UNREAL!! Euthanizing wild horses

[mom_in_training]

"U.S. government. announced this week that it is considering euthanizing wild horses to curb the population."

This is obsurd!!!!!!!!! I adopted a wild horse back in 2003. Shes an incredible horse. They need to either do birth control on the mares or geld the stallians period. I cannot believe that our government would stoop this much lower. Geeze, Go figure. :-(

The majority of people will be dead against this just as they are with horse slaughtering. It is our govenment that supports it (Slaughtering) by allowing them to have their slaughter houses on US soil. All of the remaining slaughter houses in the US are foreign owned, Hmmm, Our government obviously makes a profit somewhere in all of this. How sad to think that our beloved horses are served on foreign plates as a delicacy. Its illegal here in the US but yet our govenment allows it to happen here. Eeeerrrrrrr I am peeved!!!!

Article:

http://www.newsweek.com/id/144279?GT1=43002

 

[witzend]

They've been doing this for decades. I'm not sure why they think that there are too many...

 

[Big Bad Kitty]

Honestly! It's not like we see them running all over the interstates or anything.

They want to euthanize a species of animal that is overpopulated? Try Canadian geese.

Of course, I am just kidding.

 

[Lothlorien]

We have major issues with Canadian Geese around here. The swimming areas are all contaminated and you can't swim anymore. It's full of goose fecal matter!

They've sold them in the past, why don't they do that, instead of euthanizing? They would raise the needed money to preserve the remaining mustangs. I don't get it.

There are wild ponies in Chincoteaque (spelling?) Island in MD/VA...not sure what state that falls in. They are protected. Once a year, they auction several of them off to keep down the population. They would never kill them.

 

[Shari]

MIT, while I totally agree with you about the slaughter houses, my opinion has changed a little since the no-kill bill went into effect.

The bottom fell out of the horse market. People have no options for old and otherwise unusable horses now, and they are being given away or shot in back pastures or worse, neglected. Humane society's are even having to turn them away. A friend of mine had a horse that was given to him, and 3 trainers were seriously injured by this horse. He has no alternatives to this animal, now, who is, obviously, unsafe. Less honest people are selling horses like this to other unknowing people, simply because they don't have many options.

There are so many free and unwanted horses out there now, that online classifieds have had to add a "free" section, and its trickling downhill. While its true they have euthanized wild horses for years, the impact of the missing slaughter house is making it necessary to kill more of them now.

The market is saturated with low-cost horses...people aren't looking to the wild ones anymore.

We have a small herd of wild horses here in Missouri. Actually, 2 herds. They are rounded up once a year, the stallions are gelded, they are vaccinated, and some of the foals are sold off when the herd reaches a certain size. Local people started a league to do all this on donated funds.

And just FYI, horses are very destructive to the land they live on if they are overpopulated. Unlike a cow, who can only break grass off at the surface, a horse can bit the grass to the ground and pull it out, root and all, essentially killing it if they are left to graze ground that's already overgrazed. It is important to keep the population in check, but I agree, there's surely another way.

I totally agree with you on the geese thing...heck, instead of injecting them, why not at least kill them in a way the meat can be eaten? We hunt and butcher our own meat, but I still don't like to kill anything, but I dislike it even more when nothing good comes of it.