There is one thing you should keep in mind. Horses are STILL being slaughtered, and the numbers are not down that much as compared to this time last year. The slump you are seing in your area is NOT because of slaughter. The slump you are seeing is because of a few different issues, as follows:

Gas prices are up! This increases the cost of everythng, including feed and hay, and decreases people’s expensible resources. Horses are a luxury item and one of the first things to be “cut” from many people’s budget. It’s also more expensive to have horses shipped, so people are looking for “bargains” closer to home when they do purchase.

Corn prices are up. Thanks to ethanol research and overall demand, corn prices have nearly doubled. This drives up the price of feed, which makes horse keeping more expensive. Corn was used as a cheap filler in horse feeds, but now many companies are switching to beet pulp, which is cheaper, but still more expensive than corn was.

The overal economy is down. Ever since 9-11 the economy had suffered, as has the horse market. Things have been in a graudal, but steady, downhill slide. The horse market has suffered because, as I said, horses are a luxury item.
Auction prices have been going down and down, quicker than the private sale market, while killer numbers were going up and up (until this year, when they dropped for a while, but are now coming back up). Now the entire horse
community is really feeling this economic slump.
It’s quite convenient for people to blame the crappy horse market on the slaughter issue, but that is total hogwash! Sure, it was a slap in the face to the bottom market that was already in the toilet, but slaughter numbers are back
up to nearly what they were before Texas and Illinois closed their plants (thanks to 3 new slaughter plants in Canada and Mexico increasing production). So, that right there shows that the slaughter industry has LITTLE effect on the overall horse market.

Read the article I posted above. The author, John Holland, has always used real FACTS to back up his articles and statements.

There is one thing you should keep in mind. Horses are STILL being slaughtered, and the numbers are not down that much as compared to this time last year. The slump you are seing in your area is NOT because of slaughter. The slump you are seeing is because of a few different issues, as follows:

Gas prices are up! This increases the cost of everythng, including feed and hay, and decreases people’s expensible resources. Horses are a luxury item and one of the first things to be “cut” from many people’s budget. It’s also more expensive to have horses shipped, so people are looking for “bargains” closer to home when they do purchase.

Corn prices are up. Thanks to ethanol research and overall demand, corn prices have nearly doubled. This drives up the price of feed, which makes horse keeping more expensive. Corn was used as a cheap filler in horse feeds, but now many companies are switching to beet pulp, which is cheaper, but still more expensive than corn was.

The overal economy is down. Ever since 9-11 the economy had suffered, as has the horse market. Things have been in a graudal, but steady, downhill slide. The horse market has suffered because, as I said, horses are a luxury item.
Auction prices have been going down and down, quicker than the private sale market, while killer numbers were going up and up (until this year, when they dropped for a while, but are now coming back up). Now the entire horse
community is really feeling this economic slump.
It’s quite convenient for people to blame the crappy horse market on the slaughter issue, but that is total hogwash! Sure, it was a slap in the face to the bottom market that was already in the toilet, but slaughter numbers are back
up to nearly what they were before Texas and Illinois closed their plants (thanks to 3 new slaughter plants in Canada and Mexico increasing production). So, that right there shows that the slaughter industry has LITTLE effect on the overall horse market.

Read the article I posted above. The author, John Holland, has always used real FACTS to back up his articles and statements.

There is one thing you should keep in mind. Horses are STILL being slaughtered, and the numbers are not down that much as compared to this time last year. The slump you are seing in your area is NOT because of slaughter. The slump you are seeing is because of a few different issues, as follows:

Gas prices are up! This increases the cost of everythng, including feed and hay, and decreases people’s expensible resources. Horses are a luxury item and one of the first things to be “cut” from many people’s budget. It’s also more expensive to have horses shipped, so people are looking for “bargains” closer to home when they do purchase.

Corn prices are up. Thanks to ethanol research and overall demand, corn prices have nearly doubled. This drives up the price of feed, which makes horse keeping more expensive. Corn was used as a cheap filler in horse feeds, but now many companies are switching to beet pulp, which is cheaper, but still more expensive than corn was.

The overal economy is down. Ever since 9-11 the economy had suffered, as has the horse market. Things have been in a graudal, but steady, downhill slide. The horse market has suffered because, as I said, horses are a luxury item.
Auction prices have been going down and down, quicker than the private sale market, while killer numbers were going up and up (until this year, when they dropped for a while, but are now coming back up). Now the entire horse
community is really feeling this economic slump.
It’s quite convenient for people to blame the crappy horse market on the slaughter issue, but that is total hogwash! Sure, it was a slap in the face to the bottom market that was already in the toilet, but slaughter numbers are back
up to nearly what they were before Texas and Illinois closed their plants (thanks to 3 new slaughter plants in Canada and Mexico increasing production). So, that right there shows that the slaughter industry has LITTLE effect on the overall horse market.

Read this article. The author, John, has always used real FACTS to back up his articles and statements.
http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20071124/COLUMN/71123047

There is one thing you should keep in mind. Horses are STILL being slaughtered, and the numbers are not down that much as compared to this time last year. The slump you are seing in your area is NOT because of slaughter. The slump you are seeing is because of a few different issues, as follows:

Gas prices are up! This increases the cost of everythng, including feed and hay, and decreases people’s expensible resources. Horses are a luxury item and one of the first things to be “cut” from many people’s budget. It’s also more expensive to have horses shipped, so people are looking for “bargains” closer to home when they do purchase.

Corn prices are up. Thanks to ethanol research and overall demand, corn prices have nearly doubled. This drives up the price of feed, which makes horse keeping more expensive. Corn was used as a cheap filler in horse feeds, but now many companies are switching to beet pulp, which is cheaper, but still more expensive than corn was.

The overal economy is down. Ever since 9-11 the economy had suffered, as has the horse market. Things have been in a graudal, but steady, downhill slide. The horse market has suffered because, as I said, horses are a luxury item.
Auction prices have been going down and down, quicker than the private sale market, while killer numbers were going up and up (until this year, when they dropped for a while, but are now coming back up). Now the entire horse
community is really feeling this economic slump.
It’s quite convenient for people to blame the crappy horse market on the slaughter issue, but that is total hogwash! Sure, it was a slap in the face to the bottom market that was already in the toilet, but slaughter numbers are back
up to nearly what they were before Texas and Illinois closed their plants (thanks to 3 new slaughter plants in Canada and Mexico increasing production). So, that right there shows that the slaughter industry has LITTLE effect on the overall horse market.

Read this article. The author, John, has always used real FACTS to back up his articles and statements.
http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20071124/COLUMN/71123047

If you cannot afford to put your horse(s) down at the end of their lives (or due to illness or injury), you should not own a horse, PERIOD!

And let’s remember that slaughter buyers do NOT WANT your crippled old nags… And they never have. They want healthy, fat horses that will bring a higher price at the slaughter house. At the US plants, THEY recorded that only 10% of horses brought in/processed were anything but fat and healthy. So, last year, that was around 10,000 12,000 old, skinny, or crippled horses that were slaughtered. The horse mortality rate (according to the US Horse Council, arguably pro-slaughter group) is 10%. That means (out of a horse population over over 9 Million horses) nearly 1 MILLION horses died or were put down last year due to old age, illness, injury, accident, or other causes. So, roughly 8-900,000 horses some how found their way from this world in a way OTHER than slaughter. Do you still think that slaughter is truly a viable and NEEDED alternative to humane euthanasia? GIVE ME A BREAK!

Now that horse prices are down and gas prices are up, there’s no way a killer buyer is going to bid on a skinny, lame old nag… People have to take RESPONSIBILITY for the animals they own!

Just like dogs and cats, horses are PETS!! Call them livestock if you want, but they are technically pets… Everything we do with horses we also do with dogs. We show them both, use both for working cattle and other farm animals, both are therapy animas, both are police/military animals, and both are pleasure/companion animals. The ONLY things that dogs do that horses don’t are home/property protection and drug sniffing. And it’s a bit difficult to manage them in bed with you, lol. But seriously folks, horses are PETS that happen to have hooves and eat hay. I don’t understand why so many horse owners/breeders find that concept difficult to grasp.

Yes, cows are shown as well, and some are used to plow fields, and some may even be pets to some people, but the big difference is… MOST cows in the USA are EATEN! Or used for milk, or for breeding milk or beef cows.

So, staying with the idea that horses are pets, then it’s only reasonable that horse owners should be held to the same standards as dog owners. If you cannot care for your horse properly, and that includes humane euthanasia should the time come, then they should be taken away from you and your “right” to horse ownership should be revoked.

You have the “right” to own horses, but you have a moral AND legal responsibility to properly care for them.