Meet Pearl, New Horse

[Ridgerunner]

Bay, I agree with you. There are a lot of things in animal husbandry that people raised on Disney cartoons and whose only exposure to any animal might be a dog or cat consider cruel or inhumane. They don't understand that those things improve the quality of life for the animal. They think they are helping the poor animals while while the consequences of what they want are horrible. It's not just horses.

 

[catjac1975]

Owning a horse is a hole in your pocket that you dump money in. We already have two old seniors that are too old and sick to ride. We have checked on having them put down when they no longer have that shine in their eye, their ears pricked up and they are telling me that they are done. It will be expensive. A farm call is $75, to euthanize them is $125 each and we found a man that will pick them up and bury them for $250 each. So just for them to die will be $825. It would be much cheaper to take them to the sale and get a couple hundred bucks apiece and send them on their way. Joe and Sparkles gave me the best years of their life and if I am nothing else, I am loyal. There is no way that I could put my two friends on a truck to Mexico to be slaughtered. My husband feels the same way that I do. We'll suck it up, do what has to be done, pay for it and cry our eyes out.

For people who maybe don't feel the way I do about their old horses (and there are lots of them, the kill pens are full of broke down old horses) or maybe they just can't afford it and getting a few hundred bucks is better than spending money they don't have, slaughter is the answer. I am not against slaughter, I am against the bleeding heart do-gooders that got horse slaughter shut down in the USA. It moved to Mexico and Canada. It now involves a long ride to a holding pen, followed by another long ride to slaughter. I am sure that in Mexico there is not a lot of laws for animal welfare. I have read some pretty horrible accounts of how horse slaughter is carried out. Congratulations to the idiots who made it worse. Maybe it is better regulated in Canada, I hope so.

Comments on the Facebook pages of the kill pens trend toward getting it outlawed to even ship the horses out of the country. That means that horses will starve to death, be turned loose to run up and down the roads or shot by desperate owners with nowhere to go with unwanted horses. The man that owns the kill pen where we got Pearl said that during the 2 year drought we had here in Texas a few years back, he shipped 40 loads a week to slaughter. A load is 30-35 horses. People had no grass, hay was brought in from other states and was $125 a round bale on the low side and up to $250 for a single round bale. Horses were taken to auction where nobody but the kill buyers wanted them.

There is no easy answer. I would like to see horse slaughter brought back to the US where it could be regulated to be as humane as possible, but nothing will ever satisfy the idiots who scream animal cruelty.

I will shut up now. Rant not over, I am still ranting in my mind.

I always said dead is dead, so I would not mind my old horses going to dog food. However, then I learned how poorly the horses are treated before hand. My old horses go by the way of a quick injection by a vet and are buried on my property. But that is a legal/not legal thing. A bad neighbor could could a big problem. But on my road there are likely 100 horse graves over the last 200 years.

 

[baymule]

@Nyboy we have a lot of trees, roots would be a problem. Marigold wouldn’t be able to dig a hole deep enough, it would take a backhoe. If euthanized, I wouldn’t want their bodies buried here, full of poison, it could get in the water table. The vet won’t shoot them, we sure couldn’t do it. Not enough land to take them to the back 40, shoot them and let buzzards and coyotes eat them. We have considered all the possibilities. We want what would be easiest and best for them. The vet would sedate them before giving them the euthanasia drug. Since we know they are sick, they are not going to get better, we have been preparing for that day when we have to let them go. We spent about a week crying over it. When that day comes, it will be a bad day.

 

[flowerbug]

i'm sure there are "How to Compost a Horse/Cow" docs out there...

 

[baymule]

i'm sure there are "How to Compost a Horse/Cow" docs out there...

Yeah, bury them deep.

 

[flowerbug]

Yeah, bury them deep.

that's the easiest way for sure, but i'm sure there are other methods which are more like a compost pile method...

 

[canesisters]

Gail is something like 10' deep. The guy with the bobcat was completely below the surface at the deepest part of the hole he dug to bury her.

 

[ducks4you]

I am not gonna lecture, BUT, I have owned hard keepers and skinny horses and it is ALWAYS the best to float teeth and throw as much high quality grass or mostly grass hay at her and give her 6 months to start putting on weight. Gotta watch the digestive system. It is very tempting to feed straight alfalfa. I had to come up with a recipe for my hard keeper Arabian and over the winter he got the 2 flakes grass and one flake straight alfalfa/2 feedings a day, and he wasn't this thin.

 

[canesisters]

Well good grief - she was in the kill pen heading to slaughter 3 days ago and has only been on Bay's property for 2 days... give her a chance..

 

[bobm]

that's the easiest way for sure, but i'm sure there are other methods which are more like a compost pile method...

In our area of Cal. , it is illegal to bury your dead horse on your own property. Cremation costs $800+ . Taking them to our nearest rendering plant costs $150 , that is IF they will take the dead horse. leaving them to rot in the lower 40 ... a few dozen buzzards and a few dozen coyotes will devour the body in a few days , but the stench or rotting flesh is overpowering for a mile or more if the horse expires in summer when our temps are over 100* - 115* + for weeks on end. Then when only bones are left, and you have attracted the coyote hordes from miles around, they will then kill and devour your cats and dogs or any other livestock that you may have. A terrible price to pay, don't you think ?