Posts Tagged ‘slaughter’
What’s in a word?
Great article and very thought-provoking!
The article contains a quote from pro-slaughter veterinarian Dr. Tom Lenz: “Unwanted horses are defined as those no longer wanted by their current owner because they are old; injured; sick; unmanageable; fail to meet their owner’s expectations; or the owner can no longer afford to keep them”.
Using Dr. Lenz’s logic, everyone who is single or in the middle of a breakup is an “unwanted person.” Are you unemployed? You must be an “unwanted employee.” I can see you all rolling your eyes at those comparisons because, as we all know, having one person or one company not want us is, well, part of life and something we all experience, and those unwanted statuses can change in the blink of an eye – the next thing we know, we’re in love with someone else or going off to start a great new job.
It’s the same thing for horses, of course. Owner A cannot wait to get Horseykins out of the barn whereas the next owner acquires it and thinks Horseykins is their dream that they have been searching for all of their life. My favorite horse of all time – my 30 year old who I still own – was literally thrown at us in 1985 because she’d just broken someone’s collarbone and had become equus non grata in that barn! I loooooved that mare – played arena polo on her, jumped her, even ran barrels and poles on her. To label a horse as unwanted because one single individual, the current owner doesn’t want it, is ludicrous. But as John Holland observes in the article – it’s all semantics. It’s all to avoid the word I would use, surplus horses, which is about the same thing John says with “excess” horses.
That pretty buckskin pictured is a classic example of an “unwanted” horse. She was a broodmare, got dumped to kill, “rescued” by CBER, off to a hoarder haven (remember that picture I posted a long time ago of the trashy chick’s myspace pic with all the guns? … that one), wound up back on the lot, re-rescued by Save A Forgotten Equine, who finally after a couple of tries found the right trainer for her and now here she is with her owner, who loves her. Happy ending. No longer “unwanted” but a happy, contributing member of equine society who now has a good home because of it. The difference was simple. Training.
As I’ve noted hundreds of times before, the reason we have a problem is that our supply of horses exceeds the demand for horses, and a contributing factor is that the demand is for trained horses, whereas much of the oversupply is untrained horses. It is like unemployment – it’s not that all of you who are without a job suck, it’s that the supply of employees currently vastly exceeds the demand for employees in many fields. As a result, some of you are going to have to go back to school and retrain for a field there’s more demand in. I know many people doing this already. Sometimes you gotta adapt. Horse breeders, you gotta adapt. STOP OVER-PRODUCING IN A DOWN ECONOMY. Instead of having 10 foals, have 2 that you train. Or buy back some of your previously produced horses that are in trouble somewhere, put training on them and take them to the shows so that people want to buy more horses from you.
Do you know who can drive your horses’ value up to pre-recession prices? YOU! Do you know how people who are still getting awesome prices for horses get it? Well, they show up at a horseshow or other competition with a good looking horse that kicks ass. It’s like magic – people clamor around trying to find out where they can get one just like it. Stop sitting around pouting and talking about “snobby horse show people.” The show horse people aren’t snobby, they’re using common sense, proven tactics to drive up the value of their horses. If you think western pleasure is stupid, you don’t have to do it. There are a lot of other events. There’s a vast variety of equine competitions out there – something for everybody. All of them, short of crazy shit like horse tripping, drive your horse’s value UP.
Now, are there some horses I would classify as unwanted? No, but there are some horses I would classify as difficult to place. These include unsound horses, older unbroke horses, and horses with some kind of major mental issue/vice. I do not think there is anything wrong with euthanasia, as most of you know, as a solution here. That said, I have seen everything from 35 year old toothless Appaloosas to bat-shit panel-jumping BLM mustangs find fabulous homes and be very much wanted. I myself have a particular liking for old ex-broodmares and have supported quite a few for the last few years of their lives. There is a not-so-small element of the horse world that truly enjoys having old coot horses to pet and spoil, and it’s a good thing because there’s also a not-so-small element of the horse world that likes to dump those horses.
All in all, I agree with John. Unwanted is a meaningless term and a way of putting a spin on the situation without having to admit that it’s time that everybody drastically reduced the number of horses they’re creating and put more emphasis on training the ones that are already here. But fewer horses means less work for the registries and, oh yeah, the veterinarians – so that does explain some of the very self-serving opinions here! Sheesh people, we can all follow the money and see what’s driving your remarks. Not a single one of you can or has effectively argued with my logic that fewer, higher quality and better trained horses would almost completely solve the problem here. There is no reason for not supporting that solution that is not self-serving and related to your own greed. When I hear that some of these ding-dongs with the registries are still encouraging people to breed, breed, breed, or some of these pro-slaughter state Horse Councils having incentive programs to breed, breed, breed, I want to fire up that Bitchslap World Tour Bus and get it on the road. And we’ll stop at the home of any breeder who wants to simply sit on her butt and pimp out her completely unaccomplished stallion(s) and put no training on the foals she creates. Ridiculous. And that’s a word that does apply!
And here’s our winner of the 2010 Asshat of the Year Award (Posthumous)
This is a very graphic and shocking video about a guy named Monty Merola that ran an illegal horse slaughterhouse in New Jersey, one that is still operating after his October 2009 death. They sell the meat very publicly on their Bravo Packing website. The buyers are people who own exotic animals that eat horsemeat. Monty starved the horses to keep the meat lean and frequently abused them, including bashing them with baseball bats. Amanda Sorvino (yes, the daughter of the guy who was on Law & Order) actually went undercover herself to expose him. Wow.
One tale of the whole story here — if it’s true, it sounds like a whole lot of rescue drama followed by a request that we NOT talk about this because “it will put the lawsuit in jeopardy.” Folks, I have worked in law for 15 years and I can not think of one case I’ve ever heard of where a case went bust because the media had covered it. Sure, the defense attorney is going to whine that the case has been tried in the media, and there might be a change of venue to get a less prejudiced jury/judge if a case has been hot in the local media, but every time I hear this “OMG don’t talk about it, you’ll jeopardize the CASE,” I call bullshit. Where someone’s blatantly guilty, they don’t get a pass because people talked shit about them on the Internet. Of course the case is a moot point now because the guy died.
TALKING about it is how you STOP it. Making sure that EVERYBODY knows who this guy was and what he was doing (and what his associates/family are obviously STILL DOING!) is how you stop it! We NEED to destroy this business by making the clients aware of their practices – most exotic animal owners don’t want to see any animal tortured like this. Oh, and as a vet friend notes, “Nothing develops blood dyscrasias faster than a cat (and cats are cats regardless of whether they are big or small), and bute is certainly right up there in the list of causes of blood dyscrasias.” So it’s not even healthy for the exotic animals!
Cockroaches like Merola and his associates who are still running this illegal slaughterhouse thrive in darkness and they LOVE it when those who would expose them hushes up because of some weird idea that somehow the justice system is going to effectively stop this crap if only everybody keeps the Very Important Investigation quiet. No. What is going to stop this crap is the public refusing to patronize this business and that takes publicity – so by all means, cross post this everywhere! You have my permission! Heck, the exotic animal owners should realize how toxic the meat is and how full of drugs. Do they have message boards we can post to?
From everything I can see, there are some folks that want this one hushed up. Why you ask? Well, I’d say this is a good place to start:
Because we totally want to bail out the horse slaughter industry!
WTF! WTF! WTF!
Well now we know why old Monty got away with this crap as long as he did, and why it is no doubt still going on. Hey, New Jersey? If you are worried about your reputation, stop fussing about Snooki’s hair and do something about this abomination in your midst and the asshat politicians who protected and funded it!
It’s just a very interesting case. The more I read, the more I say WTF?
Why hasn’t anything been done to close this business down? And no, that blog was posted in JUNE and this HASN’T made the papers. WHY? God knows you have evidence, you have VIDEO! What more do you want? It’s not like there’s any chance Sorvino’s accusations aren’t valid or this wasn’t going on. VIDEO.
This is why we have blogs, folks…for stuff the regular media is skeered of. Now the question is, who are they skeered of? Some NJ politicians who have been funneling Federal money to this abattoir? Or Merola’s buddies taking a shot at them? I cannot find ONE SINGLE MENTION of this in the “real” media.
This is Buttercup. She survived that hellhole and was personally rehabbed by the Sorvino family.
“Buttercup was living at Bravo for close to a year and was a part of Monty’s “lean meat” experiment. To procure lean meat, a horse must start out fat and healthy and then be starved for months to a point of lean muscle tissue. Buttercup was not only starved at the Bravo kill lot, but medically neglected as well. She had gashes on her right front leg and severe cellulitis on her left back leg that were left untreated by Monty and Joe Merola for months. Consequently, Buttercup will have chronic cellulitis for the rest of her life in her left back leg. Luckily, she is still rid-able and the vet would like her to be ridden to keep the swelling down.”
More about Buttercup and the undercover investigation is on Amanda Sorvino’s site Horsefellas. (MUSIC WARNING, if you’re at work) Oh, and graphic pic warning and wtf is with that logo…way too high drama for my tastes, but I really DO have to give the woman a LOT of credit for going undercover…putting yourself in personal danger to help horses is about as honorable as it gets in the rescue world. and let’s face it, many other celebrity kids do nothing but party, so you have to give her a motivation prize for using both her money and her personal time for something this valuable. She deserves a medal.
(And yes, if you followed the link, I do wish they wouldn’t put small children on her without a helmet. Safety first – please! )
So now here’s what I want to know:
Who is running Bravo Packing now? Joe Merola? They’re still selling horsemeat. Where would it be coming from if they weren’t illegally slaughtering it within the U.S.?
Who the hell decided Bravo Packing should get federal money of any kind?
WHY is no one talking about this story in the media? Hello, New Jersey Star-Ledger, I’m talking to you! Is it run by the Mob, or what? Um, apparently that was a good guess. I just tried to learn a bit more about the Merola family. I’m gonna get shot. If I get shot for blogging about this, I want a polo tournament named after me, ‘k?
I mean, it’s great that karma bit Monty Merola in the ass and gave him the big C, but it doesn’t sound like his death did one thing to slow down the carnage at Bravo Packing, and I want to know why this story is as dead as he is. Let’s shut those scumbags down for good in 2010!
You GO CNN!
Despite the gruesome subject matter, the fact that this is FRONT PAGE NEWS on CNN makes my day. (Warning: some graphic images)
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/12/28/illegal.slaughter.farms/index.html
When I was a teenager, an issue like this would never have merited coverage. Now, millions of Americans will view this story and many of them will think a little harder about the plight of animals, where their own food comes from, and what kind of responsibility we have to the other animals we share the planet with.
I wonder who owned those horses in that lot…I wonder who bred them, what they thought they would grow up to be, who the person was who gave them up without following up on them, maybe through an auction…or are they stolen? Is someone going to see that video and go, holy crap, that’s my horse? It’s probably too late to save them – but I bet this story will make some Floridians think twice about selling their horse at auction or giving it away to “a good home.”
Nothing deserves to end up in those lots. Not the horses, not the calf, not the goats. Nothing.
ETA – OK, now I’m curious. Let’s see what kind of results we get to this question.
Would you eat meat if you had to kill it and butcher it yourself?
People for the Eating of Tasty Arabians?
The Arabian Horse Association, clearly taking its cues from AQHA re ignoring its own members’ feelings on the issue, approved a resolution on May 16, 2009 to support the idea of re-opening American horse slaughterhouses. Now all of the completely appalled AHA members have made a website called the AHA Mission Supporters, in which they point out that it’s contrary to AHA’s own mission statement to support slaughter. Heh, heh, heh…touche.
In every situation, the welfare of the breed shall be paramount over all considerations.
The best interests of the Arabian Horse must be the criterion in all transactions.
Members and their employees or agents shall at all times treat the proud breed of Arabian Horse
with the kindness, respect, and affection, which the horse’s long history deserves.
- From the AHA Handbook
Yeah, it’s kind of hard to figure out how hammering a horse in the head with a captive bolt gun and then hoisting him up by a chain around his back leg to bleed out is compatible with kindness, respect and affection, isn’t it now? And AHA’s ridiculous justifications for this resolution were easy to disprove. You may recall that I pointed out that their “extensive research” into the issue apparently and obviously consisted of a single article in USA Today. I’ve done more online research on where to go for lunch.
My original blog entry on the issue
Now, there’s no question there’s an overpopulation issue with Arabians just like there is with Quarter Horses, Thoroughbreds, and everything else. It’s pretty sad when we are pulling a daughter of a U.S. and Canadian National Champion Stallion out of the kill pen at Enumclaw after she auctions for $60, as we did last month. Nothing wrong with her – just young, untrained, and not exactly the national champion’s shining moment when it comes to conformation. She’ll make a lovely little junior mount for someone though and she certainly didn’t deserve the fate she narrowly missed.
What I want to know is when is one of these registries going to come up with an actual solution? Here are some ideas, if you guys are having trouble with it:
- Limit registrations of a stallion’s foals to five per year until the stallion earns ten points or the equivalent level of achievement in endurance, NCHA, etc. Boy would this help us stop making so much crap. Sure, some people will still breed anyway even if they’re going to be grades but it’ll discourage a lot of them if they can’t register them. And that would certain tie in with the part about the welfare of the breed. If you want Arabians to be high quality, start having some damn standards. (This goes for every breed)
- Offer free or vastly reduced registration for geldings. BOY will you see a LOT more colts gelded if you do that. (again, AQHA, Jockey Club, etc. listen up!)
- Stop incentivizing overbreeding by doing silly shit like having a list of the mares and stallions that have produced the most registered offspring on your main web site. Stop patting these people on the back. It’s not a good thing. Personally, I think it’s pretty disgusting that someone made a mare pop out 22 foals. At least Michele Duggar is doing it by choice!
- Numerous people have brought up the idea of a limited registration option, which the breeder can choose for animals that are not breeding quality. This allows you to show and compete, but not register the offspring. I would recommend a limited registration that can be upgraded to full registration when a certain level of accomplishment is reached. After all, the breeder could be wrong and a lot of fugly foals grow up surprisingly nice. See how things like this would promote showing? Then you can make your $$ on showing instead of on registration fees. The #1 thing ANY registry can do to help things out is stop trying to live off of registration fees. That leads you all to promote overbreeding, because you need the money. Far better for your income to come from showing and using the horses, which increases the horses’ value so that they’re worth more for riding than for meat.
- If the racetracks can ban trainers and owners that they catch selling to slaughter, when are you registries going to develop some cojones and do the same? I bet people whip out the checkbook for euthanasia or get off their dead butts and do some retraining and find a new home for whatever isn’t working out for them a lot faster if dumping them to Mr. Kill Buyer can result in a lifetime suspension from showing. Stop giving lip service to the welfare of the horses you are promoting and actually enforce humane and responsible behavior among your trainers, breeders and owners via penalties that will actually scare them into compliance.
It comes down to what it always comes down to. Slaughter is the cheap, easy way out for people who do stupid crap like breed horses they don’t handle and train, or cripple them up overriding them when young, or fry their brains with cruel training. As long as that cheap, easy way out exists, there are no consequences for poor horse care or treating your show prospects like they are disposable. Every time I see someone arguing that we should re-open the slaughterhouses, I know it is someone who has used them in the past to hide the evidence of their crappy horse care, thoughtless breeding or failed training. Enough already.
