fallon Bull Sale - The Progressive Rancher Magazine

In
this
Issue...
Nevada Cattlemen’s
Association.......................pgs. 3-4
Cow Camp Chatter, ..............pg. 5
Eye on the Outside................pg. 6
Leveling the Playing Field....pg. 8
Horse Snorts and
Cow Bawls.............................pg. 9
Fumes from the Farm..........pg. 13
Look Up...............................pg. 14
Beef Check-Off...................pg. 16
The Secret World
Inside the Animal Rights
Agenda, part 2..............pgs. 18-24
Range Plants
for the Rancher....................pg. 26
Coloring Contest..................pg. 27
Farm Bureau........................pg. 29
HERDA................................pg. 31
Edward Jones.......................pg. 31
Behind the
Summit Headlines...............pg. 34
Dr. Margaret
Winsryg, Ph.D.....................pg. 35
In January I attended the Summit Of
The Horse conference in Las Vegas.
This was the first real attempt to organize
together men and women from federal, state,
tribal, and private land resource managers,
conservationists and ranchers in a forum to
address the growing problem of excess and unwanted
horses, both domestic and wild.
In many countries around the world, like the
European Union, Soviet Republic, and even our
neighbors in Canada, consumption of horse meat
is common. I was told by one of the Canadians
that attended the summit that horse meat is available
in many of the supermarkets there. The majority
of the population in the United States may
not eat horse meat, and I say the majority because
I personally know some people that actually do
eat it and have talked to others that have tried it.
In 2007 the last equine processing plant
closed in the United States. The result of this
was a total collapse in the price of “chicken feed
horses” as they were often referred to. Any and all
horses destined for slaughter must now be trucked
either to Mexico or Canada. Now the government
didn’t actually shut down the processing plants.
What they did was cut off the funding for USDA
inspectors at these plants, and without a meat
inspection system we could no longer export the
meat. I’m certainly not an expert on foreign trade,
but the question I’d like answered is, if a country
is wanting horse meat for human consumption,
then shouldn’t they be able or allowed to provide
their own inspectors in U. S. slaughter plants?
After all, they are the ones that need to be satisfied
and confident in the product.
There were a few individuals at the Summit
that opposed horse slaughter. Most were wild
horse advocates and others were with horse rescue
groups. Horse rescue groups take in horses for
a number of reasons, one of which is to save them
from starvation. They accept horses from owners
who can no longer afford to buy the hay to feed
them, but their main focus is to prevent the horses
from going to slaughter. Most of these horse
rescue groups are foundations that operate on
donations which pay for the facilities and the feed.
I feel that as long as they can properly feed and
care for these horses then more power to them;
in fact I’ve got a few old retired ranch horses I’d
like them to rescue. The wild horse advocates also
want to save horses from slaughter, especially the
feral ones. The difference is they want you and
me and every taxpaying American to foot the bill.
In my opinion, if you call yourself a horse
advocate that should mean you want what is best
for the horse at heart. If processing plants were
in the United States we could at least make
sure horses were treated as humanely as
possible. Horse advocates say they are opposed
to slaughter because it is cruel and
the thought of people eating horse meat is
gross and disgusting. Let’s set aside the
fact for now that people in many countries
around the world enjoy eating horse meat,
in fact some consider it a delicacy, and concentrate
on the cruelty part. Those of us that
spend our lives working with Mother Nature
on a daily basis know that she can be a pretty
cruel sometimes. I would like to share a story that
a lot of you that read this column will relate to. I
had a horse and his name was Pedro. All three of
my children learned to ride on him. He was honest,
careful and basically could be trusted with
their lives. When he got to be about 30 years old
arthritis set in and he would get pretty thin in the
winter time like most old horses do. I couldn’t
bring myself to send him off to the glue factory
and I certainly couldn’t shoot him, so I thought
I’d let him hang around until he died. I went out
one winter morning, it was about 10 below, and
I found Pedro lying on his side. He wasn’t dead
yet but the birds had pecked his eye out and the
coyotes had begun feeding on his back end. Of
course I went to the house, came back and put
him out of his misery. From that day on I swore
I would never do that to one of my horses again.
Unwanted and excess horses are a growing
problem and we have got to start looking at this
realistically. I don’t know exactly how many
horses there are in the United States but I do know
we are talking in the millions. These millions of
horses are all going to die someday. What do we
intend on doing with all the carcasses? Are we
going to put them all in landfills? Can we afford
to cremate them all?
Those that have made it their cause in life
to make this into an emotional issue, and have
convinced an unwitting public that horses are
pets and not livestock, need to come up with some
answers to these questions.
Talking about equine slaughter makes people
cringe, especially lawmakers, but people
need to come back to the real world. It will take
a coalition of various groups like horse associations,
livestock groups, breed associations, racing
associations, etc. to get the message out to the
public and to Congress.
The pessimist complains about the
wind; the optimist expects it to change;
the realist adjusts the sails.
– William Arthur Ward
UPDATE
Ron
Cerri
Nevada
Cattlemen’s
Association
President
www.progressiverancher.com The Progressive Rancher
February 2011 3