One of the Grossest Stories I've Ever Read

This woman is just not mentally fit.

Jasha Lottin, Portland Nudist, Broke No Laws by Killing, Gutting Horse, then Posing Naked Inside Carcass (NSFW Pics)

Montana Legislature Proposes Horse Slaughter Facility

Great, just after we managed to get rid of the last one

"It doesn't mean you have to do it. It's that if you don't have the funds, and you don't have the feed, and don't have the place to keep them, and they are old, and they are no longer going to work for what you need them for, it's a place for them to go," said Billings Livestock and Horse Sale's Jenn Parker.

A place for them to go? Maybe then can call it Horse Haven.

T. Boone Pickens' Wife Proposes Horse Refuge

Here's hoping it works out.

The wife of the Texas oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens said {November 18} that she would create a refuge for wild horses, after the federal agency that manages them said it might have to kill some to control the herds and protect the Western range.

About 33,000 wild horses and burros roam the open range in 10 Western states. The federal Bureau of Land Management wants that population to be around 27,000 to protect the herd, the range and other foraging animals.

Horses that are too old or not adoptable by the public are sent to long-term holding facilities. The bureau now has about the same number of animals in holding facilities as on the range. The agency has said the costs of keeping horses in the holding facilities has caused officials to consider euthanasia as a last resort.

Mr. Pickens’s wife, Madeleine, said that she had proposed buying about one million acres to be a refuge for the horses now in holding facilities and that the bureau had agreed to give her the horses once she had the land."

Prevention of Equine Cruelty Act Passed House Judiciary

It amazes me that legislative business is still being conducted in DC these days, what with the US economic sky falling. Especially animal business.

The Prevention of Equine Cruelty Act (H.R. 6598) is a bill that criminalizes the sale and transportation of horses for slaughter. It was approved and recommended to the House of Representatives by the House Judiciary Committee on September 23. The bill must be passed by the House and Senate before it can become law.

There are some powerful opponents to this bill, however.

The American Quarter Horse Association, American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP), American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) and National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA), among many others, oppose the bill.

According to a statement from the AQHA, “The majority of horses processed for slaughter in the United States [prior to slaughterhouse closures in this country] were no longer viable for their intended use, unmanageable or simply unwanted by their owners. This bill would severely limit the rights of owners to manage their private property and subject horse owners to criminal prosecution should they sell or transport their horses for processing for human consumption, even if that is not their intention.”

Lovely quote. It's all about private property, not living things.

Some Environmentalists Support Mustang Culling

Well, this sucks. Another battle on the difficult animal rights vs. environment front.

Some environmentalists and scientists have come to see the mustangs, which run wild from Montana to California, as top-of-the-food-chain bullies, invaders whose hooves and teeth disturb the habitats of endangered tortoises and desert birds.

...Environmentalists’ attitudes toward the horses have evolved so far that some are willing to say what was heresy a few years ago: that euthanasia is acceptable if the alternatives are boarding the mustangs for life at taxpayers’ expense or leaving them to overpopulate, damage the range and die of hunger or thirst.

Hay Prices Hurting Horse Lovers

A friend of mine has five horses on Vashon Island and she is struggling with hay prices. She told me that she is currently stock piling as much hay as possible because of the rising costs. She's also had to pay for a new shelter to house the hay and keep it dry in the Pacific Northwest climate.

She told me that part of the problem is that so many fields are being turned over to corn production for ethanol. Hay is in short supply and costs are rising. While she'll probably be okay, it's the horse rescues that will be in serious trouble.

Here's an article about hay prices and how owners who can't afford their horses anymore are sending them off to slaughter. Slaughter where? To the hell holes of Canada and Mexico.

One of the Worst Animal Abuse Cases in New Zealand

Sad story out of New Zealand.

Drought and a negligent owner led to the confiscation of 30 sick and starving horses in South Auckland. Many were euthanized because they were too sick or wild for rehabilitation.

The elderly owner, responsible for the carnage, is ill and failed to have a drought plan in place for when the grazing dried up.

"Help could have been called for, should have been called for - wasn't," says Bob Kerridge of the SPCA.

The 73-year-old breeder is severely ill with cancer and as a consequence the SPCA has decided not to pursue a prosecution against him despite being acutely aware that they could come under public criticism.

But the SPCA says the animals are its top priority and they have been able to get the breeder to sign the animals over to them, which is what the SPCA wanted.

NYC Horse-Drawn Carriages Draw PETA's Fire

I'm not always a fan of PETA and their philosophies, but there are some campaigns I strongly support. I am no fan of horse-drawn carriages and I would like to see the practice end.

Here in Seattle, horse-drawn carriages and their working horses were not even inspected until the last year. A few weeks ago, one of the owners was arrested for neglected horses on his property. He had been allegedly seen trotting a horse and carriage up a steep hill downtown.

Trotting? That's cruel.

Even if all owners are wonderful, it seems unfair to place these animals in dangerous situations, vulnerable to cars, harassment, and poor weather conditions.

Anyway, here's PETA going after the most famous carriage city, New York.

Photo by CCintheSouth.

Horse Slaughter Debated in Canada

Now that the US has stopped slaughtering its horses for meat, they are being shipped to Canada and Mexico instead. This development has spurred a debate in Canada over whether the practice should be banned there too.

On the one hand, you have the animal rights people with some celebrity help from Bo Derek and Willie Nelson. Then you've got the slaughterhouse advocates who argue the same old refrain...jobs, jobs, jobs.

Slaughter plant owners in Canada...bristle at suggestions their practices are unethical and are wary of attempts to draw the horsemeat business into the public eye.

They argue the international market for horsemeat is good business and creates valuable jobs.

"These people have a lot of money and a lot of time, and they create a lot of trouble," said Ken Piller, president of Natural Valley Meats in Saskatchewan.

"We're a plant. We just cut and process. To us, that's our job. If it's a chicken, or a turkey, or a horse, or a bison, or a cow, that's what we do."

Horse-slaughtering is definitely pulling in the dollars from the European market.

According to Statistics Canada, nearly $70-million worth of horsemeat was shipped to Canada's top 10 export countries in 2007, an increase of 20% over 2006. (The biggest buyers were France, Japan and Switzerland).

Photo by Pacific Matt.

Aussie Enviros Call for Wild Horse Killing

Another example of the conflict between the rights of the individual animal and the perceived need to manage its species.

Environmentalists called Wednesday for hundreds of wild horses to be shot dead to prevent a unique Australian national park becoming a "horse paddock," with little room for native species.

Around 1,700 feral horses -- known in Australia as 'brumbies' -- have caused havoc in the Kosciuszko National Park, according to the National Parks Association of New South Wales state.

They are increasing in numbers by as much as 300 a year, the conservation group said, but the state has banned shooting of the animals from helicopters, widely considered the most effective way of controlling them....

The association suggests culling more than 1,000 horses in the first year, with most of those left killed in the second year to stop the population growing again through breeding.

Photo by Dr Snafu.

Does Mike Huckabee Eat Horsemeat Too?

Mike Huckabee is the gift that keeps on giving. If his alleged statement is true, I'd like to know if there ANYTHING or ANYONE this man won't eat!

United Animal Nations(UAN) today asked presidential candidate and Iowa caucus winner Mike Huckabeeto educate himself about horse slaughter and reconsider consuming a Dutch horsemeat dish, which he recently described as tasting "like chicken."

According to Washington Wire, a blog from The Wall Street Journal's Capital Bureau, Huckabee made the comment on December 21, 2007, when speaking with a group of reporters in eastern Iowa. The blog entry suggested that Huckabee was perhaps pandering to the Dutch Iowan vote when he mentioned several of his favorite Dutch foods, including one made from horsemeat.

Photo by lauren victoria burke.

UK Horses Also Slaughtered for Human Consumption

It's a dirty little secret in Britain that horses are being slaughtered there for human consumption. You won't find locations of horse slaughterhouses on the Food Standards Agency's web site, although slaughterhouses for other animals are identified.

...the Government refuses to advertise the location of horse abattoirs and...the abattoirs themselves are none to keen on publicising this particular speciality.

Whenever they have in the past, they have found themselves targeted by animal rights activists who have fought an aggressive campaign to have the trade outlawed....

Andrew Tyler, the director of Animal Aid, the country's largest animal rights group, claims that every year more than 2,000 unwanted racehorses are killed for meat in this way.

"The figures we have assembled suggest that there are 17,000 thoroughbreds born each year and only about 5,000 make it to race," he says.

Horses must be slaughtered in Britain because the live export of horses for meat is banned. This prevents them from suffering the transport conditions other animals are subjected to in Europe. However, the horsemeat export from the UK is growing.

We currently source about 5 per cent of our meat from Britain," a Paris horsemeat dealer told me. "This figure amounts to around 89 tons of meat a year, but it is growing.

"Imports from Belgium, South America, the U.S. and Canada are all strong, but Britain is catching up."

Photo by RainPacket.

US Horses Inhumanely Slaughtered Across the Borders

On January 8, I posted about the rise of horse neglect in the United States. The second half of the post contained a quote bemoaning the loss of horse slaughterhouses in the United States.

I didn't agree with this sentiment, but now, a new article is making me rethink this opinion.

This article appears in the New York Times and talks about the inhumane conditions of horses slaughtered in Canada and Mexico.

Amid pressure from animal rights groups, horse slaughter virtually ended in the United States last year, as courts upheld state laws banning it in Texas and Illinois, home to the nation’s last three horse slaughterhouses.

But there have been unintended consequences, including more grueling travel for tens of thousands of horses now being sent to slaughter in Canada and Mexico, where, animal advocates say, they sometimes face more gruesome deaths....

The American slaughterhouses killed horses quickly by driving steel pins into their brains, a method the American Veterinary Medical Association considers humane. Workers in some Mexican plants, by contrast, disable them by stabbing them with knives to sever their spinal cords, said Temple Grandin, a professor of animal science at Colorado State University.

“My worst nightmare has happened,” Dr. Grandin said. “This is an example of well-intentioned but very bad unintended consequences.”

Supporters of the ban on US slaughterhouses believe that horse owners should euthanize their animals humanely. Some opponents argue this is an expensive option because it could cost $140 or more to euthanize and disposs of the carcass. $140? How often have you spent less than $140 on a tune-up for your car? I have no sympathy for this lame argument.

But it concerns me that owners who refuse to euthanize these animals are making them suffer even more from inhumane slaughtering practices across the border. I don't want horses slaughtered for food, but if they have to be, I don't want them to suffer.

In the meantime, federal legislation that would forbid the sale and transport of horses for human consumption is awaiting action in both houses of Congress.

Horse Neglect Rises in United States

Horse neglect is on the rise in the United States as owners find themselves unable, or unwilling, to take care of their animals because of the high cost.

Across the U.S., the number of horses whose owners won't or can't properly care for them is mushrooming. Spurred by retiring baby boomers and their penchant for second homes in the country, horse ownership boomed in the U.S. over the past decade. Americans own more than nine million horses today, up from just over six million horses in the mid-1990s, according to the American Horse Council, a trade association....

The price of hay, the main source of horse nutrition, has more than doubled over the past year because of drought and record-high costs of fuel needed to grow and haul the crop. Though horses naturally graze on grass, they need hay and other feeds, especially in winter when the growth of pasture grass slows or stops. A 50-pound square bale of horse hay, a two-day supply for the average horse, costs more than $6 in most states, up from as little as $2.50 in 2005. Even a small horse farm must buy hundreds of bales each winter.

If only we still had slaughterhouses for these horses to go...

"Animal lovers with big hearts and no idea what's required to take care of a horse have shut down slaughterhouses that were needed," says C.J. Hadley, publisher of a cowboy magazine called Range, based in Carson City, Nev. Calling horse lovers who oppose slaughterhouses "innocent," Ms. Hadley says, "Ranchers love their horses enough to put them down when the time comes."

Now, some unwanted American horses wind up at Mexican and Canadian slaughterhouses. But others linger and starve, often ending up at rescue homes and other charities.

Photo by Dennis Bouman.