Slaughtering Horses is Not a Bad Thing
by Jessica Clark
(Como, Texas)
Everyone is so against slaughtering horses, but they don't see both sides of the story. The truth is the industry depends on the slaughter of horses. Anyone who actually owns them can see a huge difference in the value of horses since the slaughter houses have been shut down.
For those of you who have taken an economics class in high school or college, you might understand this: as long as the slaughter houses were willing to pay $800 for a horse (for example) people who wanted that horse would pay more than that to keep it from being killed. This made the market stable. Now that there is no market, there are so many crappy horses, that you can go to a livestock auction and pick up a yearling for $30. It's not right.
Now even the good horses, the ones that have a useful purpose, have been affected. It’s really depressing when you can find a granddaughter of Smart Little Lena for less than what the breeding fee would be for her daddy.
For those of you who don't own horses, there is this test called a coggins test that horses have to have every year. The "Coggins Test" screens the blood sample for exposure to the virus causing Equine Infections Anemia. This is a serious and often fatal disease that is spread by blood sucking flies. If an affected horse is bitten by a fly he can then transmit the virus to another nearby horse. Horses that are coggins positive have to be put down.
So what is going to happen now that these horses can't be sold to be slaughtered? There are many other diseases that result in the horse being killed. And there is only so much ground to bury these dead animals. Then what? Let other animals graze where you buried the sick horses, and see if the diseases with spread through the ground?
And what about the people like me, who used to make a living raising, training and selling horses? There is absolutely no money in it now. I think it is stupid for people to get involved with this kind of stuff, when they have no idea what they are talking about, and when it doesn't even affect them.
Believe it or not, horses aren't pets. They are livestock. Next, people are going to be trying to prevent the slaughter of goats, sheep, pigs, and eventually cattle. Horses are slaughtered the same way as cattle, and people don’t go around saying its “inhumane” to slaughter cattle. Not everyone wants to be a vegetarian, and it's not right that other people can decide what we can and can not do.
This is what I believe, and if you think I am wrong, and have a good reason for thinking that, please feel free to email me. Irishgirl21814@aol.com.
I would love to hear your side of the story. But I don’t want to hear from someone who isn’t involved in the industry. If you don’t have money invested in at least one horse, you don’t truly know the full affect that the closing of the slaughter houses has caused.
