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Written by Rebecca Overton
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 Horses so thin you can put your finger between their ribs. Owners who pay sale barns $25 to sell a horse that goes for $5 or $10. People who ask animal control officers to take their horses because they can’t afford to feed them. Situations like these have been reported in increasing numbers across the United States since the horse processing plants in Illinois and Texas were closed last year,
What to do with the approximately 60,000 to 100,000 horses annually that would have been processed remains at the heart of the problem. Although adoption facilities like Purple Haze Center in Farmington, N.Y., which serves retired Thoroughbred racehorses, continue to be opened, many others, such as the Kentucky Equine Humane Center in Nicholasville, are full.
While the Humane Society of the United States acknowledges it has heard of an increasing number of abandoned horses since the processing plants were closed, it believes the number is exaggerated. The HSUS does not have statistics on the number of horses that have been rescued or placed in shelters.
“Our position is that the 60,000 number of unwanted horses isn’t accurate,” said Keith Dane, HSUS director of equine protection. “We would like to know if there’s a true crisis going on out there, but I think a lot of it is anecdotal and not based entirely on fact and reality.”
Others on the front line, including veterinarians, animal control officers and horse owners, tell a different story based on what they’ve seen in the field.
Food for thought
The plant closings have had a trickle-down effect on facilities one usually wouldn’t consider associated with horses. But the centers have a front-row seat to view the fallout from the slaughterhouse ban.
One type of facility is animal sanctuaries that rely on horse meat to feed carnivores they have rescued. Before the closings, U.S. zoos purchased horse meat from the plants, but now many import it from Canada, where the number of American horses shipped to processing plants there increased 41 percent after the U.S. plants were closed.
“The quality of horse meat for feeding carnivores is 10 times that of a cow,” explained the owner of an animal sanctuary in Texas. “One horse will equal three cows in terms of nutritional value for my animals. If I had to do away with taking in horses, then I would be in really big trouble as far as providing food for the animals at our facility.”
Because horse meat is vital to feeding her animals, the owner, who has operated the facility for 20 years, asked to remain anonymous. The facility accepts only horses that are injured, suffering or dying. It can’t take animals that have been euthanized with drugs because they can be dangerous to the animals to whom the deceased horses are fed.
“In the first couple of months following the ban, we had a 75 percent increase in people wanting to donate horses to us. It was outrageous,” she remembered. “I think people were just wanting to dump their horses because they had nowhere else to take them. Today, I’d say there is a 50 percent increase in the number of horses people ask us to take since the slaughterhouses were closed. The bad thing is that a lot of these horses are starving to death.
“They’re bringing them in as far as Oklahoma and driving them all the way down here because they have nowhere else to take them. It’s so expensive to euthanize them, and then they have to pay to have them buried or however they dispose of them.”
The cost of burying a horse can range from $300 to more than $500, according to a study for the Animal Welfare Council published in 2006. Additional costs include euthanasia by a vet and drop-off fees at landfills. Many towns and counties do not allow horses to be buried because of environmental concerns, and many landfills do not accept horses.
Forty-five percent of horse owners in the United States have annual household incomes of $25,000 to $75,000, according to the study’s report titled, “The Unintended Consequences of a Ban on the Humane Slaughter (Processing) of Horses in the United States.” It costs an average of $2,340 a year, which does not include veterinary care, to maintain an unwanted horse.
That cost most likely has increased since 2006 as hay and fuel prices have gone through the roof. Smaller square bales of hay have been selling for as much as $8, and larger round bales can cost up to $75. In winter, an average horse may eat half a bale a day, or more.
When it comes down to being able to provide for their family or animals, most horse owners will choose the former when economic hardships arise.
“The condition of these horses – the malnutrition and starvation that I see in these animals – is horrific because people can’t afford to feed them,” the sanctuary owner said. “It was especially bad when we were experiencing a drought. Horses were starved to death. People had nothing to do but wait for them to die.
“I would have animals come in where you could literally put your finger between their ribs. It was just horrific, horrific. Why? Because people had nowhere to go with these horses.”
The facility never takes in an animal that is healthy, she maintained.
“Everyone knows not to call us unless the animal is dying. Yesterday, I picked up a horse that hung itself on a tree,” she said. “The day before, I picked up a horse that broke its leg. If I didn’t pick them up – and this is in just one county – what do the rest of the people do out there? Leave them to lie down and suffer until they die?”
If the occasional horse that is brought to the facility can be saved, the facility used to place it in an adoption program, but that resource is drying up, the owner explained.
“It’s very hard to place horses,” she said. “It’s almost impossible. So many rescue or retirement facilities are full or are closed down now because they couldn’t handle the influx of animals.
“Because I still pick up [sick or injured horses] from old horse traders, I found out all these traders are doing now is taking these horses to Mexico since the slaughterhouses were closed. They’re still collecting horses, which are being treated much more deplorably in Mexico than in the United States.”
According to the United States Department of Agriculture, the number of horses transported to Mexico increased 312 percent since the plants in the U.S. were closed. Slaughter ban opponents contend the plant closings traded a humane, government-inspected form of processing for an unregulated one where abuse is more likely to occur.
It takes a thick skin and strong stomach to be able to handle the condition of some of these horses.
“There are horse traders, and then there are people who I think need to be thrown in prison because of the condition of the horses I pick up,” she said. “It’s disgusting. Yes, I understand they’re taking them to Mexico and they’re in that condition when they get them a lot of times. But there’s one gentleman whom I finally told I would not pick up horses from him anymore. I told him, ‘I can’t do this. It’s just breaking my heart to come onto this property and pick up these horses. It’s making me sick.’
“There are always going to be a few people who say, ‘I love my horse so much I just couldn’t put them down, even though they weigh 90 pounds.’ But since the ban, there’s been a definite increase in animals who are in really bad shape.
“I wish I could talk publicly about this, but I can’t.”
More neglect
Cathy Sids is a sergeant and the animal control services supervisor in the Wise (Texas) County Sheriff’s Department, where she has been employed for 13 years. After the slaughter plants in Texas were shut down, she received a report that two horses had been abandoned at the LBJ National Grasslands north of Decatur, which is 90 miles from Dallas.
The horses had been running wild for several months and had to be roped so they could be contained. “We got them right after the Texas slaughter plants were closed,” she said.
Sids believes the slaughter ban has had a negative impact on horses.
“I’m seeing cases where people get horses and don’t take care of them, or people who have had horses for years who no longer care for them,” she said. “Maybe their horse is injured and they can’t afford to take it to a vet, so it will drag its back legs and become skin and bones. Others have hooves that are terribly overgrown because their owners can’t afford to have them trimmed.”
Sids also has seen an increase in the number of lost horses whose owners aren’t interested in finding them. “If my horse was missing, believe me, I’d be hunting for it day and night,” she said.
“Now, when we find a lost horse, the owners ask me if I want it. We have a lot of people trying to give us horses since the slaughter plants were closed.”
Sids has been investigating more cases of neglect since the price of mid- to lower-level horses has plummeted.
“Horses are cheaper now, so some people buy them who don’t know how to take care of them,” she said. “They’ll buy them, but then they don’t want to spend the money to care for them.
“Sometimes, they don’t know how to feed them. They don’t realize horses aren’t going to eat dead grass in winter. If someone doesn’t know how to take care of a horse, I’d rather educate them than take the animal away.”
The Wise County Animal Shelter is closed for repairs, so horses that are lost, abandoned or neglected are hauled to a livestock facility in nearby Bowie. If a horse is unclaimed after the county reports it in a newspaper, it’s sold at public auction.
“The last time we tried to take a horse to the North Texas Humane Society about a year and a half ago, they said they were full,” Sids said.
That’s not surprising. In Dallas, the City Council is grappling with what officials call an “overwhelming” number of stray dogs and cats by considering mandatory spaying and neutering, and limits on the number of pets a resident can own.
In 2007, the city of Dallas alone euthanized 28,479 cats and dogs. Every day, 200 to 300 stray pets are brought to the city shelter, where only eight to 10 are adopted.
The American Association of Equine Practitioners estimates an additional 2,700 rescue facilities would be needed to care for the thousands of surplus horses during the first year after the slaughter ban. It can cost as much as $25,740 to care for a horse that lives into retirement, according to the Animal Welfare Council report.
There is enough concern about the problem that the American Horse Council and USDA will hold a public forum titled “The Unwanted Horse Issue: What Now?” on June 18 as part of its three-day 2008 National Issues Forum in Washington, D.C.
Perfection not possible
Carolyn Sorrell uses Quarter Horses to work cattle in the stocker and feeder cattle business that she and her late husband, Gene, started in 1968. Two of their three daughters and a son-in law work with Sorrell at the Fox Creek Cattle Co. in Hopkinsville, Ky.
“We use our horses to gather and check cattle, and on the weekends, the grandkids ride them for pleasure,” Sorrell explained. “We enjoy breeding and raising horses. All my colts are registered Quarter Horses that we used to sell in the $1,500 range. Now, you’re lucky if you can get $100 or $200 for one.”
Sorrell attributes the low prices to the slaughterhouse closings.
“This is as bad as I’ve ever seen the horse market,” she said. “We were left with too many horses after they shut the slaughterhouses down.”
Sorrell sees slaughter as a form of maintenance, a humane alternative to turning older horses out, letting them roam and starve to death.
“People are starving old horses,” she said. “After the drought we had, they can’t afford hay to feed them.
“I have a 30-year-old gelding and a 22-year-old mare. My horses are my pets. I love them. But I have too many horses now, and that’s partly because I can’t sell them. They’re not worth anything anymore.”
Horse slaughter methods in the United States have been supported by Dr. Temple Grandin, Ph.D., an associate professor at Colorado State University and a world-renowned designer of humane livestock and slaughter facilities. Grandin, who is autistic, gained national attention by using her ability to recall detail and her insight into the minds of cattle to design humane animal-handling equipment.
She has done consulting work for companies that include McDonald’s, Burger King and Swift, and has designed the facilities in which many cattle in the U.S. are handled. Grandin speaks about autism and cattle management around the world.
“In the United States, horse slaughter, when it’s done correctly, can be done really well – just as cattle,” she said in an interview on National Public Radio. “I feel very strongly that animals must be raised, maintained and slaughtered in a way to protect animal welfare.
“The whole reason I work in this field is because I want to improve the way animals are handled and slaughtered. Horse slaughter in the United States is covered by the Humane Slaughter Act. They use the same methods as cattle.
“There’s no way you can have 100 percent perfection on either food safety or animal welfare, for the same reason that heart surgeons can’t be 100 percent perfect.”
Charles Stenholm, a former U.S. congressman and spokesman for the Horse Welfare Coalition, agrees.
“Our livestock industry in the United States has the best management practices from the farm to the fork,” he said. “We need to publicize it. We do a pretty darn good job. But there is no such thing as perfection.”
Slammed by the economy
In his rounds in Kentucky as a representative for an international firm that sells animal health products, Anthony Stevenson visits livestock companies and talks with cattlemen and horsemen in the field. Unwanted horses, the slaughter ban, and its effects on the equine industry are hot topics of conversation in a state known for horses.
Several Kentucky newspapers have reported instances of horses that were turned loose on public land by owners who could no longer care for them. Stevenson recounted how an acquaintance told him what occurred when he and a friend hauled their horses to a national forest in eastern Kentucky to ride.
“When they rode back to their trailers, about 15 horses followed them out and stood there, like, ‘Hey! Can we go, too?’ They had to shoo them off,” Stevenson said.
“In the last couple of weeks, someone else told me he and a friend had been riding a four-wheeler in another national forest. He was going down a trail and all of a sudden a bunch of horses ran across the trail. He and his friend counted 60 to 70 horses in that bunch.”
Randall Mitchell, an employee with the U.S. Forest Service, works at Land Between The Lakes, a 170,000-acre campground in Kentucky that has miles of trails designed for equestrian use. Although he said the Forest Service has reported no loose horses there or in other national parks in the state, it has a plan in place to deal with abandoned equines.
“It involves capture, quarantine, and all of the normal requirements the state has for controlling infectious disease,” he said. “The bottom line is to make sure horses aren’t carrying anything that would be communicable.
“We’d have to treat them basically as lost property. After we post them 30 days as lost, we would sell them at a local auction or on eBay.
“We have some horses on property that are used for work, but the Forest Service doesn’t want to get in the horse-trading business,” he said.
Economic hardship, which can come out of nowhere, can affect family members or the neighbor down the street. It’s not hard to find someone these days who financially can’t care for his horses anymore or knows someone who can’t.
Dr. Thomas Lenz, D.V.M., an equine veterinarian in Shawnee, Kan., who served as AAEP president and is head of the Unwanted Horse Coalition, saw how economic problems affected a neighbor who owned several horses.
“After losing her job and the increase in the price of hay and fuel, she could no longer take care of them,” he said. “She could not sell them. I told her I would euthanize them at no cost, but she didn’t want to do that.”
Other neighbors helped by donating feed for her horses.
In another instance, an anonymous horse owner left his animals with a stranger he hoped might care for them when he couldn’t do it any longer.
“I talked with a cattle owner who said when he returned to his truck after taking some cattle to a sale, two horses were tied inside the trailer,” Lenz said. “These situations do exit.”
In poor condition
Dr. L.W. Beckley doesn’t like what he sees when he drives down little country roads in Estill County, Ky., 50 miles southeast of Lexington.
“I’ve seen more horse abuse and starvation cases in the last two years than I’ve seen in the last 10,” said the veterinarian who has a mixed animal practice in Irvine, Ky.
When the county confiscates abused horses, Beckley is one of the vets it calls to visit and examine them. “It’s really a sad situation,” he said.
“It’s pretty obvious in some places when you drive down the road and look over the fence. There are just so many horses that are not being cared for. When you drive down every little country road, instead of seeing one or two neglected horses, you see 20 or 30.”
He attributes the neglect to a bottoming out in the horse market.
“People go to some local horse sales to get rid of lower quality horses, and they can’t sell them,” he said. “A lot of times, what they bring won’t even pay the sale bill. In my opinion, it would be a lot more humane to start slaughtering horses again.
“It does need to be done humanely. If slaughter opponents saw a few of these horses where you can count every rib and vertebrae in their back, they would understand why it’s important to open the slaughter back up.
When the county calls him to examine abandoned or sick horses, Beckley treats them and tries to find them homes. So far, none have had to be euthanized, and all have been placed where they are cared for, he said.
While the four or five horses the county has confiscated in the last couple of years may not seem like many, “we’re a small county, and there used to never be a horse confiscated,” he explained.
“A lot of people don’t have the money to pay to euthanize a horse. They have to pay a vet to come out and do it, and the drugs are not cheap. Then they have to get a backhoe to dig a hole to bury them.
“You see horses out in the fields with very little to eat and in poor body condition. I wish some of these people who voted to ban slaughter would drive around with me for a day or two.”
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