Horses are our property; We
buy and sell them, breed them, and care for them. But unlike other property
that we own, horses are also living creatures that require certain care.
Should horse owners have the right to beat or starve their horses to
death? Should they have the right to neglect their horses? Most people
would say no-- and we have laws that protect horses from such abuse.
The accepted form of humane euthanasia for equines is a lethal injection,
or in emergency cases, a bullet to the head. Slaughterhouse methods
do not provide a quick, humane death, and according to most eyewitnesses
treatment of horses can often be brutal. For example, because the meat
is to be used for human consumption, it must be bled-- resulting in
horses that have had their throats severed while still alive. We have
laws that protect our dogs and cats from such treatment; why not our
horses? Cats and dogs are not livestock, they are companion, show, and
sporting animals just like horses. Shouldn't horses be offered the same
protection?
I think we can all agree that
an owner should be able to make descisions as to what will happen with
their horses, but the biggest difference between animals and other property
is that they are alive. Animals are individual living beings that need
responsible owners to provide for their needs.. If you leave a car alone
for a week, it doesn't suffer, but a horse does. We have laws that protect
animals from abuse, because unlike other property, they are alive and
have the capacity to suffer.
Horse owners have certain responsibilities.
It's our responsibility to make sure our horses are fed and watered,
sheltered from the elements, and given adequate room to live in. We
treat their injuries, muck their stalls, deworm them, and trim their
hooves. When a horse is old or suffering, I believe it's also our responsibility
to do one last thing for them, to give them one last shot, like the
4-ways and the tetanus shots we give every year. Making sure our horses
are put to rest when they no longer have quality of life is the final
task of a responsible horse owner.
The good news is that most
horses owners are responsible, and most horses will never end up in
a slaughterhouse. The numer of horses slaughtered has decreased by large
amount over the past fewyears, and fewer than half of a percent -- .07%
to be exact-- will ever become horsemeat.
