Excellent Comment
July 8, 2011 § 2 Comments
Reading stories that pop up in my Google Alerts have recently shown a spate of pro-slaughter activists using the GAO Report as “evidence” that horse slaughter should resume in the States.
When I read the GAO report the first time, I did see some points that I knew they would glom onto. But there were just as many points for animal welfare advocates, and yes, even anti-slaughter activists, to rejoice over. I pointed out many of those.
What impresses me as I read through most of the “articles” written by pro-slaughter activists is how they ignore the points that don’t work in their favor. When I wrote about the report, I posted (almost) the entire report. I say “almost” because while I did leave out a little fluff, I certainly did comment on every main point. I didn’t shy away from the points that could have looked like the closures of the slaughter plants affected the horse industry. I discussed it.
Thankfully, people seem to be commenting on these articles and bringing up valid welfare points, as well as the main issue the GAO report didn’t touch on… the drugs.
All that being said (or “end rant” if you will), one comment in particular stood out to me. It was by a woman named Julie. Here it is, in its entirety.
I was around before there was slaughter for human consumption. People passed horses down to younger sisters and brothers and friends. People took more time in training and in maintaining soundness then today. We bred our mares to the best studs we could find. We brought new people in. We sold horses according to the buyers needs. We lack that today. When the killer buyers showed up we could no longer have a say in what happened to them. It was a hard pill to take when we would find out that our 18 year old gelding (with $25,000 in training) went to slaughter. WHEN THE KILL BUYERS TELL YOU THE ANIMAL IS GOING TO THE HANDS OF A CHILD. When slaughter was in there was a 2 year waiting period and a $2,500 price tag for a over 16 year old kid horse. Hard pill to take.
I believe the last line was supposed to read: Before slaughter …
Can you imagine?
NotABreed 
I agree, it is an excellent comment
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It is an excellent comment indeed. I do NOT remember a time before slaughter. I didn’t know much about it until I got my first horse in 1977, but it didn’t take long when you were in Dallas, TX, with Beltex on one side and Dallas Crown on the other.
We lived in constant fear of our horses being stolen. These were professional horse thieves, and they could get a horse if they had to pull him through a keyhole. It was a nightmare. People were afraid to sell their horses because of the way the killers misrepresented themselves (lied).
And sell your horse at an auction?? Not if you gave a tinker’s dam about what happened to him. I remember watching the killers out bid everyone else for the best horses. Sometimes, the auctioneer would ignore any other bids. A couple of those were more than enough.
It must have been great before this blight hit the horse industry…….
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