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Loading...Starving Horses Abandoned by Owners
Ribs stand out on the sides of the horses, donkeys and mules falling victim to unrelenting drought in Texas. Once grassy fields are bare earth. When hay can be found, the price is double or triple last year’s tally, when feeding a horse cost $150 to $200 a month.
In 2007, before the economy hit the skids, Texas reported 438,827 horses. Some were owned by cattle ranchers, others by recreational riders. No one knows what the tally is now. With no interested buyers and no money to pay for their feed, many of the state’s iconic horses are being abandoned.
While most horse owners continue to care for their animals, a growing number are just trucking them to other counties and dropping them off. Abandoning horses is a crime, so owners hope for the anonymity of distance. Safe Haven Equine Rescue in Gilmer, Texas gets 20 to 40 calls a week about horses wandering the roadside. That’s up from 3 or 4 calls a week last year.
Donkeys and mules are being abandoned too. Animal rescue groups, such as California-based Peaceful Valley Donkey Rescue, have never seen so many animals left to fend for themselves as cash-strapped owners turn them loose. From March to September 2011, the rescue center took in 500 donkeys, 100 more than in all of 2010.
With most of the winter still ahead and no assurance next year will bring rain, ranchers are having to ship hay from as far away as Oregon and Idaho. The temporary boon for farmers in those states is no assurance the supply will last as long as the need.
News of the plight of Texas horses comes as Congress has lifted the ban on equine slaughterhouses. The last one in the U.S. closed in 2007 in Illinois. Animal welfare activists promise a massive campaign if any new ones open.
Currently, ranchers ship horses that are old or unfit for work, or maybe just unwanted, to slaughterhouses in Canada and Mexico. Last year 138,000 were shipped, but even carnivores in the U.S. are reluctant to see equines slaughtered for pet food or human consumption, at least if it happens on home ground.
As their owners struggle with mounting debt and disappearing income, horses and donkeys become an impossible expense. The fate of these equines is more than an economic issue. It is also a moral issue and not one with easy answers.
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Read more: animal rights, animal welfare, animals, donkeys, drought, environment & wildlife, horses, starved horses, texas
Photo from Don DeBold via Flickr Creative Commons
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+ add your ownStop having all the kids and take care of the animals!
Attention: A horse slaughter house is opening near Springfield Missouri. Can people protest ? need action taken..I saw a news item about it on KY3TV station.... Can Care2 do something.. a protest march or something???
After what horses did for us, breaking their backs, being used building america, this is the thanks they get after years of hardship, pain, and suffering used, until they dropped dead? Now the great american beauties who used to run free and beautiful mean nothing to most dillholes in america, God must be crying to see his horses suffering so much, shame on anybody who abandons an animal to die a slow death like starving! Only the most evil selfish person would do this to their horse, you do whatever it takes to save an animal in your care, you don't drop them off like trash! What is going on in america? Does anybody give a crap anymore about animals, except animal lovers, everbody should care if you have an evolved brain!
SHAME ON THE HOUSE OF CONGRESS...USA IS GOING BACK IN TIME....SHAME, SHAME, SHAME!
To those horse owners that still take care of their horses, thank you. To those that just abandon their horses, shame on you!!
poor horses. please be responsible.
So sad that these innocent animals have to be the victim of selfishness and easy way out for their owners. Thank you to the animal organizations who are working hard to help rescue and care for all animals out there!
It's very sad to know that horses & donkeys are being dumped b/c people can't afford them. Would they do that to their human children? Of course not. It sucks that people have such little regard for their furry friends.
so very very sad.
Humans disgust me. I hope the owner of the horses one day knows what it is like to be hungry.Pathetic gutless wonder.
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