The Kill Pen Issue

Recently, the farm I board at rescued a yearling foal and its mother from a kill pen down south. The day before shipping, the mare passed away and the lot offered to send another horse instead of refunding the lady. After a shocking arrival, all eight horses on the trailer were unloaded and the cops were called. One of the horses on the trailer had fallen through the ground and its foot had dragged on the ground for many miles. A blood streak can still be seen down the road with a pool of blood just two miles from the farm where the drivers stopped to pull the horse’s foot back threw the floor and wrapped it in a T-shirt.

Many of the town’s people saw the horse’s foot dragging and called the cops, but the cops were unable to act fast enough to find the horse before it crossed county lines. The trailer was patched together with uneven boards, an old door covered holes, and sharp metal edges poked out. The horses had been on the trail for three days and clearly were not fit for travel. The yearling had fallen and been trampled in the panic and had to be carried off the trailer. After the horses had been unloaded, the lady was able to get the numbers of the other owners and contacted them. This barn was the first stop for dropping off rescue horses and she also runs a rescue program called Riding With Angels. To read more about this story, find ways to help fund, or get in contact with the founder please check out her Facebook page Riding With Angels. Below are photos that were publicly posted by Riding With Angels the day the horses arrived. (May 5th, 2018)

WARNING THE PHOTOS ARE GRAPHIC!

To donate, click on the link below and it will take you to the Riding With Angels website where you can help these horses financially!

Anyways, this whole incident has me thinking of how this problem could be fixed. At the moment, it’s illegal to have slaughterhouses for horses in America. Yet, I think this is the answer to the kill pen issue. A kill pen is a housing area where horses are kept until they can be shipped out to be slaughtered. Kill pen buyers go to local auctions and bid on horses that sell at the low meet price. They buy the cheap horses in order to ship them to slaughter houses and make money off them. An easy way to spot a kill pen buyer is to watch for those who won’t go over a low amount of money. These kill pens can be two faced. They allow for people to “save” the horses by paying an amount of money that’s higher than the meat price they would be getting for the horse. Meet price is the amount of money slaughterhouses in Mexico and other countries will pay the kill pens for the horse.

Simply, the kill pens work off people's emotions in order to make profit off of sick horses. Some kill pens even let the horses get skinnier in order to make people have pity on the animals. They charger too much and many of the horses will be dropped off at the new owners house dead or alive. No matter what, you never get your money back.

There is an uncontrollable breeding problem of horses in America. At auction houses out west colts can be bought for wroughly $50 or cheaper. Many of these colts will be sold as ranch stock, but many will also end up being shipped to Mexico and other countries to be eaten. This is a common issue all over. Horses that haven’t been trained right or have any issue at all can be seen at auctions houses selling to kill pens for meet price. Old and young can be found starved, waiting for either someone to come buy them to take them home or to a hellish kill pen. Sad, isn't it? SO many horses and not enough people who have the time to take care of them properly.

How would legalizing slaughterhouses fix the issue? Well much of the suffering would be cut out. The horses wouldn't have to travel for days in pain, pushed together in order to meet their end. The slaughterhouses could be properly regulated like they are for other meat animals and there would be proper housing conditions for them. The stress level of the animals would drop and the transport would be more suitable for horses. Many of the horses die or get seriously injured when being transported. They break their legs in the cattle trailers, get trampled, or, like in like last week's incident, they are transported in improper unstable trailers. By having local places for horses to be properly shipped would cut down the amount of kill pens and suffering horses who could spend weeks waiting to be shipped down to Mexico.

Kill pens are not the answer and, maybe to some, slaughterhouses aren't either. Maybe even having a higher controlled breeding would help, but truly, it is the hearts of the people that need to change. Horse’s shouldn't be allowed to breed without meaning nor should they be allowed to be beaten and abused. In the end, this is a big issue that continues to grow and corrupt the horse industry. It’s time to take down the kill pens and cut the true abuse out of the horse industry.