Calling All Animal Angels……

I am not a writer. I have learned even extremely bad fiction seems to come under the category of writing. See the comment section of “Yes, Jane, It is a Must Read". We have been graced by a REAL writer and we should all learn from his example. Anyway now that I have everyone sufficiently pissed off…..I ran across these press releases while doing some point research for a live horse I am selling. Points, that’s what horses earn when you actually ride them in breed association sponsored shows. I felt I should explain since it seems unless it is written on the internet or some other public place involving racing, slaughter, mustangs, slaughter, rescues, slaughter, subsidies, slaughter or any combination of these subjects it is missed by our esteemed adversaries. I have also learned from them it is not necessary to quote or identify the source of one’s information so here ya go……all I am guilty of is a little sarcasm in the opening paragraph and copy and paste. (I am not a writer and I often miss the point. I was much too busy drowning kittens and pulling the wings off flies to pay much attention in school). Trivia for the day……When it is a discounted grazing lease to a rancher to produce revenue it is a subsidy. When we are discussing using taxpayer or other people’s money in any form to “solve” an unwanted horse issue it is a noble entitlement we should all be willing to hand over????????

Expert Predictions on Equine Welfare Realized
Courtesy of Animal Welfare Press Release, February 4, 2010 --

In 2007, animal activists utilized the state legislative and legal systems in Illinois and Texas to close the three USDA- regulated horse processing plants in the United States.
A year prior, veterinarians, scientists, and economists - all equine specialists - highlighted the likely consequences of the plant closures in the Animal Welfare Council’s (AWC) “The Unintended Consequences of a Ban on Humane Processing of Horses in the United States.” Currently, as animal activist groups continue toward their goal of banning the transport of horses to Mexico and Canada for processing it seems the message in the AWC’s original document were ignored. An objective look at the current state of horses in America proves the expert forecast made in 2006 remains relevant today. Horse Industry and Veterinary Experts predicted that with the elimination of horse processing facilities in the United State, the welfare of horses would be jeopardized.
Here are the Facts:
1. Experts said the closure of American plants would lead to an increase in abandoned and unwanted horses, putting a severe strain on the budgets of rescue facilities, sheriffs departments, and county governments. In a recent national study conducted by the Unwanted Horse Coalition, more than 90 percent of those polled indicated the number of neglected and abused horses is increasing. It requires about $2,340 to maintain a horse for one year. With no provisions for the care of unwanted horses, the financial burden has fallen to local taxpayers.
2. Experts said the closure of the USDA-regulated plants would lead to increased horse neglect, abuse, and malnourishment. It did.The Colorado Department of Agriculture reports that the number of equine cruelty investigations rose 60 percent from 2005 to 2009.
3. Experts predicted then that the closure of the plants in the United States would devastate the market for horses. It did. Livestock market owners now put the value of all horses at 40 percent of their 2005 price.
What is the answer to the unwanted horse issue? It is clear that there will always be unwanted horses due to the fact that some horses simply won’t meet their owner’s expectations or will become ill or infirm. The horse industry has responded to the unwanted horse problem and is developing and implementing programs to both reduce the number of unwanted horses. Experts agree that the passing of the pending legislation to ban the transport and commerce related to horse processing would exacerbate all of these issues. H.R.503/S.727 has no financial provisions for the care of unwanted horses. The question remains: Who will tend to the additional 100,000 unwanted horses currently being shipped to Canada and Mexico for processing if this bill is passed? In a survey conducted by the Animal Welfare Council in 2009 of 94 government supported animal control centers 53 percent acknowledged there are no horse rescue facilities in their area and 83 percent cannot house or care for any horses. Animal activist proponents of the legislation do not have a viable plan for caring for the nation’s unwanted horses.
Horses are an invaluable part of the livestock industry. All parties involved are actively committed to the humane treatment of the horse. H.R.503/S.727 will do nothing but cause greater suffering for horses, their owners, and the horse industry in general.
For the complete information on the AWC works cited go to http://www.animalwelfarecouncil.org/.
Effective January 31, 2010, equine owners intending to sell animals directly or indirectly to Canadian meat processors are being advised to record certain information.
Equine owners who wish to keep their sale options open should record all vaccines and medications administered or fed to their animals, and record any occurrence of illness in their animals.
The collection of this information will better prepare the equine industry for July 31, 2010, when it will be mandatory for all federally-inspected equine facilities in Canada to have complete records dating back six months for all domestic and imported animals presented for slaughter.
These requirements apply to owners of horses and their crosses, referred to as equine.
In order to help owners collect all of the necessary information, the CFIA is launching a new Equine Information Document (EID) that can be found in the Meat Hygiene Directive no. 2009-49.
The EID is the first step in the development of a comprehensive food safety and traceability program for the Canadian equine industry – for both domestic and international markets.
Anyone selling equines may have to provide an EID at ownership transfer. The document will require an owner-signed declaration to verify the accuracy of the information.
There are a number of medications and substances that are prohibited from being given -- administered or fed -- to equine intended to be slaughtered for human consumption. A list of these medications and substances can be found on the CFIA web site.
And in regard to all that supposedly tainted meat……..
According to Dr. Tim Cordes, USDA senior staff veterinarian and National Coordinator Equine
Health and Slaughter Horse Transport for USDA, the price of horse meat in Europe is at an all time high.
He also notes that the marketplace will find horses for food from other countries, like Mexico or South America, if it is unable to source from the US or Canada.
China consumes more equine meat (421,620 tonnes) than any other country.
CFIA found no residue of steroid and non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs in any of the
horses they tested. (That would include the dreaded bute we here about every time this comes up. Bute is a non-steroid anti-inflammatory as is Banamine). 75 times more horses are tested for drug residues than cattle (300 of every 100,000 horses compared to 4 of every 100,000 head of beef cattle). These results indicate that there is no significant issue with drug residues in horse meat.

These are direct quotes from the 2008 Alberta Horse Welfare Study. I am sure it’s a load of crap for some reason and I am sure I will soon learn the reason. Of course it is irrelevant now, all the same it is a little different slant than we are presented most of the time.
By RH1

As always, Vicki, John, Lin, and EVERYONE, is invited to comment.
RM

Michael Vick Rides Barbaro ??

I love this story about artist, Steven Chandler, and his folk art. Funny how the FOB think they can control everyone from horse rescues to artists..... They got themselves memorialized in a portrait for their efforts and I would say this artist hit the mark dead center.
You can read the whole story here -
http://www.fineartregistry.com/featured_artist/chandler-steven.php#at

The Georgia Red Mud Painter
Fine Art Registry™ Member, Steven Chandler

Michael Vick Rides Barbaro

Once upon another time there was another supremely gifted "athlete," a horse named Barbaro. Barbaro won the 2006 Kentucky Derby going away and was set to becoming the first Triple Crown winner in decades. Tragically, however, coming out of the gate two weeks later at the Preakness Stakes, Barbaro shattered his right hind leg. His racing career was finished and after months of intense medical care he had to be euthanized.
As Michael Vick's story was dominating the headlines this past summer, something was gnawing at Steven. Dog fighting, reprehensible. Horse racing, noble. "The sport of kings," even. Missing entirely from the Barbaro saga were the less noble aspects of horse racing – the selective breeding of horses for speed only, not durability; the shipping horses off to meat packing plants once their racing careers are finished; the doping and cheating that goes on. In other words, cruelty to animals but, unlike dog fighting, of a legalized sort.

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(read more)

(conclusion)
Tiring of the flame wars, Steven seriously considered taking the painting down. His supporters wouldn’t hear of it. The controversy raged on. People accused him of playing on Barbaro's tragic story simply to make money. To prove his sincerity and to challenge the Fans of Barbaro crowd to prove theirs, he offered to keep the painting up for auction but to donate the proceeds to a charity for retired racehorses, got in touch with one and announced his plan.
In the end, his critics' indignation remained open, but their wallets remained closed: the auction was won by none other than Fine Art Registry™ and will become part of its permanent collection.
Never one to back down from a fight, the Fans of Barbaro may have gotten more than they bargained for. Some of the sentiments they expressed have inspired Steven to memorialize them for all time with a new painting, Friends of Barbaro. Ouch!
The color of the sheets may have changed but Steven makes it plain that the intolerance remains the same.

My Winter Science Experiment……….

Or I really would like to do something with this mare…..

I have a nice dun breeding stock paint mare. She has a long and drawn out life story. For the sake of argument she is a really nice mare, a full sister to the good gelding in the What’s He Worth Blog. Full older sister, she was originally bred to be a barrel prospect. I have started many young horses for her breeder, all half or full siblings. All the good kind. This mare would have been too…..But she tried to amputate a fore foot when she was a three year old. She wasn’t halter broken so she healed the best she could. Future soundness in doubt she was pushed to the back of the pasture for a few more years. She was given to me when her home was sold in a foreclosure auction. I brought her home, broke her to lead and tie, and sent her to a mule breeder I know. Heartless bitch, I couldn’t ship her, didn’t have time to ride her, wasn’t sure she would be sound, and the only paint stud in the area I have any inclination to like is her sire. I thought my mule breeder friend wouldn’t care about the breeding stock paint papers and would love her color, breeding, and conformation. He did. Unfortunately, the mare didn’t love the jack. Two springs later she was back in my pasture with no mule production record. Another summer has slipped by with me not making much time to work with her. I decided she would be the perfect candidate to test the NAHSC’s rescue solution.
I googled Midwestern horse welfare rescue facilities and eventually settled on the website: Midwest Horse Welfare Foundation, Inc. America's Alternative to Sending Your Horse to Market ... The Midwest Horse Welfare Foundation is dedicated to providing qualified homes for any horse in need. ...http://www.horse-welfare.org/find.aspx?show=state&state=Iowa, this website searches by state. Starting in Iowa, I emailed the listed facilities with this polite request:
Name of the organization or Ms.or Mr. (surname):
I have a mare I would like to place with your foundation rather than take her to the auction where she will almost surely go to kill. She is a nine year old dun breeding stock paint. She was injured as a three year old and is marginally sound. Perhaps with corrective shoeing may be sound for riding but she was unstarted by any previous owners and not halter broken until she was six, so although she is a kind, intelligent mare by nature she is a little different to handle. Meaning she needs to be handled by someone who has experience in working with horses raised out unhandled. She most likely will not ever be a horse for a mediocre horse person. I took the mare with the intention of using her as a broodmare since she is a well made and well bred horse. As you know the broodmare deal is not at all feasible these days. I simply do not have space for a horse I can't use or sell. Please contact me by email or phone either way on the decision you make about taking this mare.
Thank you,
Central States Horse Rescue was first on the list. http://www.cshr.50megs.com/. According to his website written in the spring 2009 he was full so I did not even email him. Next…..
http://www.hoovespaws.org/ was next. Reading this site, I wanted to add the mare had never been abused so she probably didn’t have the credentials for an emotional story to be written about her. There was a story here about an Appaloosa mare that would make Ginger in Black Beauty think she had lived a charmed life. I’m not writing this to belittle or critique the rescues in the Midwest. That isn’t my point. I refrained from any judgment or comment. I shouldn’t have given it a thought as she did not reply at all.
http://www.healingheartswithhorses.com/hhh/ replied: I am so sorry but we are unable to take any horse at this time, we are full at 25 and currently have 44 head on 25 acres. With the economy --funds are low and donations lower:-( You might contact Hooves and Paws in Glenwood IA or Iowa Equine Rescue in Cedar Rapids. I am just a small backyard operation and am pushed to the limits right now. I cant move perfectly good horses! Have you tried Craigs list? There are still breeders out there and the color is right
Sorry I cant be of further assistance, it sure is an awful time for horses.
Polite, honest, kind of what I expected, but she tried. Hooves s and Paws, back where I started……Craig’s List, isn’t that where those evil killer buyers stalk unsuspecting horse owners? Breeders, aren’t they the ones still causing the problem?
Lazy R at http://www.angelfire.com/ia2/lazyriowa/ was next and the email address in the website was kicked back as account unavailable. I didn’t try the account for donations but it does raise an interesting question.
I went back to the main site and tried Nebraska.
I started with Break Heart Ranch, http://www.breakheartranch.com/ and she replied: Can you tell me what her soundness issues might be, possibly send me a picture. It is possible I may have a home for her.
I answered: She was caught in a gate and cut her left front heal bulb down into the hoof on the outside quarter nearly cutting that quarter of the hoof off. She travels sound in the pasture but tends to limp slightly when worked. I have no pictures of her. However, here is a picture of her full brother. He is bay but they are built much the same. She is not broke to ride.
Thanks for your reply.
She replied: Where are you located at??
I visited her site also. I haven’t fed this mare for a year because I hate her. This lady had a sad story about the sad end of a two year old filly by her stud plus she had a black older stallion for “adoption”. The older stallion for adoption was described, ‘Yes, he’s a stud and he knows it. But he takes care of his riders no matter how inexperienced they maybe’. He may have been the horse who didn’t care if the kids hugged his legs too, I don’t remember, I stop paying attention at the mention of a grade stud taking care of novice riders on the trail. This shoots every scrap of credibility as a horseman a person may have had right out the window in my mind. I answered:
I am located at___ . I would like to let you know I will surrender this mare only without papers and with the agreement she will never be bred. I don't mean to be rude, but I believe very strongly if a horse couldn't hold its own in the open market for any reason then it shouldn't be in the breeding pool. I realize this may not be entirely fair or correct all the time but we have to start to unravel this mess somehow and one place is taking rescue horses out of breeding production. I also won't place her without stipulating if she is to become involved in one of those loony bin Epona/Phoenix Rising things I have read about she is to come back to me immediately. If that is an agreement you feel you or the home you have in mind can honor please call me late evenings at 000-000-0000. Thank you for your time and I appreciate your effort.
She replied; I appreciate your candor. One of the most frustrating things about rescue, is the fact, the law will not enforce that type of stipulation. I was told that after a horse is sold, surrendered it is "like a car" and the new owner can shoot that horse right in front of you if they chose, it is their "property". I went through hell trying to get one of my horses back, after a person violated my contract. That is where I found out that we have no legal leg to stand on. I have refused to let horses be adopted if there was even a small sign that they wanted to breed them, but I still had someone do it, and say it was an "accident." Signed papers mean nothing.
I thought I might be able to re-home her, but as much as I agree with you, there is nothing that is legally binding to keep them from it. I am at capacity right now. I do have a waiting list. I am sorry I couldn't help, but I can't even guarantee that for those I adopt from here, as much as I want to.
I stood up for what was right, when Phoenix Rising starved, and killed horses, and was slandered and attacked for doing the right thing by Epona and others. I have found out the hard way, that doing the right thing comes at a terrible price. People don't respect you for it, they attack you. I am sure you will do whatever is right for the mare.
And from what I hear through ABR grapevine, yes, she did. She was honest, polite, seems to genuinely care but that doesn’t change my opinion on the stallion.

The Best Little Horse House in Hastings http://www.thebestlittlehorsehouse.com/ replied: I have not been able to update my website as of yet, but we have moved out of Nebraska and closed that location for the shelter. Therefore, it will not be possible for me to take the mare in. I do hope that you find a suitable placement for her.
She didn’t say where she had moved to or if the already in stock rescues went with her.
Epona Rescue at http://www.eponahorserescue.com/contactepona.html was next. I received no reply to my email. Don’t worry after all the controversy, I wouldn’t send any horse there no matter what.
KTS Lone Cedar Rescues http://www.freewebs.com/ktslonecedarrescues/ replied:
Thank You for writing KT'S about your mare. I would like to call to talk to you about her, however, your phone number was not included in your email. May I get your phone number so I may call you? My phone number is 000-000-0000 if you would like to call me. I look forward to speaking with you about your mare. Take Care!

I won’t go all Fugly insulting with the reasons, but no. The picture above makes me think she might just be the type of person I was talking about in my original email. I will admit having some ‘not so perfect’ spots in my horse facility. I am not Carol Rose Quarter Horses by any means but……. And speaking of Fugly….where is the outing for this fine example of horsemanship? On a positive note, both horse and rider at least look happy and the horse looks fed.
On to Missouri:
Alder Hill Rescue at http://www.alderhillfarm.com/ contacts Craig and Leslie replied: I completely understand and thank you so much for caring that she finds a good home. We do have an open spot at the rescue as we were able to find a home for one of the horses recently. I have attached a surrender form, if you could fill it out to the best of your knowledge that would be wonderful. How does she get along with other horses (dominant submissive etc)? What kind of injury did she have? Has she been released for light trail riding by a vet? Has she ever been ridden?Where are you located? With the current economic difficulties and reduction in donations and adoptions we are requesting that all surendered horses have a current Coggins, UTD on vaccinations and wormings and a recent trim. We are also asking if the owner can help out with the gas to transport the horse. I hate to ask for all of this, but winter weather is here and we are buying feed so our budget is very tight. The expenses could be made as a charitable deduction to the rescue and then the rescue would cover the expenses if that would make it a little less costly for you.Please feel free to email or call me (000) 000-0000 with any questions. If you could send any pictures of her that would be great also. Thanks again and I look forward to talking with you soon.
If I were in a strapped position could I afford to have all that done? could I? I thought the surrender form was kind of interesting. I have sold horses for several thousand dollars with less scrutiny. I have paid several thousands for prospects at auction using less information than this.
*****************************************
Horse Surrender Form Horse Information:
Horse Nickname _______________________ Full Registered Name _______________________ Registration Association and # ________________original breed papers with signed transfers must be submitted with this form Breed _____________________Age _______ Gender______________ Color__________________Descriptive Markings and Brands: _______________________________________________________________
Current Owner Information:
Current Owner ________________________ Street Address _________________________________
City ___________________ State _____Zip Code _________ Home Phone ____________________
Cell Phone _________________ Work Phone _________________ Email ______________________
How long with current owner? ___________________Prior to current owner? ___________________
Reason for surrendering horse to Alder Hill Farm _______________________________________________
Medical and Temperament History:
Most recent vaccinations including date administered: _______________________________________
Most recent worming including date administered and product used: ___________________________
Does this horse have a current negative Coggins test? _____ (if so, original Coggins test must accompany this form) Has this horse been vaccinated for West Nile Virus within 6 months?______
Stand tied?___________
Does this horse load into a trailer? _____
Lead? _____
Clip? ____
Stand for the hose? ____________
Stand for the farrier?______
Stand to be wormed/vaccinated? _____________
Known unsoundness, lameness, or other medical conditions:________________________________________________________
Current treatment or veterinarian recommendations: _______________________________________________________________
Any known feed or medication allergies? _________________________________________________
Please list all known special needs, overall temperament, any likes/dislikes, quirks, vices, and any other necessary or useful information:
On a separate sheet of paper, please write up a brief (or not so brief) history of this horse. Also, if you have any preferences for the type of adoptive home you would like to see this horse go to, let us know. We can’t promise specifics when placing horses into new homes; however we do try to take into account the type of situation owners would like to see their horse go to.
Release:I , _______________________ agree that the above information is true to the best of my knowledge. I understand that by signing this form, I agree to surrender legal ownership of my horse(s) listed above to Alder Hill Farm. It is understood that the surrendering party shall hold Alder Hill Farm and all its officers, directors, employees, and volunteers harmless from any claims of damage, injury, or acts of negligence arising from this surrender. I have read and thoroughly understand this release of liability and agree to abide by it.
Owner____________________________ Date____________
********************************************
I'm not in the mind set to ‘pay’ to get rid of the mare. This same facility had five year old PMU “rescues” ready to be started under saddle. Five year old unstarted horses? Isn’t that part of the problem or does that apply only if you are pro-slaughter or a BYB being outed by Fugly? To them Fugly would say put down your beer, get off your lazy ass, and go ride those horses to keep them off the double decker bound for Mexico. Oops Forgot, Rescue Get Out of Training Free Card.
It is fair to say, if my only concern were to get rid of this mare at any cost I could have. But…….
The same concern keeping me from sending her to the sale, keeps me from sending her to the rescues. I ran out of patience before I ran out of neighboring states and rescues. The common theme, after all the pulp fiction and good intentions were stripped away I found little practical horse skill or ability to ‘upgrade’, ‘rehome’, or ‘rehabilitate’ any horse to the point of taking him/her out of risk for any length of time. The next owner induced crisis will find the horses even older and for all practical purposes in the same predicament putting them at risk to begin with..
Two of the rescues in this very short list have been ‘restructured’ or moved for some unmentioned reason. Where are their horses now? What about the adoptive forever homes they were to be overseeing?

By RH2

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!! You ARE a horse dealer!

http://forums.prospero.com/alexbrown/messages?msg=44786.1 As much as I'm trying to broaden my horizons, and write about subjects other than ABR (they're coming up soon, I promise) this is one I really felt I needed to address. I've been quietly following the many fund raising threads as well as the Rescue threads since the beginning of the year, and have found them to be very informative. When I came upon this one, I knew it needed to be brought up at the Ranch. I love some of the Antis-, while talking down the Kill Buyers, and the Dirty no good guys who run the Auction houses, they seem to have no problem doing a healthy business with them. We've already discussed the Broker or Feed lot business, and the money to be made. Here's something you may not know- there are Rescues that actually have horses held for them by those they call greedy murderers! Are these horses that are sick, lame, hard to place or older? No, sir! These are pretty nice horses with potential-kind of like the ones those nasty horse dealers would bid on. Kind of like the ones you or I would bid on if we saw them go through the ring. Check out any Camelot thread on ABR, and you'll find that most of the nicer prospects have already been "bailed", and often by Rescues.( An interesting aside, also note that more and more fundraising is being done on Facebook! These folks are not stupid. They see a sinking ship in ABR, and while they're not above using the loyal subjects as a resource to get the list of available horses, they go elsewhere for their donation base. Ahhh facebook, a whole new pool of suckers...ooops-supporters.) What really interests me is that when a private buyer comes along with an interest in one of these horses "saved" by the Rescue, the Rescue does not step back. They simply offer the person the chance to adopt through them, at the inflated price, of course. Which brings me to the above mentioned thread. Our friend Ponytales feels it is no longer the duty of Rescues to take in the horses that are neglected and abused. It now appears to be their mission to go to the kill pens and broker lots and pick up some nice ones, and turn them around and re-sell them....oops, again-adopt them out. Now, why, oh why does this sound to me like what dealers do? Our friend Ponytales assures us that the Rescues are indeed doing the noble thing by doing the worming, and providing the medical care and training a new horse needs. AHA! Maybe therein lies the problem. Back in the day, when a new horse was purchased, this was all the responsibility of the new owner. There were reasons for this. The most important was to allow one to understand what type of financial responsibility owning a horse is. Now, when a horse is "bailed" out for someone (unless the Rescue gets to them first, which is happening on a more regular basis), and all costs are paid, there isn't any real idea of the ongoing cost involved until the owner has had the horse for awhile. Once they realize they can't afford the expenses, it's often too late. If they were paying all along for the care and feeding, maybe it wouldn't be such a shock when the bills come in. The second, and equally important reason is that owning a horse is very much a "hands on" experience. For most horses and owners the time to bond is in those first weeks . When the Rescue is doing all of the care the owner should be providing, the bonding experience is lost. I can tell you first hand, nothing builds up the confidence of a new horse owner than being able to handle your horse for the farrier, hold him for his shots, clean out his hooves, and worm him. These are the most stressful situations, and if you get through them just fine, the day to day stuff generally goes off without a hitch. A horse that has been handled through these new experiences by his owner is much more likely to be at ease with that person, and will trust them all the more when other new experiences are introduced. And really, these things aren't all that big of a deal. If you can't do them, you shouldn't have a horse. For a Rescue to infer that providing these things are above and beyond is just a little silly, in my opinion. And finally, if people attended auctions and sales, there's a good chance that some of these horses wouldn't even BE in the pens. But thanks to the warnings of our Anti friends, it is looked down upon to attend a sale-unless of course you are a Rescue! It really bugs me that while the Antis campaign against people buying horses at auctions, they have no problem picking up prospects themselves and re-selling them. They talk about how awful and greedy the Kill Buyers and Dealers are for turning a profit on these poor animals, but now want to be considered as the "place to go" for a good horse. They've practically written an advertisement for why they're better than the very feedlots and kill pens they buy from. Maybe that will help weed out the competition? Maybe it's just me, but I fail to see the difference between these "Rescues" and the Dealers they look down upon. They're both picking out the best prospects. The Dealers may have the edge in the training area, and definitely in the honesty area, but otherwise the game is the same. Oh-I guess the Rescue cause is purer-maybe that makes all the difference!

By RH2

Canadian Food Inspection Agency - CFIA - horse meat.

While the CFIA does already have a list of banned Veterinary drugs in equine intended for human consumption, as I was informed in comments on anothe blog piece. They also have a list of approved Veterinary drugs and, coming soon, a list of Veterinary drugs for which withdrawal period will be required.
You need to understand that horses do not NEED any of the drugs that are on the "banned list". There are safe alternatives to those drugs and yes we could always go back to the days of good 'ol soap and water and bacon grease lol.
Some will have you believe that the list of banned drugs will be the end of horse slaughter or horse meat eating all over the world. This is just not true. People of other Countries eat horse meat without the attached guilt that anti slaughter people feel they should have, they want to eat horse meat and their governing body is not going to tell them they can't. They are trying to make it safer while still giving people the choice of sending their horse to slaughter. I think the anti-slaughter side sometimes gets food safety and inspection mixed up with anti horse slaughter antics. The EU drug regulations have nothing, what so ever, to do with animal rights or equine welfare and everything to do with human rights and welfare.

http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/fssa/meavia/man/ch17/annexee.shtml#e1

E.4 List of Veterinary Drugs Not Permitted For Use in Equine Slaughtered for Food with Canadian Brand Name Examples (January 18, 2010)
See full lists here -
http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/fssa/meavia/man/ch17/annexee.shtml#e4

E.5 List of "Essential" Veterinary Drugs Permitted in Equine With a 6 Month Withdrawal Period With Canadian Brand Name Examples
See full lists here -
http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/fssa/meavia/man/ch17/annexee.shtml#e5

E.6 List of Veterinary Drugs Safe For Use in Equine Intended For Food Production For Which Withdrawal Periods Have Been Determined With Canadian Brand Name Examples (Under development)
See full lists here -
http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/fssa/meavia/man/ch17/annexee.shtml#e6
E.7 Frequently Asked Questions and Answers

Q1 Why should I fill out an EID?
A1 All equines which may be used for food must be presented with a completed and acceptable Equine Information Document (EID) at the time of slaughter starting July 31, 2010. In the event that the animal becomes unwanted, if the owner wants to keep the salvage value and salvage options with respect to human consumption of their animal as high as possible, they will need to accurately fill out an EID for animals they wish to sell.
Q2 Will all equine owners need to fill out an EID?
A2 It is not mandatory that all equine owners fill out Equine Information Documents for equines they own. The requirement applies to equines which may be used for food.
Q3 Why do we have to keep track of medication used starting January 31, 2010?
A3 Slaughter facilities handling equines in Canada will need at least a six month history of medication use for equine brought to the facility starting July 31, 2010.
Q4 When do I need to fill out the EID?
A4 The EID can be filled out any time before the sale of your equine, but it is important to keep track of medications used and illness occurrence during the time you own the animal, either on the EID itself or another record used to fill out the EID before you sell your animal.
Q5 How do I include pictures of my horse in the document?
A5 A digital camera is very useful for taking the required pictures. A little computer work can lead to a page containing the required pictures. This page can be printed with a colour printer. Alternatively, the colour pictures can be formatted or printed by many retail outlets which currently offer this service.
Q6 What are non permitted drugs?
A6 Non permitted drugs are drugs that have been determined should not be given or fed to equines which may be used for food. The list of non permitted drugs is available in section \l "e4" of this annex.
Q7 Is Phenylbutazone is banned?
A7 The use of Phenylbutazone in equines for medical reasons is not currently banned in Canada. However; Phenylbutazone is not permitted to be used in any animals that may be used for food including equine. (See Question and Answer 6.)
Q8 Do we have to keep a record of feed supplements or nutraceuticals?
A8 It would depend on the ingredients contained in the feed supplement or nutraceutical. Most feed supplements contain in addition to feed ingredients, vitamins and minerals which do not have withdrawal periods, so they would not need to be declared on the EID. Similarly, nutraceutical formulations of substances that naturally occur in the body do not have withdrawal periods. If, however, the supplement or nutraceutical did contain a drug ingredient, the supplement/nutraceutical would need to be declared on the EID. When in doubt, consult your veterinarian.
Q9 What is a withdrawal period?
A9 A withdrawal period is the minimum number of days or hours that must expire since the last treatment of a specified medication or vaccine (used as per label directions) before the animal may be slaughtered for food.
Q10 Where do I get the information for drug withdrawal periods?
A10 Section \l "e5" of this annex contains a list of drugs for which a 6 month withdrawal period is required. Section \l "e6" of this annex is to be available in April 2010, and will contain a list of drugs that are safe to be given or fed to equines which may be used for food. Withdrawal periods for these named drugs will be included with this list. With respect to drugs that can be safely given or fed to equines which may be used for food that may not appear on the list, consult your veterinarian for information regarding withdrawal periods.
Q11 What do I do about recording withdrawal periods for drugs my veterinarian tells me are safe for use in other food producing animals, but have no label instructions regarding the use in equines destined for food, or have a label statement that says not for use in equines intended to be slaughtered for food?
A11 For now, record the information required by the EID with respect to drug identification and use. Then contact your veterinarian and record withdrawal period information as provided by your veterinarian including the authority consulted by your veterinarian for establishing these withdrawal periods (e.g. gFARAD, veterinary college specialist etc.).
Q12 Are these new rules expected to change?
A12 Yes, these new requirements are only the first step towards strengthening Canada's food safety and traceability system for equines.
Q13 Will imported horses be subject to the same requirements?
A13 Yes, imported horses when presented for slaughter at Canadian slaughter establishments will be required to meet this new Canadian standard for equine meat production in Canada.
Q14 Will these requirements only apply to meat products exported to the European Union?
A14 No, these requirements will apply to all equines presented for slaughter in Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) inspected facilities.
Q15 Who will be responsible for checking the EIDs before slaughter?
A15 The primary responsibility for compliance to requirements in slaughter facilities inspected by the CFIA remains with the operator of the establishment. The establishment operator will be required to ensure each equine presented for slaughter has a complete and acceptable EID covering at least a six month consecutive time period before slaughter. The CFIA will oversee the effectiveness of the operator's ante mortem review procedures with respect to the EID.
Q16 Is it possible to include more than one horse on an EID?
A16 The EID represents the minimum information required prior to slaughter in an acceptable format. However, certain conditions may exist that would allow for multiple equine animals to be included on one EID type document such as holding a group of equines for a six month period with a recorded inventory control system. If common medical history, medication history and owner declaration can be made and recorded in an acceptable record format deemed satisfactory to the CFIA, a common EID may be acceptable. The CFIA must give prior approval to this record format and system prior to use. Contact the CFIA inspection services at the relevant CFIA inspected slaughter establishment for more details.
Q17 Are non permitted drugs not to be used in an equine presented for slaughter for the life of the animal or just for 6 months?
A17 The non permitted drugs are listed under Section E.4of this annex. Non permitted drugs are not to be used in equines intended for food production. During a transition period, the EID will be reviewed to determine if equines have or have not been treated with non permitted drugs during the 6 months prior to their slaughter. A longer "certification period" will eventually be requested.
Q18 If I sell my equine at an auction, does the auction become the owner, that is have care and control of my equine, for a period of time and need to fill out an EID?
A18 No, the buyer of the animal assumes the care and control of the equine after the last date of care or control indicated by the previous owner's EID. The final date on the EID filled out by the previous owner will be the date the animal was delivered to the auction premise in this case. Any medication use on the auction premise is to be declared to the buyer by auction management. Generally this information is given to potential buyers from the auctioneer as the animal is sold.
Q19 I am forwarding a previous EID completed by a former owner to the buyer of my equine; am I responsible for the information on that previous EID?
A19 No. Each owner signs for the dates of care or control indicated on their own EID.

I am still looking into any updates and specifics on the EU ruling about equine for human consumption and Veterinary Drug use. I was told that they would also have a list of banned substances, safe substances and substances that have a withdrawal period. I have not yet pursued this to find if any udated information or specific instruction has been released. So, while Vicki and the rest of the anti knowledge group would have you believe that the CFIA and the EU is on their side and anti slaughter she left out all the helpful information that they provided to the person who chooses to send their equine to slaughter.

Bits and Peices...

I am passing on a survey being used to gather data for the Government Accountability Office.
Please go to -
http://survey.constantcontact.com/survey/a07e2o7kpqog3xazol3/a021lyg4ycc4j2/greeting , to take the survey. Whatever your involvement with the industry or opinion on the issues this is an opportunity to make those known.
Pay particular attention to the “Do Not Slaughter”. Very simple way to protect horses for life from the evil doers don’t you think?

The United Organizations of the Horse works hand in hand with our nonprofit wing, the United Horsemen's Front, a 501(c)(3) organization to provide accurate and timely information, and in the development of programs such as a nationwide 'Do Not Slaughter' registry that will allow those who choose to have their horses permanently identified to be checked at processing facilities, and at borders, to allow the registrant 72 hours to retrieve the horse. This protects the wishes of those who prefer not to have a horse processed...as well as not impeding the right of others to market their horses in a way that provides financial return, and a valuable commodity, high quality meat, that is welcomed by a worldwide market.
The H.O.R.S.E. Act is being proposed to include the following:

*Require that all horses to be euthanized must be humanely killed using a method that is approved by the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) and the American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP).

*Remove regulatory roadblocks to providing USDA inspection of horse meat in humane processing facilities.

*Recommend that state and local agencies responsible for overseeing equine rescue, recovery, and retirement operations (that accept unusable and unwanted horses, as well as horses that owners cannot support, for a fee or for no charge), follow AAEP “Care Guidelines of Equine Rescue and Retirement Facilities.” State and local livestock agencies should ensure that horses are cared for appropriately and that owner’s stipulations are being adhered to in terms of the disposition of the horses that have been surrendered.

*In terms of the transportation of horses, the concern should be for safe transportation, not regulating horse owners out of business. Repeal current laws restricting the use of double deck trucks transporting horses bound for slaughter. Require that the compartment of any transportation conveyance used for horses be sized appropriately for the size of horse being transported with a minimum of 6" of clearance above the withers.

*Require and provide for training and certification for employees at equine processing facilities involved in the actual humane euthanasia of horses prior to processing.

*Require signage at auctions and sales facilities that do not have a $1,000 minimum bid requirement that indicate that horses sold may go to slaughter.

*Require that sellers to processing facilities present the plant, or a border inspector, with a document stating the seller consents to processing; if they have owned the horse less than sixty days (a “canner buyer”), they must present a similar document from the original seller, unless the horse was purchased at an auction with signage mentioned above.

*Require inspecting horses at the plant, and at international borders, and holding those with lip tattoos or microchips that match numbers or chips that an owner has registered with a national “do-not slaughter” registry. Such horses to be held for seventy-two hours to allow the owner to claim the horse by paying for costs.

*Mandate that any regulatory investigation and action be initiated within ten days of alleged infraction of regulations, and that any fines levied or injunctions issued must be within no more than thirty days of alleged infractions.

http://www.tsln.com/ is the website of an ag-based weekly newspaper. The students in the Equine Issues and Leadership course tought by Rebecca Bott, Ph.D at South Dakota State University held an open forum on the horse slaughter issue on campus at Brookings. Most of what was discussed and presented has been hashed and rehashed on this blog and many more. I found this one fact very interesting.
Ninety percent of the United States population has been off the farm for at least three generations and therefore tend to view horses as pets.
New to the Tri-State Livestock News publication is a column called the Outside Circle written by Jan Swan Wood. Not only is she a very talented writer, she is a horsemen in the truest sense of the word and has actually ridden that outside circle more than once. We featured her article called, Stallions, All Business sometime ago. It was informative, factual, and well written. Judging from the number of comments we received it, like most other informative, factual, and well written articles, was of no interest to the *NAHSC.
If you would like to read some information written for and by the ten percent of the third generation who did not leave the farm/ranch you can drop by the Tri-State website once in awhile.
Shortly after we started blogging we posted a piece about Steve Hindi. He and the HSUS (and we know the HSUS would never spread anything less than truth and light) had worked up a totally inaccurate “study” designed to “prove” rodeo rough stock (the broncs and bulls) was forced to perform with hotshots, flank straps, and a variety of torturous methods. I felt this was an insult not only to the fine people of rodeo but to the great animal athletes as well. Former multiple world title winning bronc rider Marvin Garrett is heading up http://professionalroughstock.com/ . I don’t have cable so haven’t watched the Blue Highways Network program promoting rodeo rough stock and the cowboys. However from what I have heard and seen of Mr. Garrett it will be top shelf.

Is there a point in all this today?????? Yes…..it’s this…..
I am tired of hearing the *NAHSC referred to as horsemen. They are not.
I am tired of having an industry filled with people I truly respect being identified and degraded by those who have dismally failed in their horse endeavors. Failed until the NAHSC rescue committee declared we pull off our saddles, hang up our spurs, stop using our horses, and believe as they do. Failed even when all they assigned themselves to do was keep the animals in their care healthy, alive, and comfortable or put them down to end further discomfort.
I recently read a forum thread where after the original opinion was given the discussion failed to even mention horses at all for over 20 posts. The subject was who said what to whom on which rescue forum. Interesting, huh?
So if you have some time to spend, check out the sites above. They will talk about horses/livestock/and the people doing something with them. People I can read about, relate to, and respect.

By RH1
*NAHSC - New Age Horse Savior Cult

Yes, Jane It Is a Must Read…

Jane Doe from Montana sent this to us in the comments of the blog. It is written by Sue Wallis, yep, Slaughter Sue. It has all the ear marks of something the NAHSC fears, as Jane Doe said when she sent it to us ‘a must read’.

Ethical Considerations Around Horses, Domestic & Feral, & the Morality of Horse Meat
Society of Range Management

The History
I have been asked to talk about the ethical considerations around horses. To articulate a moral and ethical framework, it is important to understand the historical facts leading up to this time of dilemma.
In 1880, the United States of America had about 6.9 million horses. Those horses were used for everything from transportation to plowing fields to providing the power to run the machinery of the day. They were also used for food. Some Native American tribes, like the Apache, really didn't use horses for transport all that much...they mostly ate what they caught.
There was no such thing as a “wild horse.” All horses belonged to somebody, and all horses had economic value as transportation, as driving and draft animals, and as a source of food, leather, and byproducts.
By the time of the Great Depression we still had around 7 million horses, and they were used for almost everything, although the automobile was starting to show up, especially in the cities, and reduce the need for horses.
At the height of the Depression, the Federal Government, in its infinite wisdom, decided that the reason that the cattle market was so poor was not because the economy was ruined and nobody had enough money to buy beef...but that there was too many cattle. So, they forced ranchers to sell their cattle, and their sheep to the federal government for $1 per head, and they dug huge pits, and they drove the cattle into them and they shot them all. They covered it with lye so that no one could use the meat. My grandparents remembered this, and talked about it, and some of yours did, too. It was a scar on their souls for the rest of their lives.
What was the end result? It didn't work, and when World War II broke out, there wasn't enough beef to feed the troops.
Almost simultaneously, John Deere was sweeping the country. With the advent of mechanized machinery there was less and less need for the horses. There was a glut of horses. So what did America do? We did what we always do when faced with a challenge, we used the resources available to us, and we made it work. We sent all the beef we had to the troops, and when that ran out we started using horse meat both at home and abroad. My colleague in the Wyoming Legislature, Rep. Mike Gilmore, remembers that his family ate a lot of horse meat during the War, it was good wholesome meat—high in protein, low in fat—at a price his mother could afford while her husband was fighting overseas. He is far from unusual, if you ask the older folks around you, many will remember this.
After the War, when things started to return to normal, cattlemen moved quickly to regain the market share that they had lost to the government's decimation of their herds, and to the war effort. Their cattle numbers were on the rise, and the overabundance of horses was a serious threat because, of course, there were, as there always are, unscrupulous characters who were taking advantage of the situation. They were buying up all of these excess horses for literally pennies, passing the meat off as beef, and making a killing.
Most of the cattle industry's effort to regain their primacy was couched in what you might call today a “whisper campaign” ...disparage horse meat as un-tasty, coarse, and unfit for consumption, to play up the servicemen's remembrance of nasty canned meat consumed quickly without culinary enhancement in the trenches of warfare. States like Texas and Illinois actually passed laws around 1948 that banned the consumption of horse meat. In 1948 the issue was not animal rights. It was economics and market share, pure and simple. Why they didn't just make it a crime to be a crook, I don't know? Regardless, that 1948 law is exactly what HSUS/PETA used to shut down the processing plants a few years ago.
All over the country, but particularly here in the West, a common occurrence was happening. At about the same time that the Texas cattlemen were passing laws to ban horse meat, my husband's grandfather decided to move from Colorado and buy a ranch in Ruby Valley, Nevada. He bought an outfit lock, stock and barrel including 200 cows, and 80 head of horses, which were used for saddle horses and for haying teams. All of the ranches in Ruby Valley ran their horse herd together, and they ran the stud bunches in the hills on the other side of the flat. They gathered them all once a year in the Spring—each ranch cut out their own haying teams, kept up the young geldings they wanted to train, culled out any old mares or other undesirables to send to the sale, and they changed the studs every few years so they didn't have a stallion breeding his own daughters. When they finished haying they turned the teams out to fend for themselves until the next Spring.
It was only a few years until all of those ranches in Ruby Valley were putting their hay up with machinery. They simply quit gathering the horses. They didn't need them. They weren't worth the effort to gather and send to the sale.
And that, my friends, is the true evolution of the mustangs in the West. They are no more, and no less, than a feral invasive species allowed to reproduce unchecked by any natural predators or natural controls by our predecessors. As experience has shown, unmanaged horse herds will double in population every four years. We ought to be looking at them the same way we do feral hogs, zebra mussels and kudzu.
Before the Wild Horse Annie bills of the early 1970's there was a small business in gathering or catching those horses that did keep the population somewhat in check. They didn't belong to anybody. They were what is defined under Wyoming law as “estray” livestock. If you had enough gumption and skill to get out there and gather them, or catch them, you could sell them and make yourself a few dollars. It never made anybody wealthy, but it did provide a way for some to better themselves, and it did provide a way to prevent the horses from reproducing themselves and everything else out of a habitat to live in.
Since then, those of us who live in the West have seen the devastation that a lack of control and management has wrought. Dr. Burkhardt and others have done a great job telling us what has happened in the last 20 years. The BLM is caught between a mandate to protect the range and the resource, and a romantic notion of horses fed by popular literature, animal rights radicals, and Hollywood. Private horse owners, and State and Tribal jurisdictions are all caught in a no-win situation where all of the tools to manage unuseable, unwanted, abandoned, excess horses are being systematically eliminated—a dramatic shift that has taken what used to be a valuable asset, something you could always take to the sale and get cash money for, something of value—and turned it into a very expensive liability with no options—no place to sell them, no place to dispose of them.
Only on the ranches of the West is the horse still used as an everyday tool to make a living. In the minds of many, horses are no longer the multiple purpose livestock they were originally domesticated to be...now most are just pets, or companion animals, or performance horses.
That is the long and the short of the history of horses in the U.S. 6.9 million horses that pulled or carried us and almost all of our freight in 1880. In spite of the use of horses for food in the 1940's and the lack of the need to use horses for anything but pleasure since then, by 1999 there was once again 6.9 million horses in the United States. Now we mostly pull or carry them wherever they go. By 2009 there were 9.8 million horses. Over 10 million horses today. 3 million more horses than we ever needed when we used them for everything.
The Morality
Without our history, we have no way of avoiding the mistakes of the past, nor do we have any basis on which to establish the moral and ethical framework for managing horses.
Morality has three principal meanings. In its first meaning, morality means a code of conduct or belief which is held to be authoritative in matters of right and wrong. For the most part immoral acts are classified as such because they cause harm. In regards to the horse problem, Dr. Terry Whiting, who is the Chair of the Canadian Veterinary Medicine Association’s Animal Welfare Committee probably articulates this best in an article he wrote for the Canadian Veterinary Journal:
"In liberal democracies, governments are usually reluctant to limit personal freedom unless there is an objective, demonstrated public good. For example, some human nudity, specifically public nudity, is restricted by statute in Canada and the USA. Private nudity is uncontrolled and the commercialization of nudity in the entertainment industry is only somewhat regulated. Although under certain circumstances nudity is "offensive" to the general public, it is in no way prohibited. I would argue that good laws are written in a way to protect the innocent from injuries that they could not be protected from in the absence of a statute".
Dr. Whiting goes on to say, "In application of this principle of liberal democracy to the horse meat discussion; the USA is a major exporter of poultry, pork, and beef products, so the export of other meat is not offensive. Provided horses born in the USA are raised, transported, and slaughtered under conditions similar to those for beef cattle or pigs, in what way is an American injured by Canadians or Europeans or Asians consuming horse meat? If a claim of injury is made, what is the nature and severity of that injury? There is agreement that horse slaughter is offensive to some; however, when is personal offense sufficient cause in a liberal democracy for state enforced prohibition or the use of force to deny personal choice to other citizens? Critics of government typically argue that government should refrain from doing that which individuals are capable of doing for themselves. It is an immense expansion of government powers to extend into the regulation of the average citizen’s diet or, apparently, to attempt to alter the diet patterns of other nations." (Whiting, 2007)
In its second sense morality refers to an ideal code of belief and conduct, one which would be espoused in preference to other alternatives by the sane “moral” person.
Finally, in its third usage, morality is synonymous with ethics. Ethics being the systematic philosophical study of the moral domain. Ethics seeks to address questions such as how a moral outcome can be achieved in a specific situation, how moral values should be determined, what morals people actually abide by, the fundamental nature of ethics or morality, and how moral capacity or moral agency develops.
The Ethics

And so we come to the crux of the problem. What is right? What is wrong? How do we achieve a moral outcome when the ethical path to a resolution of the horse problem is so often obfuscated by blatant emotional manipulation for purposes of creating drama and raising dollars? We need to meet this head on, with clear thinking, and obvious, unequivocal conviction.
Socrates thought that people will naturally do what is good, if they know what is right.
Aristotle, on the other hand, encouraged moderation and saw extremes as degraded and immoral. For example, courage is the moderate virtue between the extremes of cowardice and recklessness. Man should not simply live, but live well with conduct governed by moderate virtue. Moderate virtue is difficult—it denotes doing the right thing, to the right person, at the right time, to the proper extent, in the correct fashion, for the right reason.
So, let us seek that moderate path in regards to the management of horses. With open hearts, and clear minds let us determine what is the right way to ethically manage the land, the people, the wildlife, and the horses.
Let us tackle the toughest question first. Is it moral for human beings to eat horses? I contend that it is, and that those who argue otherwise represent one of Aristotle's degraded and immoral extremes. Here are my reasons:
1) Human beings have evolved as meat eaters. We have eyes in the front of our heads to hunt, and teeth in our mouths designed to tear and chew meat. We can survive, and be healthy on a diet of nothing but meat, while a totally vegan diet—a diet that includes absolutely no animal protein whatsoever—requires not only total dedication and knowledge of exactly what, when, and how to eat, but for long-term health requires synthetics that replace essential nutrients that can only be found in animal products. No society on earth is now, or ever has been completely vegan, for obvious reasons. Those primarily vegetarian societies that come the closest have the shortest lifespans, and the least robust bodies on the planet. On the other hand, the only two mammals in the world that cannot survive on vegetable protein alone, their systems simply do not have the ability to assimilate vegetable protein, are Eskimos and cats. The aboriginal people of the far North before white men and white flour lived on a diet that consisted of practically nothing but whale blubber and fish for most of the year. Archeological evidence proves they lived long healthy lives with strong bones and good teeth. I think that I am more closely related to Eskimos, than herbivores.
2) These are physical facts which cannot be denied. If you are an adult human being who believes that it is immoral to exploit animals for any purpose, and therefore live a completely vegan lifestyle—I can respect that position, and wish you godspeed. If you choose to destroy your health, survive on fake food and manufactured nutrients, and cloak yourself in unsustainable petroleum derived clothing...so be it, it is still a free country. But, if you are working to impose that unnatural and unhealthy lifestyle on others; if you are endangering the lives and health of young children and babies who need animal protein to develop their brains—then I say that you have stepped far over the line and are pursuing a degraded, unethical, immoral objective.
3) Our laws and generally accepted practices agree that it is moral and ethical for human beings to keep livestock, and that it is our responsibility as livestock owners to ensure that they have adequate feed and water to sustain life. A central tenet of providing for livestock is that when slaughtering them for food, that they be killed as quickly and painlessly as possible. This is not only a moral and spiritual imperative, but a quality and economic consideration, as a stressed animal will have a system full of adrenaline, and the meat will be tough and flavorless.
4) There are moral and ethical considerations around wildlife and their use and management, as much or more so as there are around livestock. If you are hunting and you wound an animal, you must track them and kill them rather than allow them to suffer a long and painful death. It is best to be skillful and sure of your weapon in order to kill quickly and painlessly, for exactly the same moral and quality of meat purposes as for livestock. Ask any proficient hunter why their inept counterpart's meat is so “gamey” and awful...they'll be quick to tell you that flavor and tenderness are the result of a clean kill, and in how the meat is handled.
5) It is immoral and unethical for any jurisdiction to allow any particular species to become so overpopulated that they destroy the ecosystem. For this reason, every jurisdiction that manages wildlife monitors the interaction of all species of plants, predators, and prey, the condition of the land, the availability of water, the potential for erosion, and the destruction of invasive species with no natural enemies. In terms of animals, they all utilize lethal means to control populations when necessary—hunting seasons, predator and pest controls, invasive species eradication efforts.
6) Horses need to be considered in the same context. The idea that horses are somehow special, or exempt, from this management, is ludicrous and unsupportable. The idea that the American taxpayer must be responsible for paying for a welfare entitlement program so that every last feral and domestic horse born can live out its 30 or more years of natural life on government supported old horse homes is the most immoral, unethical, and unjust proposition I have ever heard...and yet, that is exactly what is being proposed by our Secretary of Interior in regards to the Bureau of Land Management horses.
7) The costs to taxpayers are staggering. By the BLM's own estimation, they spend an average of $15,000 per horse over a horse's lifetime in capture and holding costs. In Fiscal Year 2007, the BLM spent $38.8 million on its wild horse and burro program; the cost for holding wild horses and burros in short and long term facilities was $21.0 million, meaning holding costs accounted for more than half of the BLM's total program. This level of funding is not sufficient to support necessary removals from the range while maintaining lifetime holding for older unadoptable animals. To continue its current removal, holding, and restrictive sales practices, the BLM is going to need at least $85 million in 2012.
8) The reasons put forward for the extraordinary treatment of horses? Horses are pets, companions, and sporting animals...they are not livestock. Americans don't eat horses, and we shouldn't be supplying those who do. Horses are a spiritual icon of the West and our heritage. It is cruel and inhumane to slaughter a horse. Let's address these one by one: Some horses are pets, companions, and sporting animals. If the owner chooses, they have every right do determine how, and under what circumstances that horse is put out of its misery, and how to respectfully dispose of, or utilize, the carcass. Horses are also multiple purpose livestock who are seen as an ordinary food animal by most of the cultures in the world, including many who live in the United States. Americans ate a lot of horse meat during and after World War II; you can still find horse sausage in some Mom and Pop Scandinavian butcher shops in the upper Midwest; crooks are butchering other peoples' horses in south Florida and selling it out of coolers on the street for black market prices; cultures like the Tongan population in Salt Lake City prize horse meat; and young, single Moms like my daughter who are struggling to raise healthy kids on limited resources would welcome the availability of an affordable, delicious meat that has 40% more protein and 50% less fat than beef. China consumes the most horse meat in the world at 100 million tons per year, with Mexico close behind. In Europe, Italy consumes the most followed closely by the Scandinavian countries, Belgium and France. You can find horse in the meat cases at both ends of Canada in Quebec and Vancouver. Here in the United States we are contemplating making it a felony to transport a horse for the purpose of human food; in clear disrespect for the culinary traditions and cultural attitudes of other nations; and to put off limits a vast, renewable source of wholesome, high quality protein when more than 10 million people a year are literally dying from malnutrition around the world. How ethical is that? And finally, the clincher...the simple fact of butchering a horse for food is cruel and inhumane. Regardless of the long-standing humane methods of slaughter legislation, and universal government inspection of meat processing plants. Regardless of the handling of live animals, the veterinarian approved methods of killing. Regardless of the fact that once death has occurred—quickly, and as painlessly and stress-free as possible—all sensation ends, and that what happens to the carcass is no longer an issue of animal welfare. Regardless of all of this, there is a very vociferous, well financed, and heavily orchestrated effort to legally establish that the simple fact of killing a horse for human food is cruel and inhumane in and of itself. If they can legally establish this, then those of us who make a living with livestock know that it is easy to assert that all animal agriculture is cruel and inhumane, and to destroy our way of being and our culture utterly and completely...and that is exactly what HSUS/PETA has said is their ultimate objective.
9) As you all know, HSUS/PETA efforts have successfully shut down the remaining three horse processing plants in the United States. Their efforts have prevented the BLM from doing what needs to be done to control the over-population of feral horses on Western rangelands. None of these animal rights initiatives offer any solutions to the inevitable glut of unwanted, excess horses. With no US market, the only horses that have any value whatsoever are those who are big enough and healthy enough to be worth the trucking to the only market for low-end horses we have left in Canada and Mexico. With no US market there is no option for horse owners who can no longer afford to keep a horse, or who need or want to access the residual value of an unusable horse. The result? An explosion of abandoned and neglected horses nation-wide, an absolute disaster of suffering, starvation, and disease, and no viable solution to the problem without re-establishing the domestic market. Out here in the West it is easy to just dump them out on public or tribal lands. Back East they turn them out in the roads, and people are hitting them with cars. Slowly the general population is starting to understand that there might be more to this story than the over-hyped manipulated video segments, and over-emotional and outrageous tirades and fabrications of media trained mouthpieces would have us believe. If you have any suspicion at all that this is not happening, please visit the website of a millionhorses.com or abandonedhorses.net and take a look at the new stories and studies that document the scope of the carnage nationwide.
Conclusion
So, where is the ethical and moral middle ground that Aristotle would have us seek? I suggest that at a minimum it would contain these few elements, all of which are articulated in the Core Principles upon which we founded the United Organizations of the Horse. These Core Principles guide all of our activity. Our lead sponsor, Rep. Leonard Boswell of Iowa and his co-sponsors will shortly introduce the Humane and Optimal Restoration and Sustainability of Equines Act, the HORSE Act. In part, because of our efforts, Congress is asking for a GAO study of the impact of the closing of the plants on the welfare of the horses, themselves, and the economic impact on farm income. That report is due on March 1st, and we anticipate hearings around the HORSE Act at about the same time. At the United Organizations of the Horse we are developing industry driven programs such as a National Do Not Slaughter Registry to protect the rights and the interests of those horse owners who never want to see their horse slaughtered. We are also developing a United Organizations of the Horse Quality Assurance Program to minimize transportation risks, bruising and injury of horses bound for slaughter, to ensure that live animals are handled appropriately, and that the meat is safe and free of harmful drug residues. We are working to remove the regulatory roadblocks to a processing plant opening in many of the 45 states that do not have a ban on horse meat.
In terms of the BLM horse problem, one of our guiding principles is that horse numbers be strictly controlled so that we have a sustainable population of wild horses on public lands for our children and grandchildren to appreciate. Most of you are very aware of the GAO study that came out last year that clearly pointed out the flawed methodology currently used by the BLM, and the challenges they face in appropriately managing the horses in relationship to a multiple-use mandate that does not allow for the primacy of a single invasive species over the well-being of all other native wildlife, or responsible use of a renewable resource for the production of livestock, the only way we have of converting grass and water into human food on un-farmable land. Therefore, our position is that the population must be adequately controlled to ensure sustainability, and that no horse should ever be held captive off of the public lands for longer than 90 days. Period. If they cannot be adopted, or otherwise disposed of within that period, then they must be sold to the highest bidder without recourse, and all proceeds returned to better manage the wild populations and the resource base.
Bottom line, if a horse cannot be used for some other purpose, or is not wanted as a pet, then the highest, best use of that animal is to provide healthy, wholesome food to sustain somebody, or something.
To suggest that we should ignore the degradation of the environment, and allow them to multiply to the point that they are starving themselves and every other living thing on the land as being the natural way of things is the most immoral outrage I can imagine...to condemn that many horses, all of that wildlife—elk, deer, rabbits, turkeys, bighorn sheep, and all the rest—endangered and otherwise to a long, slow, agonizing death of starvation and disease...unforgiveable!
Every jurisdiction in the country does their best to control populations of animals. Wildlife managers resort to intensified hunting seasons, predator controls, extreme measures when necessary. Cities, towns, and counties don't allow feral dogs and cats to get out of control, and euthanize them humanely when they are not adoptable or wanted. To suggest that it is the government's role, and the taxpayer's responsibility to support every excess, unwanted, unuseable horse for as long as they shall live, regardless of the cost...ridiculous!
Disposing of a 1,000 lb. horse carcass is more of a challenge than a dog or a cat. To suggest that it is more moral to kill nearly 200,000 wild and domestic horses a year with toxic drugs that if left in the open will kill any scavenger that feeds on the carcass, if buried will leach into water tables, cannot even be rendered into useful by-products, or composted, because of toxic residues—to suggest that this is somehow more moral than feeding someone, or something...horrific!
Our founding fathers had a keen appreciation of the central role of private property in social life. Just as a strong view of the freedom of speech and the freedom of religion is necessary to serve fundamental constitutional values, so, too, is a strong view of private property in a free and democratic society. Private property rights include exclusive rights of possession, use, and disposition, and our legal system includes effective systems to record title and to transfer ownership. No one disputes that all domestic animals are private property. To deprive horse owners of options in terms of access to a viable market, or to try and legally determine which animals people can eat based purely on the spurious social and cultural attitudes of a few...unconscionable and unprecedented!
My personal morality says that it is an unethical waste of a massive amount of healthy, nutritious meat that would otherwise be welcomed by a world wide market, and an unconstitutional infringement upon my rights as a horse owner to be deprived of that viable market in order to make a living, to maximize my investment in all classes of livestock, or to even enjoy the nourishment of the meat itself if I choose. As a legislator, and a citizen, I hold the Wyoming State Constitution very close to my heart, and it guides every action I take, and it says, “nowhere in a Republic does absolute, arbitrary power over the lives, liberty, or property of free men exist, not even in the largest majority.”
We know what is right and what is wrong. We cannot allow that certainty to be subverted. We cannot allow special interests to draw ourselves and our wild and domestic horses into this unmanageable morass. We cannot allow the devastation of our land and environment by political decisions, rather than sound science and good stewardship. We cannot allow the annihilation of our culture, our traditional ways of living and being with animals, the threat to our health, well-being, and generations to come.
In the end, all we can do...what we must do...is to strive for that courageous moderate way that Aristotle espoused, to protect our rights, our land, our people, and our animals...to do what Socrates advised...to do what we know is right, and to be happy.
- Sue Wallis Society of Range Management – Wild Horse and Burro Conference Reno, Nevada

Arbitrary power, weren’t we talking about a form of that on the wish list of the NAHSC in a previous blog when Jane post this to us? Maybe our good friends Fugly, Vicki, or John want to step up and tell Sue she “just doesn’t know the facts”.
by RH1