Lots being said lately about the consumption of horse meat and slaughter houses etc. Here is my take. I do not eat horse meat, nor would I ever want to. I know and understand that in other cultures this is ok. I also know that in the United States we have a huge problem with unwanted and neglected horses with very few to no options for the owners of these animals. 1. People have lost their jobs and so forth and can not properly take care of them or 2. they just do not know how to properly care for them due to lack of education on equine care. Now, you can either try to sell them….not likely in this economy or you do the right thing and give them away…..again, not likely in this economy. There is a third option. Yes, euthanasia….but this cost alot of money, or does it? I recently found out that a county here in Florida has a program where they will take the horses and euthanize them and bury them for $15 per horse. I know this sounds terrible but it is a much better option than leaving the starving bag of bones standing in a back yard. In this business I see it daily.
I have mixed feelings about the opening of slaughter houses. It scares me actuallly! I do feel we need them…but…my fears are that the price of horse meat will rise to a crazy amount and we will have horses stolen left and right because, lets face it, they do not want our starved skinny horses they want fat healthy ones! So again my fear is that these people running these facilities will not care one bit where the horses are coming from or if some family is desperately trying to get their “pet” back.
I’m not sure what the answers are, but I do know that horse owners need to be aware of what is going on and what is coming our way in the very near future….they already lifted the ban on horse consumption right under our noses!
Please pass this on to everyone you know and make more and more people aware of the situation.
From Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/30/horse-meat-consumption-us_n_1120623.html
Another thought, I know someone will bring this up. If your horses are tatooed or micro chipped they are safe. Yea, right, keep telling yourself that. Noone making any type profit is going to care about that and the government??? well lets just say I have no hope that they will be standing there inspecting every horse that comes thru the line. Just my opinion.