madelyn wrote:But the trucking costs, with fuel over $3 a gallon, limits the horses "at risk" geographically, to those in the northeast, northwest, and southwest. Cavel is in Illinois.. same difference. No one in business to make money would be buying slaughter horses in Florida. And, as I said, we are lucky now to be able to get $50 or $100 for a horse, if a home can be found at all. People are starting, now, to turn unwanted horses loose on public lands. The anti-slaughter campaign was a rabid, under-thought, ill-conceived piece of sophomoric legislation, without making provision and establishing euthanasia stations where unwanted horses could be dropped off for euthanasia/incineration. Now, with the drought, and the dearth of hay available at almost any price, it will be interesting to see how many horses are just turned loose to starve to death in the national forests. Another repercussion may be that they will compete with the wildlife already there and the domino effect may be that the deer will starve too. Now isn't that a LOT kinder??
I was at a farm this past week and I heard anecdotally from the farm manager that he's already heard of that happening from his folks in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. Chalk that one up to unintended consequences.