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>  And how many horses does one private owner/breeder need to euthanize/dispose 
> of in a year, anyway? 
This is the kind of denial of reality that taints all of the idealistic
ranting about this subject.  OK, I'll tell you how many THIS
owner/breeder is apt to end up putting down this year.  First of all, I
have about 50 head--so I realize that my "herd dynamics" are different
than those of you with a couple of horses as a hobby.  I also have a
tendency to take in other people's geriatrics.  And nobody is "disposed
of" lightly here.  Nonetheless, I've had to put down two youngish mares
this year--one with a tumor that was not a good surgical risk and one
with complications of laminitis.  I've also had to put down the colt
that I mentioned in an earlier post.  I'm also looking at a group of
geriatrics that I probably cannot humanely winter another
winter--they've had good lives, and range in age from early 20s to 32. 
Could be as many as three old mares and two old stallions--still on the
fence about a couple of them, but it would be inhumane of me to wait
until it is 30 below zero out and they are down and can't get up.  So
must make "educated guesses" about them before winter.  I also have one
younger stallion who fractured a leg as a youngster and whose quality of
life has really gone down the tubes in the last year, despite some
pretty "heroic" efforts to manage him.  He cannot be wintered humanely
another year, either.  I will grant that this is a really "bad" year. 
Last year I only lost one horse--a lovely young mare who shattered a leg
and who was in no way "disposable" to my "program."  But the law of
averages catches up sooner or later.  The fall before, I put down three
geriatric stallions that it would not have been humane to winter, but
who had lived out their lives here well-cared-for.  I quite frankly
resent people like you blowing off the reality of it with statements
such as the one you made above.  If you own horses, how their lives end
is a part of the reality.  If you own a lot of horses, it is a reality
many times over.  If all I did with a herd this size was maintain the
size by breeding 2-3 foals per year, I would still average 2-3 to put
down each year, assuming an average life span of 25 years and the
occasional accident.  

> I cannot believe that vets will not put a horse down unless a hole is dug, 
> because not every horse owner has . . . a hole.  Our society is now very 
> urban and mobile. People who board horses at stables still have horses die. 
> Those horses go somewhere. 
This is another one of those really ignorant sorts of statements that
really ticks me off.  This is EXACTLY the scenario where I live, and I
frankly don't give a damn if you choose to "believe" it or not--but your
choice not to "believe" things that are stark reality causes those of us
who have to deal with such realities to be suspicious of everything else
you have to say, too.  Our setting is rural--an urbanite isn't apt to
face the reality of having a wolf pack come eat on a carcass and die,
thereby jeopardizing the license of the vet who endangered them.  FWIW,
the colt that the vet here had one of my neighbors shoot for me was GONE
when I got home two days later--I found one scapula bone where they had
left him.  And I don't like the implications of that, because the
coyotes don't eat them that quickly.  There is an active wolf pack in my
area, and that does not bode well for my living horses--whose main
protection at this point is their sheer numbers.  This is MY
reality--you can be in denial if you so choose.  I don't choose to be.  

Likewise, why DON'T you know where those urban horses go, if you are so
concerned about this issue?  In some places, there are still rendering
plants operating--but there is still the issue of an unprotected carcass
lying around waiting for the rendering truck, endangering birds in
particular, if traditional euthanasia methods are used.  Where there are
no rendering plants, carcasses sometimes go into landfills--which is ok
if the landfill is in a proper area and there aren't too many of them. 
In some places, the disposal costs are enormous.  I have the option of
taking horses to the landfill here, but if I do so, I have to transport
the dead horse myself, because there is no commercial entity that will
do so.  I have a truck with hydraulic arms for lifting ton bales with
which I CAN lift a dead horse if need be--and before I moved up to my
present place where I can let nature deal with carcasses, I DID haul a
mare with a shattered leg to the local landfill.  It is a long drive,
and not always easy to secure a horse carcass in a vehicle not really
suited for same.

As for the processes that are so inhumane--it isn't the slaughter per se
that is inhumane, it is the batching and traveling that has come about
due directly to the anti-slaughter lobby successfully closing the
smaller plants.  FWIW, Cavel ran the local plant in central Oregon--it
was better business for them, too, to run smaller local plants.  They
did a good job of it, I've been on their kill floor numerous times and
can personally vouch for the efficiency and humaneness of their
slaughter process, and I was really sorry to see them choose not to
rebuild after their plant was torched by animal "rights" activists. 
They provided a real service to the horse community there, and a humane
way out for many horses that was far preferable in many circumstances to
toxic chemicals and backhoes.

Heidi


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