Kill pen horses

[catawhat75]

For anyone in the KY/TN area, there are 5 beautiful horses in a kill pen needing to be saved. Most are under 10-12 years old and kid broke.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/...&id=1105308962

[SlitherinSisters]

OMG I LOVE the paint!!! Those kill pen horses look a lot better than almost every kill pen horse we get at our auctions. It's upsetting to see the horrible condition the horses are in-broken legs, bullet wounds to the face, shattered skulls, etc. Either slaughter needs to open back up, or our laws need to be changed to protect these animals!!!! I've called the police several times on neglected horses and all they say is, the horses have food and water. The food was STRAW in the mud and four horses were standing in mud lot no bigger than a single car garage, no shelter!!! You could see every bone in their bodies and old festering wounds!

The "security" people at our auctions are psycho, they really watch for people taking pictures and will kick you out if you are caught-I know this first hand.

We do have horse traders that go through the kill pens and pick out the horses that have a chance. Rarely is a good horse sent to slaughter. Even the slaughter trailer drivers have a heart. I've spoke to several and they make a side living buying kill pen horses and selling them. They also told me that since the slaughter houses have got shut down horrible things are happening to horses now. People who don't take care of their horses have a harder time getting rid of them (because we are in Iowa and each border is a long drive from us) and will kill their horses with anything on hand if they don't want to wait for them to die of starvation. It's so terrible I don't even want to write out what he told me.

[luckycharm318]

OMG I LOVE the paint!!! Those kill pen horses look a lot better than almost every kill pen horse we get at our auctions. It's upsetting to see the horrible condition the horses are in-broken legs, bullet wounds to the face, shattered skulls, etc. Either slaughter needs to open back up, or our laws need to be changed to protect these animals!!!! I've called the police several times on neglected horses and all they say is, the horses have food and water. The food was STRAW in the mud and four horses were standing in mud lot no bigger than a single car garage, no shelter!!! You could see every bone in their bodies and old festering wounds!

The "security" people at our auctions are psycho, they really watch for people taking pictures and will kick you out if you are caught-I know this first hand.

We do have horse traders that go through the kill pens and pick out the horses that have a chance. Rarely is a good horse sent to slaughter. Even the slaughter trailer drivers have a heart. I've spoke to several and they make a side living buying kill pen horses and selling them. They also told me that since the slaughter houses have got shut down horrible things are happening to horses now. People who don't take care of their horses have a harder time getting rid of them (because we are in Iowa and each border is a long drive from us) and will kill their horses with anything on hand if they don't want to wait for them to die of starvation. It's so terrible I don't even want to write out what he told me.

IAWTC. People who are not in the horse industry and those who have done "research" really should not have had a place in voting for the legislation to have U.S. slaughterhouses shut down in the first place. This "good deed" has done no good for the horse market in the U.S. and more horses are suffering because of it. The shut down of U.S. slaughterhouses means a longer ride to a slaughterhouse outside U.S. borders with who knows what kind of regulations if any. Slaughterhouses may not be pleasant, but they are necessary.

[wolfy-hound]

That, and outside the US, there is no regulations about how the horses are slaughtered, while in the US we have rules and laws regulating how the animals are killed to make it as humane as possible. Add in the travel time/length and how the animals are held prior to slaughter and the so called animal rights folks that pushed these anti-slaughter laws through have made a misery. Of course, they don't care, they just want some PR showing how much "good" they do.

I personally think they should reopen the slaughter, and put horsemeat on the books just like beef. If people want to not eat it, they don't have to. But regulate it like the beef industry and enforce the humane laws we already have.

My $0.02.

[luckycharm318]

Glad to see that people know what PETA and the lot of them pushed for was wrong!

[llovelace]

I have friends in that area posted it on fb

[Jay_Bunny]

While I love horses, I have no problem with them being slaughtered for meat, given they are raised and slaughtered humanely (given green pastures, correct nutrition, fresh/clean water, clean living environments, and slaughtered in a way that requires little to no suffering).

While I would love to go vegan (and I will one day, darn it!) I am not one of those crazy people that go around wanting everyone to stop owning pets and stop eating meat. I hate it when one animal's life is valued over another just because it is considered a working animal or a pet. I could have a cow as a pet and call it a pet and even consider it a member of my family, but that should not stop Jimmy down the street from butchering his cow when its time for slaughter.

Now if the horses were not being slaughtered in a humane fashion, then yes, I would side with the AR folks as I do not agree with half-a** slaughter jobs. (an example would be cows that are supposed to receive a captive bolt gun shot in the head do not receive one or are not done properly.) That would be cause to stop or change the way the slaughter is done.

I think they should re-open slaughterhouses for horses. *gets off soapbox*

[hmfarms]

http://video.yahoo.com/watch/176696/1353938 Watch this and tell me again about your "educated" opinions!

I have read such garbage on here, sorry, pretty upset right now. To say that "horrible things are happening to horses because the slaughter houses have been closed" implies that horrible things were NOT happening to them in the first place! An ad to owners who are not caring for their horses, are you saying that we should make it easier for them to kill them for their convenience? Maybe we should build child-slaughter houses to make it easier for child abusers to get rid of their children? And I love "rarely are good horses sent to slaughter", REALLY??? I have seen a foal born in a kill pen, and slaughtered. Guess he wasn't your idea of a good horse.

I am not against eating horse meat if the process is humane, and I think PETA is a collosal joke. I just hate it when people spout off about things they know NOTHING about, and innocent animals suffer for it! I don't know about where YOU live, but her we don't have feral horses rampaging through neighborhoods creating a need for control. Horse owners CHOOSE to own their horses, and therefore make a committment to care for them. Caring owners who cannot keep them give them away, sell them or donate them, they do NOT kill them just because they are no longer interested.

[hmfarms]

By the way, those drivers make a side living as you say, by selling GOOD horses who were bound for slaughter! It's illegal in most states, and not all of them do that. So YES, "GOOD" hoses are slaughteres all the time! Including stolen horses who are never returned to thier RESPONSIBLE and HEARTBROKEN owners! You help NO ONE with your uneducated garbage!

[SlitherinSisters]

By the way, those drivers make a side living as you say, by selling GOOD horses who were bound for slaughter! It's illegal in most states, and not all of them do that. So YES, "GOOD" hoses are slaughteres all the time! Including stolen horses who are never returned to thier RESPONSIBLE and HEARTBROKEN owners! You help NO ONE with your uneducated garbage!

Well I guess I live in perfect land then. Yes there are good horses being sent to slaughter, but I would much rather them be sent to slaughter than sit in a mud lot and literally rot to death. I'm very much aware of how slaughter houses work and that some are extremely bad. That is why we need legislation that protects horses. Right now there are none being enforced other than "no more slaughter in the US" wow that sure does a lot... People are still abusing/killing/and sending their horses cross country to slaughter. If the authorities cared about the treatment of horses they would respond to calls like I, and many others have made, rather than sit back and let it happen.

And you must live in perfect horse auction land. Many of the kill pen horses that I have seen should be put out of their misery the second they walk, or are drug on to auction property. I should have taken pictures the last time I was there since you seem to be focused on how bad slaughter houses are rather than the treatment of the horses prior to heading to slaughter.

I'll just give you an idea of what I saw in just the last few months... One horse had half it's face hanging off dripping with puss from a very old wound. Another had a broken leg and you could see bone coming out of it's skin, and the cuts from chains wrapped around it's back legs so they could drag it into the pen with a tractor. Another had a broken skull/jaw bone and blood dripping from it's nose and mouth, it was an old enough wound that it was starting to heal, so at least a few days. Another horse that was drug in the pen with chains had been laying on the ground so long that it's skin was melting off from the infection and weight. There were a few clear bullet wound holes in many horses, lots of extremely ill horses, lots of horses with strangles, several with broken legs, missing hooves-hooves can detach, chunks of their skin missing from huge wounds, emaciated beyond repair, and these are just the major issues I saw! I have seen first hand how they load and unload the horses, it's barbaric, but if authorities don't care (they are standing right there) what do you expect? These people aren't going to stop doing it the 'easy way' if no one forces them to.

Also, why couldn't the kill pen buyers/slaughter buyers bid on horses? That's the most ridiculous thing I ever heard. It's an auction and they have their own personal auction numbers, they have their own land to put them on, and they have their own trailers to pick the horses up with.

I'm not saying that I think slaughter houses are great, but I am saying that they are absolutely necessary if the law refuses to protect horses. Why are the people bringing in these horses not prosecuted?! If no one cares about the treatment of horses at least with slaughter houses they have a chance to be put out of their misery even if it's a horrible end to their life.

I love horses, they are my life, but the stuff I've seen at the auction houses in our area is absolutely sickening and I'm disgusted by the people that think slaughter houses are worse than the extreme neglect and abuse that is going on. If you want to fight something, don't fight for the slaughter houses to be shut down and expect everything to magically get better. It's the fact that horrible mistreatment of horses is allowed to happen that slaughter houses are running. You get PETA to fix the problem with people abusing and neglecting their horses, then we'll talk about how great it is that slaughter houses are shut down.

So sorry for my uneducated opinion on the matter