Horse Abandonment

Yesterday, I had the privilege of being part of a representation in Salem, Oregon for Humane Lobby Day. As a member of the Humane Society of the United States, we have four Bills before the Legislature this year that we would like to have passed: HB 2470 which makes puppy mills illegal in Oregon; SB 280 to include spectators at cockfighting events liable for a Class C Felony charge; SB 391 to make ownership of certain exotic animals illegal; and finally, SB 398 which will make it illegal to abandon horses.

It was quite easy for me to get behind three of these four bills, support them and promote them to my Senator and Representative. One of them I struggle with and that is SB 398, the horse abandonment bill.

As a life-long, avid horse lover, I have more than a little empathy and sympathy for the owners of these animals that, for the last two years in increasing numbers have been turning their horses loose on the Eastern Oregon deserts, secretly releasing them into strange pastures, turning them out on roads, abandoning them at auction yards and putting them in other people’s horse trailers at events.

The fate of these unfortunate animals has been a disaster. Most of these “hot house” horses do not know how to forage and die of starvation. They never learned to recognize a predator or find water. They lost their fear of vehicles and have been hit on the roads.

Horses are not selling at auctions because there are fewer buyers due to two very important reasons: The cost of feeding a horse has sky-rocketed the last two years; and the meat buyers at the auction yards are gone because horse slaughter is now illegal in this country and the cost of transporting these animals to Canada or Mexico to be slaughtered is out of the question.

There are few options left for horse owners who have for whatever reason lost their ability to support their animal, or the animal has become unsound and the price of euthanizing and disposing of 1,000 pounds of flesh is unaffordable – they must be buried or cremated.

To find these desperate individuals in violation of law is not the answer. We must address the underlying issue of too many horses and what to do with them.

Horse slaughter previously was conducted in a very inhumane manner. That was the reality that fired the passions of caring individuals across this country and ultimately made the practice illegal. Abandoning horse slaughter has only exacerbated a problem. We didn’t quit killing cows when the ugly reality of downer cows was revealed. We made the slaughter houses accountable and cleaned up their act.

Before any more horses suffer fates worse than death, we need to reinstate horse slaughter in this country to deal with those animals that cannot be absorbed into the population, and do it in a humane way. Beyond that, the issue of over breeding must be addressed.