Hi There! I am a new member and have just joined. I have done some reading and realize that I still have a lot more to do, to even grasp some of the issues that are being discussed here. My bottom line is that I love all animals and believe that none of them should suffer. I have been following the news about the horse slaughter ban, but this site is the first that I have run across that speaks of it in depth. The reason that I am posting here, is that I have read other news concerning this in a more world=wide capacity and would like to bring it forward here. Firstly, I am Canadian. We allow the horse slaughter that you have banned. We do not have any preservation laws for wild horses here...I am ashamed. I hope that many Canadians are watching what is going on in the States these days. I recently went exploring on horse forums and ended up on one in the UK. All horses there are required to have Passports for every horse they own. This stems from the bad time they had with Mad Cow, and its reason is to provide safe meat for the table as they are horse eaters over there. The short run of it is, that if you do not have a passport, you cannot buy, sell, import, export, show or send a horse to slaughter. Mandatory. The Passport stays with the horse for life, like reg. papers. The gist of it is, is that there is a clause on these passports that must be declared. It is that you declare the horse for slaughter or not for slaughter. If a horse is declared for slaughter then anywhere down the road, if the owner wants to administer certain meds that have been listed, they cannnot give them to the horse until the declaration has been changed to.....not for slaughter, then it is permanent, no going back, no waiting for drugs to clear the system and basics like Bute are on this list. So, if you want to do something as simple as help your horse with pain, then you have to declare him not for slaughter, permanently. Ireland, Scotland, Britain, the whole greater UK is invovled and it is now in effect. How does this relate to the banning of slaughter in the US...looks like a business decision to me. Horses that are slaughtered for food here are going to be moot point anyway, cause they will not be accepted over there with no passports. It seems to me, that its always about money and this banning is no more than a smart business decision, cause the market for this has ended. I think of the reasons that horses end up at the slaughterhouses as a big wide funnel with incoming horses that are there for many reasons....the slaughterhouse as the narrow end of the funnel.I have followed the PMU business and how they escaped to Manitoba in order to do it. I have seen lots of attitude on forums, where ignorance, and lack of feelings about the welfare for the horse are shown.(Horse is not good enough...gotta dump him in search for that elusive first prize in the show rings.) I have seen Mother Nature bring the whole thing forward from the bush, like out west a couple of years ago. Lack of feed had them screaming Help for food and shipping horses east for rescue in great numbers. Most of them were trucked all the way here, just to end up in a slaughterhouse anyway. The numbers were staggering, bought in lots of hundreds, to be trucked north at the new owners convenience...for slaughter. All of them were absolutely wild, with feet like pie plates and untouchable. I just knew that they were cleaning out the forgotten ones from the back paddocks and proved that given space, irresponsible breeding is easy. Not one quality horse came this way. I knew that their show horses were safely ensconced in their stalls.....sad. So, I can imagine that you can name many, many more reasons why horses end up in this big wide funnel to the slaughterhouse. The Passport system in the UK had me excited for awhile, thinking, o.k., it is all about safe meat, but hopefully, it will help the owner to fight injustices like abuse and at the same time, make the irresponsible owner be responsible for his horse. I was dreaming that the abuser would be sent to court, have his passport holding ability revolked and not be able to move down the road and set up shop again. Declaring a horse not for slaughter by an owner who sells that horse would make the new owner more responsible for that horse right there. But I just read on that same UK forum of somebody complaining about the state of some animals at an auction that had passports and the only avenue of complaint was to the auction house and usual routes....not the passport route. The Gov. has forced these passports on people, have made them pay for them only in the interest of safe meat. They should be giving something back by using this info to track stolen horses, stop abuse, catch offender that dump horses somewhere etc. I am not seeing this happen....sadly, but it is still new..... I am sadden and realize the fight to stand as an advocate of the horse is truly an arduous one, as you try to establish laws for the well being of a horse against a different political agenda, plus, the public at large and all the reasons that horses end up going into this funnel. Sadly, it is all about money and I just wanted to take my hat off to those of you who take the fight to the political arena and strive to accomplish things for the welfare of the horse himself, dealing with layers of crap to someone elses agenda and coming out with half measures at best, but its a start..... By half-measures, I would like to ask a question. Now that slaughter is banned, I do think it will help to narrow that wide funnel down, but I read a news article recently that disturbed me. They mentioned that now that the slaughter houses were closed, that horses would be taken to rendering plants and dealt with there. I am thinking that the wide end stays wide, the wrong end has been addressed (the narrow end) and has not been eliminated but simply moved sideways. The lesser horses at the auctions, will still be bid on by meat buyers who take them to rendering plants now, instead of slaughterhouses, horses further abused because nobody is watching cause they are no longer used for human consumption and the meat buyer still gets paid at the door of the rendering plant (question) Is this what the future looks like.
Missyclare, You are very welcome here---the fight against horse slaughter is far from over. I have learned things about the way our elected officials can go against public opinion that curls my hair. I have come to believe nearly all pols are guided by money--not beliefs/ethics. I was amazed and so pleased when our elected officials bolted their party line and voted against drilling for oil in the Artic Wilderness. Now if we can just convince them to do the same for the horses. Pat in Fl.
Missyclare, This is the question I was driving at many posts ago and it is still unanswered. What will happen to those horses and will it be better or worse?
