Horse Slaughter

So, for my first real post, I know I'm getting into a touchy subject. You may agree with me, or disagree, but please no bashing, flaming, and/or arguing in the comments. You may post your opinions, and why you feel that way, but if your comments get too out of hand, they will be deleted.

When it comes to slaughter, I am neither Pro slaughter, nor Anti slaughter. I'm somewhere in the middle, and I'll tell you why. I'm going to talk a little about breeding and slaughter.

With slaughter shut down, and the economy how it is, we are overrun with horses right now. People have gotten so desperate as to turning their horses loose on the roads. Now, as far as the overpopulation of horses, I agree with many of Cathy's blogs, on FHOTD {Fugly Horse Of The Day - http://fuglyhorseoftheday.blogspot.com/} People need to quit breeding all these crappy horses. No, people don't need to stop breeding, because we still need GOOD horses. Good horses are still selling decently, but all these horses that are useless because of conformational issues can't find homes, and it could have all been prevented if someone hadn't bred their parents. It's as simple as that. If you want a baby, go buy a weanling. Chances are you can buy a nice weanling for a better price than you can breed a nice one. If you want to actually breed and raise the baby from day one, then get someone who knows what they are doing to help you pick out a mare and stallion that are both breeding quality and that compliment each other.

That's all I am going to say on the breeding side of it, so now to my opinions on slaughter. I think, that until we stop overflowing the country with badly bred horses, we NEED slaughter. That, or we need an alternative for unwanted horses. Until someone comes up with that alternative, we need slaughter back. No, I don't agree with it, like I said above, I'm not pro-slaughter. I think if we could bring slaughter back with a way to regulate what horses go to slaughter, it would be a lot better. I don't think that every horse that sells cheap enough to a kill buyer should go. Nice, registered, sometimes breeding quality horses go to slaughter, or foals, yearlings, or even old broodmares. They shouldn't.... But certain horses, yeah. Not that I think they deserve it either, but if we are going to have it, then regulate it. Then, another thing they could improve, is to find a more humane way to put the horse's out of their misery. They could also only take so many at a time, so the horses didn't sit in feedlots waiting to go. But as of right now, all the Anti-Slaughter people, you won, they closed down the slaughter plants, and now unwanted horse's are being shot, starved, and all kind of things that I consider worse than slaughter. Especially being starved, because then they are suffering for a long time before they either die, or are rescued. So, I'm not disagreeing with the Anti slaughter people, just stating that with slaughter gone, I'd prefer if someone came up with an alternative outlet for unwanted horses.

So, here is my request... In the comments, feel free to discuss your opinions on slaughter. But also, if you have any ideas for an alternative, post it as well, and share your ideas.