Arab Slaughter Horses (long, yikes!)

[guest@endurance.net]

Katey Gies heart@magiclink.com
Actually, I have been to more slaughter sales than I care to count, so I
feel qualified to dispute two comments made regarding Arabs, or slaughter
horses in general and slaugher buyers.  I have seen many, many emaciated
animals sold for slaughter.  I see no evidence that because the slaughter
market exists, horses are not starved.  People who are not inclined to
feed their horses, don't, whether they have a place to dump them or not.
Suggesting that if there weren't a slaughter market that more horses would
be starving in pastures is pure speculation.  If the best solution we can
come up with to protect our horses from cruel and inhumane treatment is to
slaughter them to keep people from starving them to death, then
God help us all.

I have watched the horses be loaded into the killer trucks.  Horses are
literally jammed onto double decker semi trucks.  One particular day, it
was in the high 90's, in August.  The horses were loaded up the chute,
most got a blast from the hotshot as they went into the truck.  One little
Appy mare that I had watched sell the night before had just had her foal
weaned in the sale ring.  She fell going up the ramp as it was very slick.
I jumped up on the side of the truck to look inside, she was standing,
shaking, leaning against the other mares she was crammed in with, holding
her foot up.  She couldn't even put weight on it.  Her udder was full,
milk ran down both her hind legs.  I also stood on the side of the truck
and looked at the geldings, which they had loaded into the belly of the
truck.  A couple of tall Thoroughbreds kept catching their withers on the
support rail when they passed under it.  They were already bloody from
being jostled around before the truck pulled out.  These particular horses
were headed for a three day trip to Texas, this was Saturday afternoon,
they would arrive on Tuesday.  The driver had two other stops planned at
sales along the way to top off the load.  He explained to me that this was
a "sealed load" since they were destined for slaughter, they weren't
required to have a Coggins test.  What that meant for the horses, is that
they wouldn't be unloaded from the truck until it reached the
slaughterhouse.  No food, no water and 90+ degrees.  I have heard many
people say that they are not opposed to slaughter, only to the method of
transport.  The slaughter buyers do what they do for the money, believe
me, they are not on a mission of mercy to rid the world of the excess
horses.  These horses are transported in the most economical manner
possible, it just happens to also be the most inhumane.  Until horses are
transported humanely, the transport issue and the slaughter issue are one
in the same.

I can't change the world, but I can make a small part of it  better for a
few horses.