Since the last American horse slaughterhouse closed late last year, the fallout from that decision has received plenty of attention. Michael Booth of The Denver Post gets to the heart of matter as well anyone when he begins his story this way: "A dying dog is 40 pounds of family sadness. A dying horse is a physics problem, and 1,000 pounds of emotional debate over what we should do with the iconic Western companion at the end of its useful life." (In a Post photo by Joe Amon, a quarter horse goes up for auction.)Booth explains how overbreeding and rising feed prices, coupled with the end of horse slaughter for meat, have created a glut of horses. "More are being abandoned on public lands," he writes from the Western viewpoint. "Neglected horses crowd rescue shelters. The pool of farms willing to put Old Paint out to pasture is shrinking. Strains in the horse world prompt ranchers to accuse city folk of a patronizing ignorance for opposing slaughter, animal-rights groups to accuse horse sellers of intolerable cruelty, and all 'horse people" to argue about how an animal's life should conclude."
The options are shrinking, but the debate continues, as we have reported here. Congress is considering the Horse Slaughter Prevention Act to prevent the trucking of American horses to Mexico (where conditions can be awful) and Canada for slaughter for meat, while in South Dakota, a lawmaker wants to reopen a horse slaughterhouse. Booth says the debate hinges on these key questions: "Is a horse a friend or a responsibility? A retired servant or a liability on the hoof? When it comes right down to it, pet or meat?"
Since the issue is an emotional one, some support other measures to control the horse population such as more neutering and more controlled breeding. Those are preventative measures, and they do not solve the issue of what to do with the 100,000 American horses that would have been slaughtered each year in the past. (Read more)
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