Where will they end up?

So it's been talked over through and through especially lately with the horsemeat scandal in Europe, whether or not to ban American horses from being sent and sold for human consumption abroad.

Animal rights groups already got what they wanted when the last slaughterhouse that actively killed horses for meat in Illinois was closed down seven years ago. Currently American horses that are going for meat are trucked to either Canada or Mexico for slaughtering in foreign plants before being shipped around the world and sold for humans to eat at up to $40 a pound. These include horses from all walks of life. Racehorses, school horses, lesson horses, draft horses, ponies. All of them are seen making their way on the final days long journey in the back of a double decker cattle truck after being sold at auction. The final stop is a foreign slaughter plan and someone's dinner plate. In the U.S. horses are no longer killed in slaughterhouses for meat, but that doesn't mean they don't wind up there.

As it stands with a few states trying to get legislation passed to open a new slaughterhouse that will process horses there are many groups who are trying to get American horse meat banned once and for all. This means from export as well as making it highly illegal to cross the U.S. border with a truck full of horses bound for meat. It would also make it illegal for foreign slaughterhouses to accept horses of American origin. If this ban passes the activist groups will be head over heels with joy.

I do not like seeing our horses wind up on the butcher block, but there are two points that I see in this very flawed thought process. Let's explore them, shall we?

A. Surplus. What to do with all the horses that would be taken out of the populous by means of auction and slaughter. Think about all of the breeders that pump out tens of thousands of foals annually across the U.S. So what becomes of all the surplus horses? The rescues are already overflowing and underbudgeted. The price of feed has skyrocketed to the point it's difficult to afford. There are still no restrictions on the mass-breeding that goes on, especially with crazy show breeders or race-horse stud farms who sometimes produce over two hundred foals a year in the quest for two or three good ones. Low-cost gelding clinics are few and far between so many 'oops' foals happen as well. Euthanasia is expensive and the carcass removal even higher priced.

B. Horses, as much as everyone in the U.S. denies it, are livestock. They eat grass, they walk on hooves, the live in a field and graze pasture. There is little difference, in reality, from a cow and a horse. Both are mammals, both have helped humans in settling, being fed, and providing work animals. In many places people eat horses just like they do cows. What makes it so much worse to eat a horse over a cow? Both live, feel, think, see, breathe. Both live in family groups and raise their babies. I don't get why it is such a damn taboo to thinking about eating horses but it's perfectly acceptable and normal to go home at night and eat a cow. Hypocrisy all around.

So what do we do? Most people find the thought of eating horses appalling (but then they eat cows, damn hypocrites) and the thought of sending them to slaughter sickening, but what do we do? Do we ban all forms of horsemeat in this country? If so, then what do we do when the instances of neglect, home-killing, starvation, abandonment, etc rise by 200-300%? Where will we send tens of thousands of unwanted horses if there is no place for them and no place to dispose of them? Will a black market for horseflesh like the one in Florida rise up again and give rise even more to backyard horse butchers?

The simplest answer is, as of now, that a ban on horsemeat and horse exportation for slaughter will not work. If anything, it will only make the number of unwanted horses rise exponentially and then therein still lies the problem. This proposed 'solution' isn't going to solve anything. If anything it will make the problem facing the overpopulation, neglect, abandonment, starvation, etc much, much worse. I hate seeing any animal be killed for food, but if you think about it, that's far better than being neglected in a tiny waste-encrusted pen with severely overgrown hooves covered in skin lesions while slowly and agonizingly starving to death over months.

The problem needs to be addressed at the source: The breeders.

Breeders producing hundreds of foals a year at a single farm in the quest for a couple of the fastest for the race track or a couple of well-built ones for the halter show ring. Breeders breeding anything with spots to anything that has four hooves. Breeders breeding anything that will produce 'color'. Or the fad breeders who jump on whatever breed fad is going around and breed them like crazy, like current the obsession with Gypsy Vanners. If breeding was regulated and this kind of over-breeding was slapped with a fine, it wouldn't happen and we wouldn't have an exploding horse population with no homes for them. If horses were required to show their worth before being allowed to breed, this kind of thing wouldn't be happening. If stupid owners would geld their worthless conformational trainwrecks of stallion instead of letting them sire foals with half their herd, this kind of thing wouldn't happen. Etcetera. If the problem, which lies with the breeders, was addressed there wouldn't be a staggering horse overpopulation problem.

Right now there is no middle ground. The activists want all horse meat and export banned, and the people who regularly send unwanted horses through the meat system want American slaughter plants opened.

Neither is any closer to finding a true solution because they are missing the problem entirely... Start with the breeders and the overbreeding and then you'll have a basis for a working long-term solution.

Cruelty by Kindness.

People talk about it all the time, the obesity epidemic. That's gnawing a bone that's been gnawed for years. I'm here to talk bitch about how people's greed/gluttony are passed on to their animal companions resulting in the animal obesity epidemic we're seeing so much these days.

I see it day in and day while doing my job (professional animal groomer). Animals coming in that weigh much more than they should, sometimes double or triple what they should. What I don't understand is where it got lost in translation and got turned around that this is okay. Apparently 90% of people are completely blind to the fact that their animals are extremely overweight, while some are in complete denial about the whole thing, and still others just don't care. It takes all sorts, too. You see really tall thin people that have extremely overweight cats and heavy people that have slender dogs, etc. It's not just caused by heavy people who feed their animals much like they do themselves and ignore the need for exercise. These overweight animals are owned by people from all walks of life.

It's not uncommon for someone to bring in their dog (or cat) for grooming and want to leave some kind of disgusting food or treats for it and expect me to feed it to them. I usually agree to it because I don't want to be rude and cause a dispute but as soon as they walk out the door whatever it is usually ends up in the trash first thing. I've seen some utterly disgusting things over the years. I had a two heavy-set ladies bring in a small severely overweight shih tzu mix and they were feeding it chewed-up fast-food chicken from a cardboard tray. I was appalled. It was absolutely disgusting. I've had others bring in canned vienna sausages, spam, wet dog/cat food, baby food, and other manner of horrifying vile-scented things.

Be it denial, stupidity, or just plain lack of caring people really need to step back, look at their severely overweight animals, and realize that they are not actually being kind to them, but in reality, killing them. It’s all cruelty by kindness. People think they are doing nice things for their beloved pets by feeding them all sorts of things, such as table scraps, but it’s really the opposite. A lifetime of being fed all wrong leads to a staggering amount of health problems such as diabetes, heart disease, high-blood pressure, and other things. Most of the same illnesses humans get by being overweight affect animals too when they are too heavy to be properly healthy. Just five pounds of extra weight on a dog or cat can shorten their life by more than a year and that shortened mortality rate increases with the more excess weight your pet is carrying.

Pets must be fed/treated properly to be healthy. This means saying no to overfeeding, excessive table scraps, feeding the right kinds of food, not overtreating, and proper exercise. It’s not doing your pets a kindness when you feed them everything under the sun. Pet food is made for a reason. Next time you want to feed your dog or cat something fatty or just plain disgusting, think of someone you know with a muffin top jelly roll belly hanging over their pants or someone that has severe diabetes or heart disease and rethink your decision. It might, in the end, save your pet from a lifetime of health problems and actually extend their healthy happy years.