Out of Sight, Out of Mind

Saturday December 3 2011

Well well.

Cowboy is moving the hungry horses off the property, and Sheriff is in the driveway. (See my previous post, You Can Lead a Horse to Slaughter...)

After weeks with no real food, the horses have stripped even most of the inedible weeds that you see in this picture. (This shows a veritable oasis of weeds a week ago, compared to the ocean of dirt now.) They are gathered in a corral (with no food) and he's filling a big trailer. I'll see tomorrow if he's taken them all. He'll have to make a lot of trips.

I don't know where the herd is going, but now at least I won't have to look at them and wonder when the first one might fall from starvation.

However, that doesn't change the fact that about 50 hungry horses are moving somewhere else and they will still be hungry, and it still makes me think of the slaughter debate.

If they starve to death somewhere else, is it okay, since I won't see it?

If they are sold for slaughter and shipped to Mexico or Canada, is it okay, since I won't see it?

The facts are:

• 2 million households in the US own some of the 9.2 million horses in America.

• Over 100,000 unwanted horses are slaughtered per year in Mexico and Canada, where the US has no jurisdiction in how horses are handled or treated.

• You cannot force horse owners (recreation horse owners, sport horse owners, backyard breeders, million dollar barns, ranchers, etc) to either take care of their horses comfortably till they reach old age and die a natural death, nor to humanely put them down.

• You cannot force more households to adopt unwanted horses, and nurse them back to life, if need be.

•  Over 100,000 horses per year must be disposed of some way.


I appreciate the comments and discussions from the pro-slaughter advocates (100% of them were pro-slaughter and anti-cruelty and anti-suffering, and yes, you can be both) but I would also like to hear from anti-slaughter folks.

What is your solution?