Northern Star Online: Alumna offers legal options for unwanted horses

In response to “Owners look for new ways to dispose of horses since Cavel’s closing” By Sam Brunell:

Oh my, what a biased article. Your interviewees certainly are:

Donna Ewing: Pro-slaughter (Why does she even bother to run a rescue if she’s pro-slaughter?)
Frank Bowman: Pro-slaughter
Bob Pritchard: Pro-slaughter

Well, pro-slaughter folks, you should be happy then that U.S. horse slaughter is still alive and well, just the venue has changed. We’re well on our way to over 100,000 American horses being slaughtered for foreign dinner tables again this year. Killer buyers are still buying in the same quantities, so clearly the “lack” of slaughter isn’t a factor in “new ways to dispose of horses since Cavel’s closing.” Cavel is still a big player in exporting horses for slaughter out of the U.S. It had deals with slaughter houses arranged in Canada before their own slaughter house was even closed. Slaughter is about meat production and money, not about a “humane” way to dispose of a horse. There is nothing humane about slaughter, and it only perpetuates overbreeding, lack of training, neglectful treatment, inhumane transportation and “by-the-pound” mentality. It is a reward for doing all of the wrong things. This certainly isn’t beneficial to the horses or the horse industry.
The reason people are in a quandary about horses right now is because of the down economy and of the extreme upward turn in hay, grain and bedding prices. If it costs double or triple to care for your horse, you bet people are going to wonder how they will manage – especially if they’re near the edge of affording them to begin with, as you hear time and time again with people who have large populations of bottom-rung horses. If it costs that much more to care for a horse, you bet there will be fewer people to buy them at auction. That is why prices are so low. Absolutely nothing to do with slaughter. In fact, the “killer buyers” are laughing all the way to the bank right now.

Ms. Brunell, your article states, “The only legal option left for people with unwanted horses is euthanasia.” Wow - totally untrue. Your unwanted horse may be someone else’s treasure. Options include private sale (e.g. equine.com, illinoishorse.com), lease, donation to a rescue, donation to a therapeutic riding center, donation to a university horse program, donation to a mounted police unit or auction. Furthermore, if you need to put down your horse, a well-placed bullet is also an acceptable form of euthanasia according to the AVMA [American Veterinary Medical Association]. And sadly, as I have just talked about above, slaughter is still very much legal in the U.S. Only Illinois and California have banned it.

Now to get back to what this article should have been talking about in the first place: how to dispose of a horse. Good news – there are many options and they are affordable.
I live in the western Chicago suburbs. My own vet charges $150 for a farm call.

Lori Hackman
NIU alumna