I just read the article in the Chicago Sun Times. Draft horses killed in accident. They had 59 yearlings loaded in a double decker cattle/hog hauler. The driver of the hauler ran a red light causing an accident with a pick-up truck. He was taking the horses from Indiana to Minnesota. From there who knows, Canada???? Of course they do not yet know who owns them and state police say there MAY be a ticket for hauling them improperly. The driver was allowed to fly home with only tickets for running the light and failure to slow down to avoid an accident. The laws can be changed to make slaughter illegal, they will not stop people from breaking them. Now one of my biggest worries has become a reality. If this driver gets off with just a slap on the hand, it will just give the rest of them the go ahead. He would have totally got away with it if he hadn't gotten into an accident.
The Original Article
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I can't believe no one has responded to this article yet, although Jess only posted it yesterday. What's to become of these horses? The one's that survived at least. The same with the free horses in the paper. The kill buyers are out there. And the closing of those slaughter houses have not made a bit a difference. It's exactly as predicted. Stacking them up on cattle and hog haulers to out of country unregulated slaughter houses. Like Jess said, It Started!
Hi
Thought I would weigh in on the subject. Personally I think the closing of the slaughter houses is a mistake. This is what is going to keep happening now, is this any better? Fact is there are far to many horses available and not enough buyers. Look at what is happening in Ky , horses are running loose because people have nowhere to take them. The hay shortage here in Indiana has horses at an all time low price and many are giving them away. What we need are tougher laws for animal rights not closures of necessary slaughterhouses. Just my opinion of course.
Anyone giving away a horse should ask for references. I have heard of situations where they will even bring a child to make the people think that the horse will go to a good home. The going rate of 22 to 25 cents a pound, free is too easy for these people. Shouldn't these horses from the wreck have coggins and health papers, they crossed the state line? I thought anything over 6 months needed them. Since they were illegally transported to begin with, the mysterious owner, if identified would most likely not want to get them coggins tested. At the local sale here babies sold for as little as $30. A coggins runs about $25. If the state police do not want to ticket the driver, what about the department that handles the health papers. When we went to the Iowa State Fair, the Dept. of Agriculture had people checking our health papers and giving us papers from the department stating that they had checked our papers. Health papers need to be randomly checked. Even though it will be an inconvenience to people like me that carry papers, it may slow down the ones that don't. Fines and jail time should be put into place for violators for illegal transport, double the fines for overweight limits if livestock is involved. They closed the slaughter houses in the U.S., now they need laws to protect the horses being transported out of the country.
Horrible--You guys are right, we are going to see a lot more of this, including starvation and neglect. Maybe it will also put an end to backyard breeders...Nothing drives me more crazy than people breeding horses on a whim. On my drive out to the barn, I see yearlings the whole way. Born to people who do nothing with the horses they have...insanity.
I just found out yesterday about this horrific accident. It just makes me sick.
I cannot picture anything concerning animals so horrifying (other than fire) as what happened to all those horses stacked together to profit someone's pocketbook. We have laws for all sorts of crazy, dumb things .....why not for something like this that needs regulating?? These are beautiful, intelligent animals and they deserve some consideration.
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