Abandoned horses pose dilemma for ranchers

Source: Associated Press

LA GRANDE, Ore. — Ranchers in the old West saw their horse herds depleted by rustlers. Today people are abandoning unwanted domestic horses on ranches and public lands.

High hay prices and the closure this fall of the nation's last domestic horsemeat processing facility in Illinois may be partly to blame.

At least nine horses have been turned loose on Wannie MacKenzie's ranch north of Jordan Valley in the past 18 to 24 months and the Malheur County cattleman is bracing for more old and hungry horses as cash-strapped owners in Idaho's Treasure Valley run out of winter hay.

"It's a huge problem," MacKenzie said. "What am I gonna do with them? I don't want 300 head of horses on my ranch."

Read more: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/5312913.html

Or is that position too liberal for you?

I base my claim on historical record and pragmatic reality. Historically I can only recall one or two incidents where 'animal rights' groups aided their avowed 'enemies'. In particular in the case of horses they have a looooong history of abandoning the horses 'rights' once they have achieved whatever ill thought out goals they have set for them. Beginning with the rescue the wild horses from slaughter campaign 25 years or so ago. They stopped the killing of wild horses(no problem with that) but their solution was that all the excess horses that appeared as a result, and which were decimating their own food supply were going to be taken care of by the 'Adopt a Horse; campaign. Which, of course failed as they failed to realize that horses are not dogs and cats and require LARGE areas in which to be kept, large amounts of mooney to keep them, and more problematic they were illegal in almost all cities and suburbs!

No, I am not anti-animal 'rights', but I am anti STUPID IGNORANT JACKASSES who cause more suffering to the animals than they prevent.

Let's add one more CURRENT problem, in fact one which is a direct contributor to the story: The closing of ALL the horse slaughter plants in the US. In the US slaughter plants horses were treated the same as other animals we and you eat, killed but not tortured. However NOW the excess horses are sold or shipped to MEXICAN slaughter houses where they are STABBED to death...STABBED many, many, many times and eventually bleed to death. Ah, now ther's a humane way of treating a beloved animal. So 'animal rightests' get fucked! I'm with the horse on this one, and I suspect the horse would willingly play a part in drawing & quartering their 'saviors'.

NOW do I sound like some animal hater? Who actually cares less for that animal, me an old farm-boy, or you a suburb simperer?

I fail to see how over-worked, under-funded animal rights activists are supposed to handle every problem, much less one that is the size of this one. The US gov't itself decided the problem was so big that it would take a gov't sized solution.

The Wild Horse and Burro Protection Act was passed and signed in 1972. When it was funded, it worked fine. It declared that wild horses are a symbol of our country, and provided for the federal gov't to maintain their lands and their populations. When the population is too great for the available lands, excess horses are rounded up and taken to sanctuaries. Adoptable horses are auctioned off to good homes. Compliance checks make sure these animals don't get slaughtered. The Bush people have systematically underfunded the program, rendering it worse than ineffective.

You don't seem to have any knowledge or respect for the many committed people who worked tirelessly for the BLM in their mission. I know many of these people, and have seen first-hand the frustration they feel at having their mission betrayed and their work underfunded by a Republican Congress that would rather take donations from slaughterhouse owners then to fund a very popular act.

There is more than enough money and people to make ALL the PRO-ANIMAL programs in this country work; it requires a gov't. that is willing and eager to serve the will of the people, not the profits of slaughterhouses.

You sound like someone who is very short on compassion - for animals, and for the people who care for them. Maybe its your "farmboy" background that causes you to view them as products for profit, rather than as living things. But hell, I'm just I simple suburbanite.

You obviosuly didn't understand Didereaux's criticisms of the "adopt-a-horse" thing.

But what do I know, I'm one of those evil, animal-torturing "farmboys." :eyes:

:eyes: Don't get something you can't feed and properly take care of and then you don't have to worry about fucking abandoning it on someone else like a fungus that you would be for taking such action.

to feed it any longer opting to sell it to a slaughterhouse.

animal rights is a right wing position.

For me, I can't square having a face with having rights. According to some, its backwards looking and fails to address the basic needs of the struggle towards a equitable and just society (unless of course you think that horses and dogs should vote). Have we lost confidence in achieving it? Do we get distracted when millions toil in inhuman conditions? Children make garments? Debit slavery still exists? Even within the Republic (US) we still have all these issues and you worry about hurting an animal's feelings? And to top it all we will all bake to death from Green house gases unless right now we start turning the rudder.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/sep2004/corr-s14.shtml

Best Friends Animal Santcuary would definetly accept the abandoned horses in a New York minute.

But then again, maybe you think accepting the horses, doctoring them, feeding them, housing them & finding them good homes doesn't count as helping them.

I don't know if there's one in Oregon, but there are two that I know of in Nor Cal (one very small, one huge) and several in Washington.

But no, you're not going to get help from psychic animal rights people. It helps to use the phone and let them know about the problem.

It's my experience that the people speaking up against the PETA ideas are not experienced in owning or caring for animals. There is no perfect solution here and not everyone involved is evil or a saint. People do what they can and most do what they think is right.

Circumstances change. We had too many animals. 6 dogs, 4 horses, 3 cats and a bird. Then my wife decided she didn't want to live in the mountains any more. It took almost a year for me to find homes for the animals we couldn't keep.

Hopefully people will have a lot of common sense with these issues. It doesn't do any good to pick fights here with people. There is way too much of that at DU.

High hay prices and the closing of the slaughter houses? Give me a break! I'm sorry, but people who would abandon an animal like this was already not feeding or caring for it properly. The closing of the slaughter houses cannot be used as an excuse for anything other than the final termination of an inhumane practice.

Unfortunately, there are always irresponsible animal owners, that have no business owning animals. This definitely includes livestock. We have several of them around our ranch. They think they should be able to just turn them out to forage for themselves, so the owner doesn't have any expenses. Typically the horses/cattle have already eaten down everything on the owner's property to bare dirt. So they come over to my property and eat/trample my grass, or go into my hay barn and devour my $15 a bale orchard grass hay. These are also the owners that never provide any veterinary care, so their animals are often contagious. We lost our pet brahma steer to this type of trespass a few years ago.

Bottom line is that people cannot continue to see animals as disposable commodities that should not be any trouble to themselves. This goes for horses, cattle, dogs, cats, you name it. These are not toys, and require just as much care and expense as a human baby. As we all know, there are a ton of people out there that should not be allowed to breed either.

I think the long-term answer, is not to allow just anyone who happens to have a female animal to breed it. That's simply not acceptable. A foal (baby horse) is cute as hell, but unless you know something about genetics, ie, what you may get if you're lucky, or how to properly break and train a young one, and are financially able to house, feed, and care for another adult horse--DON'T breed that mare. We have two very nice older, well-trained and well-bred warmblood mares. Not about to breed them. No matter how well you plan, it's always a crap shoot.

In the short term..........we're probably going to have to set up animal control systems similar to what's in place for small animals until the population is under control, and try like hell to educate the public.

"In remote areas, horse owners sometimes just shoot the animals, something MacKenzie said he can't bring himself to do."

I see, so Mr. MacKenzie can't shoot his horse himself, but he can send it off to a horrific journey and barbaric death, as long as he doesn't have to do it or watch it himself. What a guy!

"Conway, the American Quarter Horse Association spokesman, says there are too few rescue facilities and insufficient money to care for horses destined for slaughter."

Oh, here's a real surprise! The AQHA is part of the problem, so of course there are too few rescues. They promote breeding and obviously see no problem in then sending off the unwanted horses to a frightening and horrific death.

"There is no perfect answer to this problem," Conway said. "The horse processing thing certainly is not a solution for a lot of people. But it is for a lot of others."

And, here's the piece de resistance: "horse processing". It is NOT horse processing it is horse slaughter. The dictionary defines slaughter as the killing of a large number of people or animals in a cruel and violent way. I wish the people using the words "horse processing" would look in a dictionary. The pro-slaughter people love to candy coat it all by calling it processing, instead of what it really is.

Horse slaughter is unethical. We teach our horses to trust us; how dare we send them off to a horrifying journey and then a barbaric death.

Please, call your senators and congressmen and tell them to co-sponsor S. 311 and H.R. 503. Americans do not want our horses served to foreign diners. Enough is enough!

If not why do you hate cows and chickens and fish and love horses? If you are....good for you.

on our place.....

He has a large spread on the Oregon coast and already has a handful of "retired" horses roaming among the cattle. He loves horses and I'm sure he'd be willing to take a few of these off the ranchers hands.

La Grande is a heck of a long way from Newport, but he's done things like this before.