horses fate in FL

[Lady Hobbs]

Has anyone heard of what's happening to horses in FL? They are being butchered by some for their meat. Sickening!!! and I hope they get the people doing this. Horsemeat is being imported for $40 a pound but how is this being shipped out thru inspectors.

[Deleted User]

I had thought horse slaughter was banned in this Nation, but I think people ship them across the border for the same fate, and it's actually worse because they are shipped long distances in bad conditions, injured, etc.

As a horse owner, and small scale breeder (of champions -- I'm not breeding anything that isn't halter champion material) who would take in any horse of my own breeding, I have mixed feelings about the ban on horse slaughter. I don't "like" to think about it, however, I know of too many cases where owners can't get out of a horse or horses and are unable to properly care for them. Sometimes going to the meat auction is actually better than starving or languishing in poor conditions and with injuries, etc.

There's not a good solution that I know of. Just like the over population of cats and dogs... people just do not realize that happens with horses, too. It's very sad.

[Lady Hobbs]

This is a group of bad people doing this to horses not belonging to them. It is against the law and certainly is killing and slaughtering of peoples animals. They have killed at least 20 so far.

[Deleted User]

Oh my God!!! That is horrific :( :( :(

[ChromeLibrarian]

Once you get outside of the US, and western civilization, horse meat is not considered unusual. It is likely people not native to the US doing this, and if you told them it was wrong, they wouldn't understand your point of view. Having eaten horse meat, I don't see a problem with it, assuming they aren't killing someone else's horse to get it.

[dragoonwoman]

But just over the border in Canada there are several. The horses are purchased from "kill pens" for just this purpose, packed in vans and shipped up to Canada for slaughter. Out West, they are simply driven over the border in herds, like the old cattle drives. It's perfectly legal, unless the horses are stolen.

I know of a dealer who has "kill pens" at his stable, and once a horse goes in there, it doesn't come out.

If you don't specify BEEF steak in Europe, you will be served horse meat. I've never eaten it, and I wouldn't by choice, because I love horses (we have 6, all rescued) and I don't think I could bring myself to eat one. Of course, if it were that or starve....

It's definitely something I don't like to think about. But it happens. :scry:

[Lady Hobbs]

In some countries people eat dog meat, as well. That doesn't mean a band of renegrades should be stealing our dogs and butchering them.

[cubby]

In some countries people eat dog meat, as well. That doesn't mean a band of renegrades should be stealing our dogs and butchering them.


no, it doesn't. and its very illegal.

BUT if my kids were starving, i'd kill a whole family of baby horses made of rainbows to feed them.

while i completely disagreed with any defense of this for PROFIT, animals are food. not everyone has the luxury of stopping by walmart on the way home for a can of ravioli.

[Lab_Rat]

I'd heard about that from one of the horse forums I go too. It's absolutely horrific, they're stealing peoples riding horses, their pets, and butchering them, taking the meat, and leaving the carcass for the owner to find. It's been going on for a while now and as far as I know they haven't been caught. Absolutely sickening.

[Deleted User]

I just feel like, I swear to God, if anyone did that to one of my horses, I would track them down and kill them with my bare hands. These horses are huge, loved and important centerpieces in the owners' lives.

[Rue]

That's horrendous...that kind of abuse has to be taken more seriously than it is - I don't know why the courts remain so lenient.:scry:

Another incident of a man south of us, who set up an aviary that was vandalized and birds released also made me sick. Those exotic birds will not survive our predators or our winter. I hope they catch the idiots who thought that would be fun.

However - although I've bred horses, I think there is need for slaughter houses - but that's another issue entirely.

[Lab_Rat]

Here's one of the articles written about it. I'm not sure which news source it was pulled off of but it credits the author. If this violated copyright please remove it, but there was no link on the forum it was originally posted on.

******************
Horse slaughters have Miami-area owners on edge
Jul 31, 6:18 AM (ET)
By SARAH LARIMER

MIAMI (AP) - Someone is killing the horses of Miami-Dade County. Since January, police say at least 17 horses have been butchered, their carcasses left on roadsides or in stalls or rural pastures.

Police tiptoe around questions about who is doing the killing and why, but animal rights advocates believe the meat is being sold on the black market to people from other countries where horse is a delicacy. "It's a real ugly problem we're trying to take hold of and eliminate," said Richard Couto, an investigator with the South Florida Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which has recently looked into six horse killings. "Extremely, extremely difficult to find the people that are doing the slaughtering."

Ivonne Rodriguez had never heard the horror stories, never seen the pictures, until her horse, Geronimo, disappeared from his pasture one February morning. She missed work to post fliers and canvass her neighborhood, asking others if they had seen the good-natured pinto who liked apples and was friendly around children. A few days later, she got a call from her father. The horse's remains had been discovered under a palm tree, partially hidden by fronds. It had been decapitated and butchered, apparently by thieves who took its meat. "Not only is it disturbing, it's hurtful," Rodriguez said. "It's a pet for God's sake. It's not been raised to suffer a death like that." The killings have continued, the latest over the weekend. On Monday, Couto stood over a horse carcass with about 200 pounds of meat removed. Its owner found it butchered over the weekend, its cappuccino-colored foal alive and still nuzzled against its body. The horse's remains were burned, but a nauseating stench still lingered around the body, which lay just a few feet from its old home.

Miami-Dade Police Capt. Scott Andress, whose agency is among those investigating the horse slaughters, said the cases are tough to solve because they usually happen in rural areas where there are no eyewitnesses. He said his officers are working to confirm whether the horse meat is being sold to consumers. "We had received anecdotal evidence in the past that there might be some sort of black market activity," said Andress, commander of department's Agricultural Patrol Section. "We started hearing more about it after Jan. 11, which was the first case we got this year."

Couto says the black market for horse meat is both active and profitable. "Miami-Dade and South Florida is a melting pot," Couto said. "We have a lot of people, we have a lot of international people, from Asia, Europe, South, Central America and the islands. A lot of these countries, horse meat for human consumption is legal. These people grow up eating this meat. "Investigators have discovered animals with slit throats and slashed tendons. Some have been stabbed to the heart, and some might have been butchered alive. The meat is often harvested in unsanitary conditions - on the sides of roads, in dirty barns, with tools that might not be clean - but Couto says some people are still willing to pay $7 to $20 a pound.

Horse thefts aren't unique to Miami-Dade County, but in other parts of the country, the horses are sometimes not seen again and it's tough to prove what happened to them, said Laura Bevan, director of The Humane Society of the United States' Eastern Regional Office. Not so here, where carcasses have turned up close to where horses were taken. Until a few years ago, as many as 100,000 horses were killed annually in the United States for meat for foreign markets. In Florida, it is legal for horse owners to kill and eat their own horses on their own land, but horses cannot be slaughtered and sold to others for human consumption. A 2007 federal court ruling closed the nation's last horse-processing plant, though some groups are currently pushing to renew the slaughter of horses in the U.S. Horses that are sold for meat are now sent to processing plants in Mexico and Canada.

In Miami-Dade, horse owners are still looking for answers. Two years have passed since Allen Owens' blue-eyed horse, Comanche, was found slaughtered in his stall. Owens' wife discovered the grisly scene in August 2007, when she went to feed the animal grain and hay at daybreak. "As long as it's been since it happened, it just drags out really powerful emotions," he said. "I'm not a violent person, but you wouldn't believe what goes through your mind." Owens believes thieves used a wheelbarrow to cart meat from the stable, out a wooden gate, past a red horse trailer, across another patch of land, and through a chain link fence before the reached a wooded area and a nearby roadway. Owens and his wife were left with Comanche's head and bones, which are now buried under a Florida Holly, a few feet from a round horse pen Owens fashioned out himself out of electric poles. "It just was the most gruesome thing I had ever seen in my life," Owens said. "It's a memory that never goes away. I've learned to live with it, but it never goes away."

[cubby]

this is why every home owner should own a firearm with a LIGHT on it. preferablely two or three... for people to watch your back while you give the offenders commands until the police come.

or night vision................... :11:

[ChromeLibrarian]

They'll eventually catch whoever's doing it, and they'll go to jail.

[Lady Hobbs]

Thanks for posting that Lab_rat. You just can't watch them when you might have 50 acre's. Too bad they don't come to the barn at night like milking cows!

[Ark6ie]

that is totally sickening. how could people be sooo cruel? and how horrible for the owners to actually FIND the remains of their slaughtered horse. its absolutely disgusting. i hope they find these horrible cruel callouse people and let them rot in jail

[Lab_Rat]

Thanks for posting that Lab_rat. You just can't watch them when you might have 50 acre's. Too bad they don't come to the barn at night like milking cows!


No problem. From what I've heard, they're actually taking horses out of stalls from peoples barns and slaughtering them too so even that's not safe for the horses. If I lived down there with horses I'd have an alarm system set up for my barn...plus a shotgun ready.

[lobsternoob]

I have no major problem with killing a horse for food, but this is on a total different level than just that. If it's your horse, and its been bred and raised to be eaten then fine, don't see any real difference between that and using a cow for the same purpose. Granted, horses are a bit more endearing than cows, and i could understand some people arguing a difference between the two, especially those of you that keep horses.

Honestly though it really doesn't matter what type of animals they are, this is sick and wrong. "Investigators have discovered animals with slit throats and slashed tendons. Some have been stabbed to the heart, and some might have been butchered alive. The meat is often harvested in unsanitary conditions - on the sides of roads, in dirty barns, with tools that might not be clean." I mean that says enough right there, If an animal is to be used for food then it should be done properly and with the most humane possible methods. At least give the poor animal a quick death. It goes beyond that also in the fact that these animals were pets, I can't even imagine what would happen if someone did something like this to one of my dogs.

I really hate hearing/reading stories like this, just reminds me how sick some people in this world are. The worst part is even if and when they catch them they won't get what they deserve. Hopefully they do catch them, and I wouldn't be sad to hear about a little vigilante justice going on either.

[dragoonwoman]

If I caught anyone messing with my horses, the police would be taking ME to jail, and the guilty party to the MORGUE!

BTW - horses DO come in at night. Ours run into the stable when we open the gate, and trot right into their own stalls for dinner. I know a lot of people who would say the same.

[Lady Hobbs]

If they have stalls. Many in FL don't because of the year around warmth there. You see them in pastures all the time hanging out under trees.

[dragoonwoman]

Yes, where it's warm enough people leave them out pretty much all the time. Here in New England we do that only in summer.

Even in barns they aren't totally safe - the article mentioned the first horse being found in its stall. In the next town to us, a horse was attacked in its stall by a BEAR!

It never ceases to amaze me how many SICK people there are in the world. No wonder the Extra Terrestrials avoid this planet!

[Red]

Agreed, shame they do this to horses. :(