| 12/18/2007 3:00:00 PM | Email this article • Print this article |
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| REGAINING ITS HEALTH: Dennis Watterson, below, took over the care of this horse that he said came to him malnourished and uncared for. The horse is severely underweight, and he is trying to bring the horse back to health. Watterson said there will likely be more horses in the same shape as feed becomes more expensive and scarce this season. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie) |
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| CONCERNED: Dennis Watterson talks about the neglect that some area horses are receiving. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie) |
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Horse owners need to pony up to responsibilities
Peggy Vlerebome
Courier Staff Writer
A skinny new resident of Dennis Watterson's horse pasture is symbolic of what some say is an emergency statewide: An abundance of horses whose owners cannot afford the hay to feed them.
Watterson gave the Tennessee walker horse a home on his Jefferson County farm after learning from a friend that the horse appeared underfed. He went to the home of the horse's owner and offered to take it. He doesn't know for sure how the horse got so thin, but he suspects the cost of hay.
The horse's former beauty is apparent still, but it came to Watterson's farm west of Hanover weighing about half of the 1,200 pounds Watterson said it should have weighed.
All across Indiana, hay prices have at least doubled, causing owners to make hundreds of horses do without hay or with less than they should be eating.
The price increase is attributed to the drought during the growing season, which resulted in less hay and therefore higher prices. The cost of fuel to transport hay also has added to horse owners' costs of feeding their animals. Some equine experts also think demand for hay has increased because more is being used for livestock feed while corn is being diverted to make fuel.
Horse adoption centers in southern Indiana report more horses being abandoned by owners who say they cannot afford to feed them, but that is only one reason horse owners cite for giving away or even abandoning horses. Sometimes a family is unable to provide shelter, or a horse grows old or sick and needs costly medications, or a family gets tired of the work involved in horse ownership.
Some people have released their unwanted horses in state parks, where they are gathered up and taken to shelters, a shelter operator said, while others leave their horses in a pasture until the authorities come and take them away, often turning them over to shelters to find new homes for them.
"Indiana is going to be staggering within 60 days," said Bill Whitman, who owns Horse-Angels Ranch shelter with his wife, veterinarian Sue Whitman. "There's no hay. ... We get 10 calls a day from people wanting to give up horses."
The Whitmans grow hay for the horses they take in at Horse-Angels, but with the drought this year their crop was only about one-third of what it normally is, he said. They bought hay, but much of it was low-quality, he said. And the cost was triple what it normally is, he said.
Still, they have horses to feed.
"We're at capacity," he said. The Whitmans started the horse shelter in Owen County northwest of Bloomington in 2002 for injured, abused, neglected or unwanted horses. They had five or six horses at the beginning, and have since had as many as 65, he said.
With all of their space taken, though, they still are able to place horses by matching horses with people to adopt them without the horse ever going to Horse-Angels, he said.
"When you consider there's 250,000 horses in Indiana, and that probably 100,000 are what you call grade horses - not registered - and of those 80,000 are owned by low-middle to low-income people, and you tell them it will cost $100 a week to take care of that one horse ... it's just a matter of economics," Bill Whitman said.
Last year, he said, 8,000 horses were sent from Indiana to Illinois for slaughter, but now slaughtering horses has been banned. With that avenue closed and more unwanted horses, "it's going to be a nightmare," Whitman said, saying he isn't taking a stand for or against slaughter.
"I think we have the Legislature's attention," he said. If there's no statewide law dealing with unwanted horses, he said, "it's just going to get dumped on individual counties. Some counties do not have the money to do anything."
Without the state taking the lead, he said, able to intervene, some horses have starved to death because local sheriffs, alerted to their condition, have refused to do anything on the grounds that their counties cannot afford to feed them, Whitman said.
Another horse adoption shelter, Indiana Horse Rescue South, reports on its Web site that it, too, receives several calls a day at its rescue shelter for abused, neglected and unwanted horses.
Horse Rescue South, which is in Harrison County north of Corydon, is at capacity, according to the Web site.
The increase in the number of unwanted horses in Indiana mirrors a nationwide problem that has been building. Two years ago, national horse owner associations, veterinarians and other groups formed the Unwanted Horse Coalition as part of the national Horse Council to educate the public about what it takes to raise a horse. The member organizations were looking for ways to deal with horse owners who don't take care of aged horses or do not have the time or money to properly care for a horse.
The coalition Web site, www.unwantedhorsecoalition.org, says the coalition was formed because the Horse Council "is concerned that some horses may slip through the various safety nets within the equine industry. Too many owners are unaware of, or do not give enough thought to, the available options, services and assistance available in the industry to help them ensure that their horse has caring and humane support throughout its life."
The coalition's motto is "Own Responsibly."
Bill Whitman thinks one reason horses become unwanted is the culture of the humans who buy them.
The culture, he said, has "changed so much over the past 40 years" and hay might be the scapegoat.
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Reader Comments
Posted: Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Article comment by:
cookie birge
i would love to adopt a pony i have 7 acers. and been around horses & ponys all my life. jeff. co in.
Posted: Wednesday, April 08, 2009
Article comment by:
Mary Chapman
I just came across this article. I know it is an old one. But there are issues still going on even now. Yes horse slaughter still exist. And there are alot of horse ownwers, like me, that know where all the hay is, but cannot afford it anymore!!! Simple as that. I am NOT a neglectant person. I love my horses. I have had to go from nine horses down to two. I know they were slaughtered. The hay I used to buy went from $2 a bale to $7 a bale. And now that the gas prices are down, the excuse is the fertalizer prices. There will always be an excuse to keep the prices high. It's called GREED!!! I supplument with beet pulp and alfalfa pellets. And the prices of that is getting crazy too. As far as the person who said they are only livestock and not pets. You should NEVER own a horse!!!!!!!! Mine are my pets and my friends. And you don't eat horses.
Posted: Sunday, December 23, 2007
Article comment by:
Terri
I wonder if Indiana Horse Rescue has any knowledge of this article? PEOPLE, horse slaughter still exists.. what do you think they do at Shipshewana Auction (a known kill auction in Indiana)? These horses are being shipped to Canada (look at the accident in Wadsworth, IL and at the more recent one in Michigan that didn't receive much publicity) for slaughter! Horse slaughter is alive and well, just not in this country! As for hay shortages, there may be in the southern states but there is STILL hay available if people will get up off their duffs and look for it. Also, feedlots are not the answer... you still have to feed the animals. Horses may be considered livestock by some but they are pets to most who have them. Horse slaughter is NOT the answer to the problem.. responsible ownership (through good and hard times) is though. Another thing is that winter comes every year, hay was readily available back in summer months.. it is the owner's responsibility to get the hay in before winter or pay the price. It's simple as that. If Indiana Horse Rescue doesn't know about this article, they will!! I'll be sure to send a copy of it to them right away.
Posted: Thursday, December 20, 2007
Article comment by:
Jeff
As a horse owner I really enjoyed this article. I agree that we cant slaughter our way out of this. I wouldnt send my horses to a kill pen yet at the same time we have to get these kill pens back open. My horses are my pets but yet still livestock and have to work to stay here. Horses are livestock just as cattle, sheep, goats, swine etc. These animals arent pets and only so many can be rescued. Other have to be euthinized humanley. Yet then comes the disposal issue. The horse market is way down right now and with out the kill pens open and the feed shortages there is going to be no way to control but to get the slaughter plants back open in the US. I know of horse that are bringing $75 dollars for a broke riding horse. I also know of broodmares that can't be given away. Horse owners must realize horses are livestock not pets and this problem would be solved.
Posted: Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Article comment by:
Ondine Terrebonne
Excellent article about the adjustment in the horse community to the catastrophic drought conditions. I would be interested to know which state or national parks have had reports of abandoned horses however. Many recent articles have appeared all over the country regarding this issue of abandoned horses but when the authorities were called, they knew of no reports of any abandoned horses in the areas mentioned in the articles.
According to the USDA's own records, the majority of horses slaughtered have been healthy and in good weight. Regarding the horse slaughter industry as a public service to rid the country of thin, lame or sick horses would be misinformed and misguided. They are in business to slaughter for meat and, just like the cattle industry, they pay by the pound and reject skinny animals.
The better plan would be to call Congress and urge them to support the ban on horse slaughter and the export of horses to slaughter. This foreign-owned industry has created a market for people to profit off the death of their horses.
The majority of Americans want a federal ban on horse slaughter and have wanted it for a very long time, for obvious reasons.
Posted: Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Article comment by:
Joyce J
I found this article to be very interesting but another side of the story must be presented. The picture painted by your writer as far as rescues go is not nearly as bleak as portrayed. At Thanksgiving, 82 slaughter-bound horses were rescued from the Sugarcreek Auction in Ohio, one state over from Indiana, by Ms. Jennifer Swanson, of Pure Thoughts, Inc., a Florida-based organization. Eighty-two at one time! So while there may be issues with certain rescues, there are many others who will be willing to answer the call and provide what they can for horses in need of their "second chance at life." There are many people who work daily to raise the funds to rescue these doomed horses. But they must be brought to our immediate attention, not just mentioned in articles such as this.
The basic premise of this article must not be ignored however--owner responsibility is the key to resolving this issue. As a person accepts responsibility for a dog or a cat, the same must be expected from current and potential horse owners. Over-breeding in search of the next great racehorse must be effectively addressed; a ban on horse slaughter would do much to achieving that goal since many slaughtered horses are what the industry considers "failures" on the track.
Slaughter is a very complex issue but, as has been said by a very wise man, "We cannot slaughter our way out of it."
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