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RE: [RC] Reality bites - heidi

Heidi, For some reason, you are taking the question personally and 
negatively, when in fact, it does not apply to you. 


No, Terry, I'm not taking this personally--I'm simply pointing out that in REAL 
LIFE, there ARE situations where your version of euthanasia is not possible, 
and where it may not long be viable to shoot them and leave them out, either.  
WHAT DO YOU PROPOSE WE DO THEN?  It USED to be a viable alternative to take 
horses to the local plants--no toxic chemicals, no suffering, no long trips, no 
batching, no waste, just a safe and humane end for the horse.

I'm not sure where you get the idea that it is "big business" to breed and 
"dump" horses--even when killer horses were going for $500 to $600 for big, 
mature horses, that didn't even pay for a year's feed!  If a breeder sells a 
horse on the kill market, they take a HUGE loss.  What I don't "get" is why it 
bothers you so much if somebody gets a paltry check for a horse on the kill 
market--they certainly aren't raising horses for the meat market, and when they 
could take the horse to a local plant, it was perfectly humane.  Certainly it 
is a business to do the slaughtering and sell the meat--I don't expect ANYBODY 
to work for free, as they have to feed their families and pay their bills, too. 
While there is a market for horse meat, it is a somewhat limited one--so I 
doubt that it would ever be profitable to raise horses specifically for 
slaughter--they just aren't that efficient at feed conversion for growth, since 
they are more geared toward feed conversion for work. 

The "issue" here is that people have pushed and pushed their idealistic agenda 
TO THE DETRIMENT of the horse population.  By first forcing the closing of 
local plants, the lobbyists on this issue forced the issues of batching and 
travel.  By trying to close plants down altogether, they are now forcing horses 
out onto public lands where they do tremendous environmental damage and also do 
NOT die very pleasant deaths.  The HORSE has been the loser in this entire 
charade that has been perpetrated for some sort of "feely-good" agenda.  I've 
pointed out before that the horse does not care if the critters who eat him are 
human or scavengers.  Likewise, the horse does not care if the human who eats 
him is rich or poor.  What the horse cares about is suffering.  By far the BEST 
way to put an end to unnecessary suffering would be to drop all of this 
nonsense about banning slaughter and to reopen local plants!

Heidi

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