Re: [RC] Desperate Times for Horse Owners and for Horses - Sisu West Ranch
1- For the most part, slaughtered horses are not
used for dog food or glue;
3- Horse
meat is not used to sustain life for the impoverished or malnourished, but for
the very wealthy, as it is a delicacy, or for carnivores at many
zoos;
I fail to see the logic of your points 1 and 3. Are you saying that
it is moral to slaughter horses for dog food, but not to feed zoo animals?
Are you saying that it is immoral for a person to purchase what ever meat they
consider to be a "delicacy"?
Of course, the impoverished in third world countries don't eat horse
meat. They also do not eat beef, chicken, pork, fish or any other animal
protein source simply because they are impoverished and can't afford it.
The problem of starvation, as important as it is, is not a suitable Ridecamp
topic.
As I have posted in the past, we must be very careful not to attempt to
impose our personal food prejudices on others. One of my kids is a vegan,
hopefully he will not try to tell me that I can't eat beef. There is a
major religion, and a minor one, in the USA that considers the human consumption
of pigs and lobster to be against God's law. Are you advocating that
they should have to right to tell me that I can't eat lobster, and
pork?
It is very true that ever since the invention of the tractor, truck and
railroad uncaring persons have bred many excess horses. I have never
bred horses for sale, and Wendy has not bred a horse for sale in 20 years.
We intend to keep it that way. For the first and last time in my life, I
bred instead of buying a horse. Miikka is a yearling. He has a
forever home, barring a tragedy in my life. Wendy's gelding Raj, who died
in our pasture last year, was bred by her 26 years ago. Her Saami, is a
coming 4 year old. He also has a lifetime home. We all must work to
eliminate the breeding of excess horses.
I have taken a horse to slaughter. This was in the 1970's before the
movement to stop slaughter. The slaughter house was LOCAL,
I checked with them, and brought him in first thing in the
morning. He was weighted, run up a ramp, and slaughtered. This was
at least as humane as could be done by a vet. I know
because since then I have taken horses to vets when their time came. The
"horrors" of slaughter (transport, confinement etc.) are mostly caused by the
anti horse slaughter movement.
- One reason America's horses are sought
after for slaughter by foreign owned slaughterhouses, rather than "houses" in
the end-user countries, is because we DO NOT produce horses as a meat
animal so we do not regulate the various medications and treatments
The logic of this point also escapes me. "Subjecting" horses to
medication sounds like a call to eliminate modern vet medicine. By the
way, food animals (pigs, cows, chickens, turkeys etc.) are also medically
treated during their life. There are withdrawal times (just like Endurance
rides), but they are not always heeded. When I took my horse to the
slaughter plant, I had to sign that he had not had a whole list of things for
specified times.
You state that the horsemeat produced is "often
toxic". Would you please supply a reference, (a journal, USDA
publication, foreign government publication, etc.) to substantiate this
claim. While some countries do not have good consumer protection, the
European Union does.
I am subject to correction, but due to the poor feed conversion efficiency
of the horse, I can't see them being raised only for slaughter. Iceland
may be an exception to this. There may be other areas also, but surely not
in Europe.
2- For the slaughterhouse owners, the business is
highly profitable, making literally millions and millions of dollars off
the various products from the slaughtered American horse;
Last time I checked, our economic system was regulated capitalism.
That means that activities exist to produce profit, and that profit is
moral. Over the last 100 years, the American automobile industry has
produced billions and billions of profit, but this profit has evaporated
lately. Even as I write this, our congress is trying to see if and how it
can help the industry return to making "millions and millions" of dollars.
Ed
Ed & Wendy Hauser 2994 Mittower
Road Victor, MT 59875
