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Kentucky Overrun With Unwanted Horses
By JEFFREY McMURRAY
Associated Press Writer
STAFFORDSVILLE, Ky. (AP) -- The bidding for the black pony started at $500, then took a nosedive. There were no takers at $300, $200, even $100. With a high bid of just $75, the auctioneer gave the seller the choice of taking the animal off the auction block. But the seller said no.
"I can't feed a horse," the man said. "I can't even feed myself."
Kentucky, the horse capital of the world, famous for its sleek thoroughbreds, is being overrun with thousands of horses no one wants - some of them perfectly healthy, but many of them starving, broken-down nags. Other parts of the country are overwhelmed, too.
The reason: growing opposition in the U.S. to the slaughter of horses for human consumption overseas.
Public backlash - and state bans or the threat of them - have led to the closure of several slaughterhouses that used to take in horses no longer suitable for racing or work. Auction houses are glutted with horses, and many rescue organizations have run out of room.
There have been reports of horses chained up in eastern Kentucky and left for days without food or water. Others have been turned loose in the countryside.
Some people who live near the strip mines in the mountains of impoverished eastern Kentucky say that while horses have long been left to roam free there, the number now may be in the thousands, and they are seeing herds three times bigger than they did just five years ago.
"There's horses over there that's lame, that's blind," said Doug Kidd, who owns 30 horses in Lackey, Ky. "They're taking them over there for a graveyard because they have nowhere to move them."
It is legal in all states for owners to shoot their unwanted horses, and some Web sites offer instructions on doing it with little pain. But some horse owners do not have the stomach for that.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/UNWANTED_HORSES?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US
By JEFFREY McMURRAY
Associated Press Writer
STAFFORDSVILLE, Ky. (AP) -- The bidding for the black pony started at $500, then took a nosedive. There were no takers at $300, $200, even $100. With a high bid of just $75, the auctioneer gave the seller the choice of taking the animal off the auction block. But the seller said no.
"I can't feed a horse," the man said. "I can't even feed myself."
Kentucky, the horse capital of the world, famous for its sleek thoroughbreds, is being overrun with thousands of horses no one wants - some of them perfectly healthy, but many of them starving, broken-down nags. Other parts of the country are overwhelmed, too.
The reason: growing opposition in the U.S. to the slaughter of horses for human consumption overseas.
Public backlash - and state bans or the threat of them - have led to the closure of several slaughterhouses that used to take in horses no longer suitable for racing or work. Auction houses are glutted with horses, and many rescue organizations have run out of room.
There have been reports of horses chained up in eastern Kentucky and left for days without food or water. Others have been turned loose in the countryside.
Some people who live near the strip mines in the mountains of impoverished eastern Kentucky say that while horses have long been left to roam free there, the number now may be in the thousands, and they are seeing herds three times bigger than they did just five years ago.
"There's horses over there that's lame, that's blind," said Doug Kidd, who owns 30 horses in Lackey, Ky. "They're taking them over there for a graveyard because they have nowhere to move them."
It is legal in all states for owners to shoot their unwanted horses, and some Web sites offer instructions on doing it with little pain. But some horse owners do not have the stomach for that.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/UNWANTED_HORSES?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US
