Horse Slaughter Bill Passes Legislature, HB 418

[FiveHorses]

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Originally Posted by Reziac

Haha... the problem is that the nonfarming public increasingly thinks ALL ranch critters are some incarnation of Bambi,

The problem with a large proportion of the public - urban, exurban, suburban - is that they don't have a clue where the meat on their table comes from. Oh, wait, I tell a lie. Yes they do. The supermarket. Go to an urban area, walk up to a suburban housewife doing the shopping and ask, "Excuse me, but can you tell me the sequence of events that starts with a calf and ends with a hamburger?" You should try it sometime, it's good for a giggle.

Now I have huge gripes with some of the modern farming/ranching practices and yes, these are from an animal welfare point of view because I object, in principle, to cruelty. But until more people are willing to shell out for the end-product of animals raised and kept in more humane circumstances... well, market forces are market forces.

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which unfortunately lets the ARs jump right in with their "you wouldn't kill Bambi, would you?" arguments.

Given our ranching activities.... I'd have to reply "Well, not before it's old enough."

However, and I do stand to be corrected on this point, because I cannot remember the source (and so am unsure about its veracity) from what I remember only about 10% of the horses slaughtered are deemed fit for human consumption. Horse meat is no longer used in domestic pet food in the US as it once was (although no one can tell me why) so does that mean there's a 90% waste factor? If that is the case, that's astronomical, and I can't help but think there must be a better end use other than... what? Fertilizer?

[dm_lytle]

I have several registered American Quarter Horses and would love to start breeding for our own but the horse market is down so much that we are not able to. We have a barrel horse that is honestly worth tens of thousands of dollars but if we took him to a sale we would be stretching to get 5,000. The Slaughter provides a bottom line. If you don't want this horse to go to the slaughter then we need at least this much is what the slaughter is used for. At slaughter you can get 1.00/pound so when you take a 1200 pound horse into a sale they would start bidding at 1000.00 for an unbroke registered horse. Last night they started them out at 10.00. A baby not even a year old sold for 3.00. Anybody can afford to buy them but not everyone can afford to take care of them so now we have no slaughter we have unfed, unwanted, untrained, horses, and uneducated people trying to raise them, and nothing to do with the horses, and no bottom line to start selling them. My goodness dogs go for more than those top quality bloodline horses were going for last night. And this is not a one time occurance. Every night of the week men that have been farming and ranching their whole lives are going home without enough money to feed their family let alone these animals that can not provide for themselves. It is our responsibilty as humans to make sure that we keep these animals around. They are going to die off and become extinct because we wanted to feel good about ourselves and save the day. Think about tomorrow and the thousands of tomorrows. Plan for your future. No slaughter means lower prices, which means humans can not afford further breedings, which means less horses born every year= Extinction. I could have easily walked away with enough registered horses to fill a 34ft. stock trailer and spent less than 300.00 for all, and all they need is feed, hay, and a good home but instead they are sold from one horse trader to another trying to earn a buck because their are no standards set.