Horse slaughter

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Finley Club Calves

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Aug 10, 2012
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41
I am doing an essay on horse slaughter and was wondering if you guys know of any good websites to check out that just have information and not an oppinion? ??? I hav been researching and all i can find is PETA type info.  :mad:
Thanks,
FCC
 

herfluvr

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Joined
Jul 3, 2010
Messages
231
Hope you have a strong stomach and a strong conviction either way becasue in order to understand this issue you need to look at both sides.  I don't want flamed for saying I am STRONGLY for horse slaughter and what needs to happen is a better regualtion of the process that leads a horse to a slaughter plant.  Here is a link to a summary of the latest bill.

https://www.avma.org/Advocacy/National/Congress/Pages/HR2966-S1176-American-Horse-Slaughter-Prevention-Act-of-2011.aspx

I am a lifelong horse person.  I am also a RESPONSIBLE one.  I do not breed horses to jsut have a colt.  A mare has to earn her right to be a mother with me.  I have had 1 colt in 30+ years of ownership.  If they want regulation then regulate the amount and breedability of of the mare and the stallion.  If they have not earned points or money in the association they are in then they should not be bred.  Breeding a mare because you "can't do anything else with her" is ignorant.  I forgot to mention our family had stallions for 40+ years and we saw this often.l Thank goodness the stallions bred quality minds into the colts and they were often way better than the mare.  We do not breed anymore.  The Trakehners do it well.  The horse must be certified to be in the breed book.  This would keep people from breeeding the backyard horse and keep the market solid. so to decrease the influx of lesser quality animals and make it a bit harder to own one.  A lot of these "dump" animals are from people that bought cheap on a whim and have no idea the cost and time a horse needs to survive.

The porblem with passing of these bills is there is no provision for the cost of placing unwanted animals. Rescues are full since 2007.  Making it harder to own one would be a start.  Making it harder to breed one and make the breeder accountable for the welfare of the colt would help also.  These are jsut some ideas we as horse people throw around when we chat.  Most horse people are for horse slaughter.  After nursing an extreme starved horse back to health and then have a judge tell us we had to return it tot he owner because the Humane Society looked at the property and saw that there was feed and water there so thus they were qualified horse owners made me want to kill tha animal myself so it would not endure the coming neglect.  Again.  You can't fix stupid.  I won't get started on the HSUS or PETA as most of them have NEVER had any crap on their shoes but are ready to sling it at you.

If you don't have a strong constitution don't do this.  Helped my son do research on the very same subject for a pursuasive paper.  We watched the slaughter videos, the salebarn videos...it will haunt you.  For us it made us mad.  Mad because the problem doesn't start at the salebarn or slaughterhouse, it starts with Associations being responsible with what is being bred and the ownership when that foal hits the ground.  No one wants to see a horse slaughtered but if neglect and ignorance is all that animal will know then I would glady see them dead.
 

Cow Chaser

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Jan 19, 2011
Messages
101
Location
West Central Illinois
I think it is interesting when you try to research anything on horse slaughter you don't get any real information, just a bunch of whining form PETA and HSUS.  I have had horses and cattle most all of my life and to me they are the same.  My horses and my cows eat grass in the summer and hay in the winter with some grain in between.  To me horses should be considered livestock plain and simple. 
 

firesweepranch

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Jun 17, 2010
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1,685
Location
SW MO
Herfluvr, I totally agree with you. However, what about the "back yard breeders" that don't care about registration papers or points? Often those are the horses that end up neglected because they have no papers or pedigree to speak of. We also owned a stud and bred registered QH and paints, in 2008 we gelded our stud and stopped breeding. We saw the writing on the wall, and knew the market was over. I am totally for opening the slaughter houses back up, but the government also needs to look at how many mustangs it is paying for that have been captured but can not be adopted. Send them to slaughter, instead of losing money each month paying someone board on them!
There are so many pieces to this topic. A horse is a livestock animal plain and simple.
 

herfluvr

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Joined
Jul 3, 2010
Messages
231
firesweepranch said:
Herfluvr, I totally agree with you. However, what about the "back yard breeders" that don't care about registration papers or points? Often those are the horses that end up neglected because they have no papers or pedigree to speak of. We also owned a stud and bred registered QH and paints, in 2008 we gelded our stud and stopped breeding. We saw the writing on the wall, and knew the market was over. I am totally for opening the slaughter houses back up, but the government also needs to look at how many mustangs it is paying for that have been captured but can not be adopted. Send them to slaughter, instead of losing money each month paying someone board on them!
There are so many pieces to this topic. A horse is a livestock animal plain and simple.

"it starts with Associations being responsible with what is being bred and the ownership when that foal hits the ground" 

This is where the accountability starts.  You know it not cheap to promote and raise an animal because you have been there.  If the Associations and the Stallion  and Mare owners are more accountable for where their foals end up because thy have to a answer back to the association they need to keep their animals on the breeding books, they might jsut worry a bit more about the stock and not the numbers of animals.

If horses are livestock which I am not debating they are not, then we breed them for use and they can be bred for slaughter.  If they are viewed as a companion animal for show and for "friendship" every animal needs a tie back into where is came from.  Stud books and mare books you have to qualify for raises the bar and yes some of these animals will be out of reach of the general public but often it is those that are the ones that suffer in the end. 
 

HF CHARS

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Jan 5, 2011
Messages
194
Location
South Dakota
not all horses bred in this country belong to associations, what about rodeo stock contractor,we used to breed our percheron mares to a qh to make bigger stouter ranch horses.  I truly believe horses are livestock we also used to have a herd of commercial mares who only purpose was to raise easy feeding Colts that we sold to slaughter
 

knabe

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Joined
Feb 7, 2007
Messages
13,639
Location
Hollister, CA
the problem with associations is that you might end up where france is with fullblood maine's or angus show cattle that can't walk.
 
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