among riders who are willing to put up with a scary, but athletically talented horse was not to be. So rather than pass him off to someone else unsuspecting, she did the right thing and had him euthanized. And faced scorn. What is not right about this picture?
Comment by Deanna — July 17, 2009 @ 12:13 pm
Can there be a way, in this day, to give a horse a kind, dignified, painless death that honors her life, while still refraining from turning her body into a waste-disposal problem?
I agree that horse slaughter and transport, as it is now and as it was before the slaughterhouses closed, is an unacceptable way for us to treat our animal companions, working and sporting partners, who have been taught to expect more of us.
But I also don’t believe that a vet with a needle, followed by removal with a backhoe, is any kinder, more painless, or more dignified than a bullet sent expertly between the eyes followed by butchering into dog and cat food.
Yes, the latter is more upsetting to a loving owner who stands in attendance, aesthetically problematic. But it’s all the same to the horse.
It used to be that country vets had a device for horse and ruminant euthanasia that utilized a bullet rather than chemicals.
As a raw feeder, I would jump at the chance to provide low-cost horsemeat to my animals, knowing that they were being nourished by wholesome food that would have otherwise been an environmental problem. Salvage rather than waste. But that has not been available in this country for decades. And I wouldn’t buy any that was offered commercially if it was obtained by the means that it is now, and was in the recent past.
Comment by H. Houlahan — July 17, 2009 @ 12:56 pm
My personal view: You’re dead, you’re dead. It’s how you live and how you die that matters. Anything after death is being done to provide solace to the survivors, whether the deceased was a human, a cat or a horse.
The canned pet food industry was started because of horses — horses put out of work by the internal combustion engine. The horse who pulled the street car or the doctor’s buggy probably ended up in a can of Ken-L-Ration.
That said, I would probably opt not to have any horse of mine end up on a plate, any more than I would choose for any dog or cat of mine to.
Now, I have eaten parts of chickens and steers I actually met when they were alive — and fed both to the dogs and cats here. But there you have it: I personally do see horses as suspended in a gray zone between livestock and pet. YMMV, of course.
Comment by Gina Spadafori — July 17, 2009 @ 1:08 pm
Speaking of Ken-L-Ration …. old post just got a cool comment when I wasn’t looking — from a granddaughter of the founder!
http://www.petconnection.com/b.....ent-470051
Comment by Gina Spadafori — July 17, 2009 @ 1:12 pm
Another problem I’ve seen cited with slaughtering horses for use with meat is that the horse may have been given some sort of drug or treatment that would normally render the meat unacceptable under the guidelines issued for meat animals such as cattle.
Comment by The OTHER Pat — July 17, 2009 @ 1:21 pm
Yes, withdrawal times from medication would be an issue for some euthanized horses, but not all.
Comment by H. Houlahan — July 17, 2009 @ 1:30 pm
Old, sick animals full of medications can be buried - nothing wrong with that. Nobody would want them taken off their medications just to provide food.
There are lots of other horses euthanasias, just as the (very justified) behavioral one described that don’t have the medication issue. Acute injuries, severe behavioral and conformational defects, etc.
I lost an 18 year old to a bizarre choking incident 2 years ago. The vet was called immediately, and within a few minutes we knew he was irreparably damaged and unlikley to be repairable even with heroic effort. He was not a riding horse (chronically lame from a year on) and was basically a pet for us and a companion for my other gelding. The decision to let him go was heart wrenching….and then you can add my sustainable farming oriented mind to the fact that I..
can’t make a decision about what to do with my own horse’s body after he is euthanized. Shot, he could have fed my dogs healthy meat for months. Instead, he was pumped full of chemicals and dropped in a hole. 1800 pounds of *waste*. That’s not respect for life. That’s just animal rights fools adding to the landfill levels.
Comment by Wendy — July 17, 2009 @ 1:45 pm
I’m pretty sure that there are horses besides “old sick” ones that have been treated with medications that are prohibited from entering the food chain. I’m not in agriculture, so I don’t know what they are. But I do know (in general terms) that meat producers are under certain types of prohibitions about what they can and cannot have given their animals within certain time frames of sending them to market.
I was just pointing out that a similar concern exists here but that it would probably be even more logistically complex to police since you’d have animals coming in “onesies” from individual hobby owners all over the place rather than herds from farmers who do this for a living and know what the rules are. So some sort of procedure would have to be instituted (perhaps one exists already - if so, I’ve never seen it referenced when I’ve read people mentioning this particular potential problem) wherein the person surrendering the horse for slaughter would have to document what drugs may have been in the horse’s system and when.
Not impossible to implement, and not a detail that should be swept under the rug.
As it currently stands (as I understand it), horses go into the auction pen, and if a slaughter buyer gets them, they go into a kill pen from whence they are loaded onto a truck and driven to Mexico (or Canada?) for slaughter. Is individual medication documentation on each of those horses being maintained through all these various steps in the chain of custody?
Serious consideration of slaughtering horses and using the meat for consumption - whether by animals or humans - should not be undertaken without this particular detail having been addressed. Regardless of whether the horses in question are “old and sick” or not.
Comment by The OTHER Pat — July 17, 2009 @ 5:41 pm
Thank you for the HSUS link: “Humane Horse Disposal Options.”
Washington, DC., July 14, ‘09: “Horses on the Hill” & “National Calling In Day.” Horse disposal is a major concern for one of my upstate, agricultural-based, NY Rep’s district. And I am sure more Reps and counties. Concern over equine burial: cost, danger and damage to the environment (water/drainage/disease).
The Rep. was against horse slaughter but would not co-sponsor due to problems w/ local disposal of dead horses. Most likely in his area, euthanasia would be by a vet and/or a well-placed bullet, by capable hands, to the horse’s head.
Cremation can be costly. A viable option is a rendering plant.
However, a rendering plant can be a distance away, and costly for owner carcass transport or rendering plant pick-up/transport.
Another alternative is a regional animal carcass collection site.
Horse owners bring the dead animal to the ramp and place them into a water tight container. A local farmer, or rendering plant employee, hauls the container to the rendering plant. The site is maintained by the county Livestock Association. The rendering plant pays the Livestock Association for the dead animal.
This is a convenient, safe, and economical alternative to disposal of horse mortality.
Comment by Ronnie — July 18, 2009 @ 7:03 am
Heather, I don’t know if I’d want my animals eating horsemeat unless I knew where it came from. The monthly oral paste dewormers given to horses clearly state on the packaging something to the effect of “not to be given to an animal intended for food.” And there are daily dewormers and feed-thru fly stuff too. Horses, thankfully, miss out on the antibiotic laden feed, so at least there’s that.
The horses destined for slaughter are just as chemical-laden as any other. I always got an ironic, tragic chuckle out of that when I read the dewormer packaging.
As far as disposal, cremation of large animals is incredibly expensive. A little secret is that most people bury their horses on their property. (As far as I know, that’s not exactly legal.) As morbid as it sounds, if it’s possible, the best way to dispose of a chemically euth’d horse is to dig the hole first and euth the horse close to the hole. (You get the idea without me going into details, I hope.) If it’s an emergency, an effort is made to get the horse to a place where a backhoe can easily get to. (No one wants to see their beloved pet winched onto a flat-bed trailer for transport.) When your pet weighs around 1,000 lbs., what else do you do?
Comment by Deanna — July 18, 2009 @ 10:03 am
Comment by Deanna — July 18, 2009 @ 10:03 am
As far as disposal, cremation of large animals is incredibly expensive.
Gina’s article states “The VIN News Service story says the reported cost of equine euthanasia and disposal is less than $400”. I don’t know that I’d count that as “incredibly expensive”, especially given that’s a one-time expense (by definition!) over the lifetime of a loved animal. (Heck - I just spent more than that doing a spay and biopsy of breast lumps on my cat!).
Is the VIN number incorrect, or do horse owners actually view $400 as “incredibly expensive”?
Comment by The OTHER Pat — July 18, 2009 @ 12:01 pm
That disposal figure is likely for sending the remains for rendering or burying them on the property, which involves the use of a backhoe. It’s not for cremation, which is an expensive choice even with large dogs. (I think I paid more than $300 to have my retriever Ben cremated, four years ago.)
Comment by Gina Spadafori — July 18, 2009 @ 12:10 pm
I agree with you, Gina. $400 sounds about right for burying a horse. (A friend with access to a backhoe might do it for less.) Last price I heard for cremation was upwards of $1000. :-((((
I did a quick google search and one article said that horse cremation was $300. I have no idea where they came up with THAT number. I found a crematorium in Pasa Robles, CA and their pricing sounds closer to the numbers I’ve heard tossed around: $1000 - $1250 depending on the size of the horse. That does not include a pick up fee of $250 - $450. And the cost of the euth is on top of that.
Comment by Deanna — July 18, 2009 @ 8:06 pm
Deanna, I use a fenbendazole wormer on my goats.
EXACT SAME CHEMICAL as one of the past wormers for horses.
Same with ivomec, and I bet a whole lot of other parasite controls.
Again, withdrawal times are established for food animals using the same medications.
Location, location, location of euthanasia. Doesn’t matter what method.
I look at our near-vertical pastures — perfectly suitable for goats and sheep, indeed, they like it that way — and am incredulous that people kept horses on these pastures for decades. If an animal the size of a horse went down on some parts of it, you’d have to drag it out by tractor in pieces.
I know that there are a lot of animals badly buried on this place. The people who owned it over a decade ago had, I am told, some questionable husbandry and maintenance practices. I’m making discoveries in the manure pile that do not thrill me. No horse heads yet.
Comment by H. Houlahan — July 18, 2009 @ 9:50 pm
Comment by H. Houlahan — July 18, 2009 @ 9:50 pm
Again, withdrawal times are established for food animals using the same medications.
And again, are individual owners of horses going to slaughter going to be as knowledgeable about these guidelines as are farmers whose business it is to raise and sell food animals for their meat?
And are horses received at slaughter houses required to be accompanied by any sort of documentation attesting to the fact that the necessary withdrawal times have been followed?
I’m not saying any of this would be terribly difficult to do. I’m just wondering whether it is (or is not) being done.
Comment by The OTHER Pat — July 18, 2009 @ 10:05 pm
O.P., I was going to say kind of the same thing, and I can assure you that making sure the horse is safe for the food supply is on very, very few horse owner’s minds. On top of that, there are monthly paste dewormers (fen-ben is one of the least scary ones with a huge margin for dosing error) and then there are scary paste dewormers (like Quest which has a very small margin for dosing error and, btw, is the same chemical that was used in ProHeart, the dog HW med that was recalled). There are daily dewormers which many people use because they are easy. (Thus ensuring a constant chemical load.) And then there are even scarier feed-thru fly preventatives. Google “rabon feed through fly preventative” for some interesting reading. Just to ease all of your minds , rabon isn’t packaged for horses anymore, but is for cattle and swine, often put in a salt/mineral block so there’s no way to regulate how much the animal gets. (Rabon an organophosphate. Need I say more?) Many horse people use those blocks for their horses. And THEN there are things like bute (phenylbutazone), an anti-inflammatory, that horses are routinely put on to manage pain. Who knows what all is pumped into competing horses. Lasix for sure and corticosteroids for joint pain. :-(((((
Comment by Deanna — July 19, 2009 @ 7:45 pm