abandoned horses

The Congress passed, and the President signed the new budget, effectively banning horse slaughter once again by cutting funding for USDA inspections at horse slaughter facilities. Congress did this very same thing in 2006, an action which effectively closed all horse processing plants in the country. Much has happened between then and now. In 2011, the highly respected General Accounting Office (GAO)—Congress’s own watchdog agency—reported bluntly to Congress that their funding cut and the resultant plant closures actually had the opposite effect from that intended. The GAO told Congress that horses were now traveling further (to Mexico and Canada) and in many cases were slaughtered under worse conditions than before, and that their legislation had harmed horse welfare. After receiving that report, in 2011 Congress reinstated the funding for USDA inspections, opening the door for a resumption of horse processing in this country. As a result of that action, the USDA recently gave approval for the opening of horse slaughter plants in New Mexico and Missouri. However, lawsuits filed by animal rights activists repeatedly delayed those openings. “Americans do not want to see scarce tax dollars used to oversee an inhumane, disreputable horse slaughter industry,” said Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS). “We don’t have dog and cat slaughter plants in the U.S. catering to small markets overseas, and we shouldn’t have horse slaughter operations for that purpose, either.” HSUS and the Obama administration both lobbied to end horse slaughter in the U.S. Yet unsolved, however, is the issue of how to humanely cope with the more than 100,000 unwanted and abandoned horses that used to pass through those processing facilities each year. Click for more details. Posted January 15, 2014

A coalition of local government and a private trust will help the abandoned horses at Dunsink, a common grazing ground near Dublin. The Fingal County Council and the Irish Horse Welfare Trust drew up the plans jointly. According to Sharon Newsome, spokeswoman for the trust, there are approximately sixty horses on the 160-acre site at Dunsink. “There is limited grazing and water supplies, and there are a lot of dangers for horses on the site,” she said. The plan will start by providing temporary feeding and watering stations and monitoring the welfare of the horses there. Then in the weeks to come, local horse owners will bring their horses to vet checks for microchipping and the issuance of passports. Unclaimed horses will be taken into care by the Irish Horse Welfare Trust to be rehomed. Horse Sport Ireland, a government-established agency, is sponsoring the passports and microchipping of all the horses. It has been reported that as many as one hundred thousand horses across Ireland are being abandoned as a result of the financial crisis there. Read more details in Sean MacConnell’s article in The Irish Times.January 25, 2011

The Daily Mail reports that thousands of horses—perhaps as many as one hundred thousand—are being abandoned in Ireland as a result of the financial crisis there. Many are brought by their owners to common grazing grounds, such as Dunsink tip near Dublin, and left to fend for themselves. Some too weak to survive have had to be euthanized by animal welfare workers. To prevent a collapse of the Irish currency, the government has imposed stiff austerity measures that are expected to result in a ten percent reduction in disposable income for the middle class and even deeper cuts for lower income families. This, after boom years when Ireland posted the highest annual GDP in the western world. During those years, workers of all classes were financially able to accumulate more goods. And more horses. Certainly more horses. For a people where the horse has been an integral part of family life since ancient times, certainly more horses. Some lived in the house garden, some in fenced-off building sites, some on common land. And now, many owners can neither feed nor care for them. More details are available at Daily Mail Reporter.December 22, 2010