07/05/2020
How the horse slaughter business survives and how it works.
1.First it all starts with the breeders who breed horses, we have a major surplus of horses created each and every year and not enough capable homes and trainers to take all of them on, thats number one.
2. Horse owners who get horses who can no longer keep them for various reasons or loose interest, dont have enough funds, breed mares that should not be bred, leave young horses without training, dont geld and then dont know what to do with "Fluffy" the horse when it no longer meets their needs or they outgrow the use of the horse, it becomes lame, not going to make it as a show horse or finished with racing.
3. So now next in the chain. what happens to these horses?. Adds are placed in newspapers, word of mouth, craigslist, horse publications, call a dealer or middleman to come get the horse, or send the horse to auction, lets face it, some of these horses will get sold to good homes, some will not, (we see the "do not get good homes all to often) Do you know that there are people who pretend to be offering good homes who show up at peoples houses with the promise of a good life for their horse only to take it to auction or sell it to slaughter directly? YES this happens more than you know.
Horses are sometimes offered to free leases and given away for free in hopes of finding their horse a good home. Sadly many will end up in the auction circuit then into the slaughter pipeline.
Fact rescues and other people dont generally want your 30 yr old horse that needs to be on meds 5 times a day because you dont want to deal with it anymore, what makes you think someone else wants to take this on. Fact there is a lot worse things that can happen to your horse than choosing humane euthanisia. Fact a dangerous horse is not an easy horse for anyone to take on. Fact just because you have a mare and dont know what else to do with her, you breed her to make her more sellable, only temporarily prevents the inevitable, now you have brought one more life into this world that may also become unwanted.
4. What kinds of horses enter the slaughter pipeline, EVERYKIND, slaughter does not discriminate from breed, s*x, age, winnings, level of training, how much you spent on said horse. Want to ensure a horse ends up at slaughter, keep a stud, never break it, breed mares with no training equals disaster. EVERYONE LOOSES.
5. Tough decisions and solutions.
****Limit breeding
**GELD GELD GELD
*Get your horses trained, start with ground work, no one wants an adult horse that doesnt lead or doesnt know the basics.
*Put away a rainy day fund for your horses humane euthanasia
*Make sure you have a will and trust set up for your animals. (your family most often will not know what to do with your horses
*WE NEED AFRORDABLE HUMANE EUTHANASIA CLINICS SET UP ACROSS THIS COUNTRY.
*Freeze brand your horse for identification purposes.
* Do not rely on rescues to clean up this mess, there is only so many of us and we are often limited by financial means and space, support your local rescue, do a fund raiser, help set up a gelding clinic, help with community outreach programs, (EVERYONE CAN DO SOMETHING)
6. Kill buyers sadly are the ones cleaning up our mess, often people dont know what happens and many sadly dont want to know.
7. Rescues all have a job to do, we all should not be expected to do things the same way, whatever way a horse is helped or saved, makes a difference to that horse regardless of how it was assisted.
THE BOTTOME LINE, THERE IS A LOT OF WORK TO BE DONE, BUT TRUTHFULLY IT STARTS WITH OWNERS AND BREEDERS. SLAUGHTER IS THE END RESULT BECAUSE OF THE RESASONS STATED ABOVE.
I hope this post has helped provide some understanding to what horses in our country are faced with daily, they need us to find solutions and for horse owners to take the lead and make good decisions that will impact a horses life from beginning to end.
Please consider making a donation to help us to continue to provide life saving services for horses in need.
https://horseswithouthumans.org/donate/