Straight from the Horse's Heart

I generally do not respond to those that are disrespectful and uncivil, but in this case, since you copied my good friend and colleague, I have made an exception.

Tainted "Flicka Fillet" coming to a Wyoming Supermarket courtesy of "Slaughterhouse" Sue Wallis

I presume from your comments that you are a vegan and do not believe that humans should eat meat? Or, is it just horse meat that you are opposed to? Do you not know that the US troops and folks here at home survived World War II because of horse meat? That there was such a shortage of other meat that all beef and pork was rationed, but that horse meat was available, affordable, government inspected and not rationed? That it is, in fact, considered just another food animal by more than 75% of the cultures around the world and is widely available in grocery stores in both French Canada, and Mexico? That Mexico is the second largest consumer of horse meat next to China? These our closest neighbors and allies.

Perhaps you are unaware that since the animal rights groups such as the Humane Society of the US, and PETA closed down our US slaughter plants that the horse industry which used to employ 460,000 direct full time jobs, another 1.6 million indirect jobs, and creating 1.2 Billion dollars in the economy has literally been cut off at the knees, and has been downsized by 50%…that is a minimum of 500,000 jobs lost! Why? Because it destroyed a viable market, without a bottom to the market, the whole equine economy from top to bottom stagnated—no one can get rid of horses, so they can’t buy new and better horses. What used to sell for $700 you can’t sell at all, what used to sell for $1,500 you are darn lucky to get $500, what used to sell for $80,000 is now often going for less than $10,000.

What Sue Wallis wants for Wyoming - a National Leader in Cruelty

Worse yet is the horrific fact that the horses themselves are suffering the most. There has been a 400% increase in one year in the number of abandoned and neglected horses between 2008 and 2009. It is easy to see why if you have anything to do with the horse industry. Since the closure of the plants in the US, the only unusable horse that you can sell are those that are big enough and healthy enough to be worth the trucking to Canada and Mexico, so they endure long transportation, and wind up being slaughtered in foreign slaughterhouses where we have absolutely no control over the regulations and how that is done. At least if we were processing horses here in the US, they fall under the longstanding humane slaughter of animals laws and regulations that ensure our animals are well taken care of and killed quickly and painlessly. Compare that to being starved to death and having your guts ripped out by coyotes while you are still alive because you are too weak to get up. This is the inevitable fate of all of those poor, domestic horses that people can’t sell and can’t give away and think they are “giving them a chance” if they turn them out on the desert. That is not compassion, that is stupidity and cowardice. Any responsible agricultural person would put them down themselves before they allowed that to happen…unfortunately, too many people like yourself are too far removed from the realities and responsibilities of animal husbandry to understand.

So, when somebody loses their job, and loses their house, and needs to figure out who to feed, the kids, or the horse…what do you suggest? Are you going to pay for the feed and care of all of those excess horses?  We’re talking upwards of 200,000 per year nation-wide…at an average cost of $2,500 per year, each. Or perhaps you think the taxpayers ought to pick up that bill and what we really need is a welfare entitlement program for animals?

To date none of you have been willing to step up to the plate and take care of the problem, and the result is that our horses are suffering terribly. Those of us in agriculture are morally compelled to do what we know is right, and that is to do everything that we can to ensure all animals a good life, and when appropriate to ensure that they have a decent and humane death. Once death has occurred all sensation ends…it is no longer an issue of animal welfare. If the horse belongs to you, you get to decide what happens to the carcass. If the horse belongs to someone who needs to access the value of the meat to feed their own family, or to reinvest so that they can replace the horse with something more useable, what is that to you? You may choose to avoid horse meat, that is your right…I, and many others like myself, however, understand that it is an incredibly nutritious protein source that is 50% higher in protein and 40% lower in fat than beef, and delicious.

Perhaps you have some solution that those of us who have worked around horses, and loved horses in our lives, have not been able to see. But, I doubt it.

Sue Wallis