Re: slaughter/Temple Grandin

["Susan Garlinghouse" <suendavid@worldnet.att.net>]

From personal conversations with Temple, she did some surprise visits as well and didn't see significant differences (her words).  At the very least, Temple deserves alot of credit for the work she's done in animal behavior and improving the treatment of slaughter animals immeasurably.  This isn't secondhand opinion, I've been there and seen it myself (she's faculty at Colorado State, where I am).  I don't know of any other one individual who's done the constructive work she has.

 

Yes, the livestock transporters continue to roll.  That's just a function of supply and demand---too many unwanted horses and not enough spots for them.  Blame it on irresponsible breeders, blame it on sports that run horses into the ground, whatever.  If you're going to point fingers, you have to point it at a lot more people than just the slaughterhouses that are cleaning up the messes left by others.

 

Glad you liked the comments about psyllium. :-)

----- Original Message -----

From: Antoinette Smith

To: ridecamp@endurance.net

Sent: Thursday, September 06, 2001 7:57 AM

Subject: RC: slaughter/Temple Grandin

Temple Grandin was asked to do a study on slaughterhouse conditions and the
condition of the horses there, and the conclusions were that while there *are*
problems involving holding facilites and the slaughterhouse facilities themselves, by
far the largest source of poor condition and injuries in the horses originated with the
prior owners, not the killer buyers or the slughtering process.

Yes, Temple did do a study on the slaughterhouses.  She and her colleages spent a few days at auction and then traveled to the slaughterhouse in Texas.   Her visit was announced well in advance and rescuers who frequent the auction Temple visited noticed that all the things that inflamed them as rescuers (the crowding, the mixing of sturdy horses in their prime with yearlings, croweded into pens and allowed to fight for hours), taking in the injured horses (those were diverted to another auction while Temple was present),... all the terrible things were halted in honor of the "study".   Temple took a lot of heat over that.   Unfortunately, the statments and statistics in her report are worthless and untrue.  Double deckers continue to roll in and out of New Holland and arrive at Dallas Crown on a nightly basis.

Hey, Susan, I liked your comments on Psyllium.  I'd never heard any of that before.

Thanks,
Antoinette