Former Official blog of For Love of a Dog Jewelry - Home of Dog Song Saturday
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| Turquoise Silver Saddle Cowgirl Bracelet at ForLoveofaDog.com |
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| Black Beauty Horse Necklace - OOAK Handmade at ForLoveofaDog.com |
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| Appaloosa Horse Charm Bracelet at ForLoveofaDog.com |
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| Bay Horse Lover Charm Bracelet with Black Onyx at ForLoveofaDog.com |
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| OOAK Equine Necklace - Turquoise Magnesite and Tigerseye - ForLoveofaDog.com |
"Based on the USDA's won finding, fewer than 1% of the US horse population may require the help of rescues or euthanasia."According to the Homes For Horses Coalition:
"The notion that without horse slaughter there will be flood of abandoned horses is simply unfounded. When the number of horses slaughtered in the U.S. fell by approximately 90% between the early 1990s and the early 2000s there was no correlating increase in abandoned, neglected and abused horses.
"Likewise, equine cruelty investigators in Illinois report that horse abandonment and abuse cases actually dropped during the temporary closure of the Cavel slaughter plant in the early 2000s (the plant is now permanently shut under state law).
"In California, not only was there no increase in horse abuse and neglect cases following passage of the states stringent anti-horse slaughter law in 1998, but there was a 34% drop in horse theft."Estimates on the number of horses that need re-homing or rescue vary. One thing is for sure - the breed organizations are one key to the solution. Another is banning horse slaughter. Without killer buyers, the rescues can be able to afford to purchase unwanted horses and re-home them. It is a situation very similar to puppy mills.
"7,000 to 9,000 Thoroughbred racehorses are slaughtered every year. Killer buyers frequent horse races to purchase under-performing racehorses after the races end. Thoroughbred Deputy Broad raced at Mountaineer Race Track in Chester, West Virginia on July 11, 2011 and was needlessly slaughtered one week later, not because he was “unwanted,” but because he was disposable. The famous racehorse, Ferdinand who won the 1986 Kentucky Derby, the 1987 Breeders’ Cup Classic, the 1987 Eclipse Award Horse of the Year and became a highly sought-after stud horse in 1989, was sold to Japan where he was slaughtered in 2002."In addition, mares and foals that are by-products of the Premarin industry, wild horses, stolen horses, and those purchased by killers from owners who are unaware who they're selling to.
"...they were unloading one of the double-decker trucks. A horse got his leg caught in the side of the truck so the driver pulled the rig up and the horse’s leg popped off. The horse was still living, and it was shaking. [Another employee] popped it on the head and we hung it up and split it open. …
Sometimes we would kill near 390, 370 a day. Each double-decker might have up to 100 on it. We would pull off the dead ones with chains.
Ones that were down on the truck, we would drag them off with chains and maybe put them in a pen or we might drag them with an automatic chain to the knock box. Sometimes we would use an electric shocker to try to make them stand. To get them into the knock box, you have to shock them … sometimes run them up the [anus] with the shocker. …
When we killed a pregnant mare, we would take the guts out and I would take the bag out and open it and cut the cord and put it in the trash and sometimes the baby would still be living, and its heart would be beating, but we would put it in the trashcan.”If you think horse slaughter is humane euthanasia, think again. Once in the slaughterhouse equine hell continues. Horse slaughter is not humane euthanasia.
Animal Euthanasia - from the Greek, meaning 'good death' - the act of humanely putting an animal to death or allowing it to die as by withholding medical measures. [Wikipedia]Horses are intelligent animals. Highly sensitive and acutely aware of their environment, the flight or fight instinct is strong. According to the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS):
[Horses] react to the smell of blood, the sounds of other horses being slaughtered and react violently to death when they see the instrument or “stun gun” aimed at their heads, which drives a four-inch spike into their skulls.
They make desperate attempts to flee, exhibiting typical equine “fight or flight” behavior and extreme panic and fear. They prance back and forth with their ears pinned back and their eyes wide open.
That inevitably results in the instrument hitting the horse and wounding it and not rendering it unconscious, but rather resulting in repeated blows.
In addition, video evidence shows horses being beaten on their faces, necks, legs and backs; purposely blinded by bludgeoning their eyes out to get them under control, electric cattle prods inserted into their rectums to get them to move into the kill box, mares giving birth on the kill floors, and remaining alive and conscious when they were shackled and hoisted by a rear leg to have their throats cut.
The horses stand in line sensing the terror and electrocuted or speared into the kill box where they shake violently, falling and unable to stand from fear.
“…horse slaughter encompasses public safety issues, public health concerns, environmental issues as well as the obvious and very significant concerns regarding cruelty and inhumane treatment. Our investigations during 2007 to the present made clear that at the instant a horse is designated a ‘kill horse,’ handling and treatment change radically from that normally given horses. A ‘kill horse’ is treated with cruelty, with indifference at best, but more typically with violence and aggression. Cruelty increases, while safety, health and welfare – its care and humane treatment are so diminished it is virtually nonexistent. These horses are “only passing through,” say the veterinarians as well as the ‘kill buyers.’
If the ‘kill horses’ had been normal horses under the care of a different type of owner, humane officers and police would have required, in keeping with state animal cruelty laws, proper veterinarian care and sufficient access to food, water and shelter. The ‘kill horse’ is outside the protection of cruelty laws.”
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| Lady preferred to die at home. |
