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News-Sentinel.com Your Town. Your Voice.
Opening Arguments

They don't shoot horses

What do we do when our compassion doesn't have the results we might have intended?

STAFFORDSVILLE, Ky. - The bidding for the black pony started at $500, then took a nosedive. There were no takers at $300, $200, even $100. With a high bid of just $75, the auctioneer gave the seller the choice of taking the animal off the auction block. But the seller said no.

"I can't feed a horse," the man said. "I can't even feed myself."

Kentucky, the horse capital of the world, famous for its sleek thoroughbreds, is being overrun with thousands of horses no one wants — some of them perfectly healthy, but many of them starving, broken-down nags. Other parts of the country are overwhelmed, too.

The reason: growing opposition in the U.S. to the slaughter of horses for human consumption overseas.

Read the whole thing, if you can stand it; it's heartbreaking. Or maybe it just strikes me that way because I grew up there. But we do the same thing here. People protest at deer kills at the state parks, even when the alternative seems to be herds of starving deer.

Posted in: Current Affairs

Comments

Doyle Doss
Fri, 03/16/2007 - 10:31am

Good post Leo, but we are in the process of elevating amimals to "human hood" and I do not think it will stop untill the economy collapses, food supplies disappear, and people become hungry. We knew about the potential global warming in the '70's -- didn't make a difference. We have become very short sighted in our thoughts and actions and are heading for disasters. Warm wishes from California to you and yours.

Jodi
Fri, 03/16/2007 - 12:05pm

The opposition to horses slaughter is NOT the reason for all of these unwanted horses!!! The slaughter plants do NOT want skinny broken down nags! they want healthy FAT horses with lots of meat that they can sell!! The reason for all these unwanted horses is the unrestricted breeding of horses just so they can find that 1 horse that might make them a million dollars. Not to mention the pharmaceutical companies that breed just so they can get the hormones from pregnant horses. This leaves thousands of sickly unwanted horses to be born. Then there is the horse race industry breeding just to find that 1 winner, and there are those people who are just ignorant as to how much it costs to take care of horses who just leave them uncared for in fields etc etc etc. Don't blame the oppositon to horse slaughter! There are more humane ways to kill horses besides the cruel bolt to the head that slaughter plants offer, which most of the time is not that effective and is very cruel leaving the horses to be skinned alive! Maybe laws should be set in place to restrict the breeding of all these horses. Maybe you should not be allowed to breed it just because you own it. You need are really darn good reason for making more baby horses of whom you have no clue what their futures will be once they leave your hands especially if you are selling them at auctions that are frequented by people who are just selling to slaughter plants. The over breeding needs to STOP NOW! You can't just ship them off to slughter just because "oh, no, you have to many horses! Stop breeding them simple as that! Sickly horses should be humanely euthanized slowly over the next several years as a way to relieve the over population and the cost to euthanize should be reduced for people trying to fix the problem and for those trying to help end the pain of the really old injured horses who have no quality of life. There is a solution to this problem. the people who helped create the problems by over breeding should be forced to help fix it in a humane manner with out slaughter. This is NOT about elevating animals to "human hood" level. This about HUMANS acting in irresponsible manner by over breeding just because they can, and not taking care of the animals in appropriate humane manner once they have created to many animals.

Steve Towsley
Fri, 03/16/2007 - 6:04pm

A troll wrote:
>We knew
>about the potential global
>warming in the '70's -- didn't
>make a difference.

Oh brother. It seems there is nothing they will not lay at the elusive doorstep of "global warming." I guess the UFO thing didn't pan out...

roach
Mon, 03/19/2007 - 12:53pm

mark souder voted to kill and eat horses.
he also believes the chinese eat fetuses, thanks to james dobson telling him so.

the french love to eat horsemeat- its a "delicacy to them".
but we cant eat canada geese that poop everywhere. nor can starving indians in India eat sacred cows( they make the best hamburger, you know).
and many in the world dont eat pork. Emeril, loves pork fat. congress loves pork barrell. I love bacon. do you?

many cant eat meat during lent. but the koreans eat dogs.

We cant shoot deer in canned hunts, but the poor, and homeless can eat canned deer for free at community harvest food bank, thanks to hunters for the hungry.

If you are hungry enough to eat a horse, literally, then what does that say about
america? I just wanted to point out these absurdities.
especially that Mark souder voted to slaughter horses, rather than letting them run wild, and repopulate. We might need them if the price of gas goes any higher.

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