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Re: [RC] Horse Slaughter - Sisu West Ranch"....the use of horse meat for pet food or human consumption because of the above...."People do not want to think of their personal pet being eaten, then extrapolate to all of that species. It doesn't make sense to me. If I had a pet steer (say one that I used to pull an ox cart in parades), or a pet chicken (I worked with a fellow who had one when he was a kid), I wouldn't want to eat THAT PARTICULAR ONE, but I would be thought weird if I then decided that nobody should eat any beef or chicken. Back before the anti-horse slaughter movement got so big, there were local regional horse slaughter operations. My first horse had to be put down due to extreme pain caused by Navicular. I checked with the local slaughter house. They were happy to tell me an exact time to bring the animal. He was immediately run into the slaughter area, and instantly put down. It could not have been more humane if I had hired every vet in the country. Since then the law of unintended consequences has taken hold. There are now very few slaughter operations, so the horses have to be shipped many days. This is not a fate that I would want for my personal horse. People often want to bury the animal. Sounds good, and comforting to know that your wonderful horse is at rest in the back of your pasture. Unfortunately, this also has some unintended consequences. Many areas, like where I live now, have a water table very near the surface. It is not practicing good ecology to bury a 400 Kg animal so that its rotting body can contaminate a natural resource. As was discussed earlier on RC, it can even cause problems for scavengers if certain drugs are used to dispatch a horse and the body is left to feed wildlife. In many western areas leaving a large dead animal around for scavengers is a definite no-no. Nobody wants Griz to consider their ranch to be a good spot for a free meal. Ed PS. Human culture is very active at assigning certain animals to the taboo list. If we consider ourselves to be intellegent and educated we should not try to impose our personal culturable taboos on others. For example: Orthodox Jews and Moslems do not eat pork. Perhaps we should ban the slaughter of pigs for human consumption. Orthodox Jews do not eat lobster and shrimp. Perhaps we should ban commercial fishing for them Hindos do not eat beef. Lets ban the slaughter of cows. If I thought about it for awhile, I could find many other foods, that I would like to add to a taboo list or some group thought shouldn't be eaten. Ed & Wendy Hauser 2994 Mittower Road Victor, MT 59875 (406) 642-9640 ranch@xxxxxxxxxxx =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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