I’m so glad I’m not a horse
May 19 2010
Seriously.
I mean, look at the last 24 hours. We have a massive man, er, horse-hunt for Sandbox, who is just another brown Quarter Horse mare but who has a family that loves her more than chocolate. And it works. The thieves (most likely) flip out and dump the mare and she is recovered, a little dirty but apparently all right. She’s reuniting with her kids today.
Meanwhile, one state away, yet another shipment of slaughter-bound horses packed in like sardines crashes.
11 Horses Killed After Tractor-Trailer Overturns
I know someone will say, well, how do you know those horses were bound for slaughter? Here’s how: there were thirty of them. Raise your hand if you have EVER legitimately put 30 horses in the trailer for any other purpose. The most I have seen with big polo stock trailers is 15. I don’t know how many the pros get into air-ride semis but it’s not 30 there, either. Every time you see 30 horses on a rig (with one noticeable exception – I’ve seen bucking stock packed into a double decker on one occasion) they are on their last trailer ride or already in the possession of a kill buyer with a good outcome highly unlikely.
So, on one hand, one much loved horse goes home. On the other, 30 horses that were most recently in the possession of someone who didn’t love them at all went smashing into a pole. 11 of them died. Which is 19 less than would have died if the accident hadn’t happened. And are they safe now? Well, who knows. They are legally owned by the dealer who was shipping them. He is under no obligation to let them live. Typically, as soon as the hoopla dies down, the horses are put on a new truck to Mexico. I’d love it if animal control would look at some lips and publish pictures of individuals and try to find out just who is responsible for these horses being on that truck. I’d love it if former owners who might still care about them would have that chance to step up and care for them. But who knows if that will happen – no one is under any legal obligation at this point to redirect the lives of those 19 horses and give them another chance.
And here we sit – human beings. We have all the power. We can choose every single day what our lives will be like. We can make bad decisions and pay the consequences, or we can make good decisions that make our lives better and easier, like attending school, getting up and going to work, avoiding unplanned pregnancy, and most of all getting up and walking away from anyone who is abusive to us, whether it’s a romantic partner or a boss. Those 30 horses on that truck did not have any choices. Who knows why they were on that truck? An angry owner? A child that fell off? Lameness? Failure to excel at the level their owner demanded in a competitive discipline? Human laziness that resulted in the horse never being trained or not being trained correctly? Maybe it wasn’t anything to do with the horse. Maybe it was that the owner lost a job, got a divorce, or bought crack with the hay money. Can you even imagine being that much of a victim of someone else’s behavior? The only parallel is being a child, and even a child can tell a teacher or another adult what is happening and get help.
Now, if you have horses that you love and will protect no matter what, go tell ‘em how lucky they are and feed them a carrot. I know Sandbox is getting her carrots tonight. I hope the 19 survivors off that truck will have a second chance to find a family of their own that will love them the same way. It’s not fair what was going to happen to happen to them, and it’s not right. And I’m so very glad I’m not a horse!
110 comments to “I’m so glad I’m not a horse”
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So great, and so horrible too. Is there any way we can get updates on the 19? Any news sources?
I am so very glad that Sandbox was found; that’s a wonderful example of people who love their horse.
There is an article at http://www.newsok.com today that mentions the names of the driver and the owner of these horses:
Terry Broocke
Route E
Jonesburg, MO 63351
Phone: (636) 488-5219
and the driver was 28 year old Christopher Dobbin also of MO.
I’m a groom for polo ponies and we use a stock style big rig. The trailer is large like the one shown in the picture. Our trailer fits 18 horses comfortably, but we have packed in 20 for short trips. I couldn’t imagine fitting 30 horses in that trailer. Those poor horses.
Wow, that’s a big one. The biggest I have seen around here fit 15, head to tailed diagonally.
Yeah, it’s freaking huge and really wide. The horses can stand completely perpendicular and still have plenty of room, even the big ponies. There’s 5 dividers in it. So if we hit the brakes a little too hard, the pony in the front doesn’t get squished by all 17 of her buddies. Definitely, the biggest trailer I’ve ever seen at polo.
And you have 6 places to put crabby ones
Always a plus!
Lol – when I worked as a polo groom out in Oz we had a similar getup. It was a cattle truck out of season and could fit 18 horses head to tail. 3 sections to stop any squishing! We also put 20 on for short journeys.
The weird part was the ramp to get on – most cattle trucks load the cattle from a ramp at the cattle yards and through a sliding door on the back. This one you could lower the door and put rubber mats on for the horses to grip. It was steep enough that I had trouble climbing but they all just jumped right up there – not a bad loader in the lot! One horse loved it so much that when she got out one afternoon she trotted out the back, found the trailer with the ramp down and loaded herself.
If only all horses were that easy to load . . .
Yes! I love Polo ponies so many reasons, but loading is definitely the top of the list. Our trailer is similar to what you had. We would have one person stay in the trailer tying heads and another groom outside sending them in. They’d walk in by themselves and even slide into position without any encouragement. If you weren’t quick enough tying the previous horse, the next horse would put his head right in the way waiting to be tied, or squish you in with his butt. lol
I could write a whole blog about how polo ponies are the best horses in the world. Grew up with them and love them. This is why I was SO baffled when I first met non-polo-people (around age 19, ha ha, I led a sheltered childhood) and learned that people thought Thoroughbreds were difficult/crazy.
You should fugs!
Polo horses are awesome! I think most of this is due to the fact they get treated like HORSES. They get a good amount of exercise, get to travel round with their mates and they aren’t over-rugged, pampered or pandered to other than the differences their individual personalities.
The best polo ponies are the ones who can stand in the polo lines having a sleep for half the day then switch on, warm up and play a chukka before being quickly washed off and just go back to hanging out on the lines again. I’m at an equine college and I find myself sniggering when I see people who can’t load/wash/plait their 10 year old horse. It’s normally under-exercised, overfed and pretty sure who is boss in this relationship!
Do it Fugs!
I agree!! I’m one of “those people” who have never even ridden a Thoroughbred… And my polo knowledge is pretty much limited to thinking it’s like “hockey on horseback” or something
I would absolutely LOVE to job-shadow a polo team for like a week just to see what it is like… Maybe a blog would suffice?
What part of the country are you in? I’d LOVE to hook you up to do that!
I’m right smack-dab in the middle of Illinois! There is the occaisional hunter-jumper/dressage barn, but it’s mostly stock horse/western people out here. LOTS of weekend trail riders, including myself. I think the nearest race track is St Louis? No idea if there are any polo teams nearby…
I do have a “9 to 5″ job with little vacation time, so I doubt I could actually swing a whole week. But I wouldn’t mind travelling up to 200 miles or so for a 3-day weekend or something like that!
I very much like the idea of doing some “free” work in order to learn the trade!
I have seen the Argentinean Polo Team pull 20 fully tacked up horses off a rig like that but I have to say, in their defence, that the trip was a whopping five minutes from two miles down the road, they could have ridden it but it obviously did not fit their image!! (serious machismo problems, there)There were no partitions in there, though, and the ponies just seemed to keep on coming out, which is why I ended up counting them.
I cannot imagine taking them any real distance, let alone ten more on board.
I do not haul tacked but I know people who do. To me there’s just too much risk of a rein/stirrup getting caught and having some sort of wreck.
I currently have one horse who used to do polo. She’s only 7-8 and can’t play any more because of an injury. When we picked her up she had no idea how to get in our 2 horse straight load trailer with no ramp. We had to shove her in. Once we got her home and I had time to work on it she’s back to being a trailer loading pro. The polo people (who didn’t help load her up) rode by and mentioned she had probably never seen a trailer without a ramp before. Now she’ll get in the 2 horse and the 4 horse slant which has a 1 1/2 foot step up.
OT but update on the Darlene Wilson Arabians. If you want to see what a rotted out thrushy foot looks like, here you go!
http://www.dispatchnews.com/main.asp?SectionID=6&subsectionID=6&articleID=2653
This woman needs more help than just horse rescue. I do not understand why the state does not intervene. It does not sound like the situation is going to get any better.
That is so messed up! From personal experience, I honestly believe that Darlene should not be allowed to keep those horses. The most amazing horse I have ever known was bought from Darlene many many years ago, and luckily she is doing great now, but she still has ongoing problems because of how bad her feet got while Darlene still had her. If you cannot provide the basic necessities for a horse to live a happy, healthy life, you should not have horses. Plain and simple.
In Missouri, at least, the horses who were saved from the slaughter-bound semi- wreck a few years ago did NOT go on to slaughter. The Humane Society got them, and they were adopted out to new homes. One or two more who survived the wreck didn’t survive afterwards, but at least a good share of them are now happy horses. There was discussion as to who really owned the horses, but the Humane Society did have possession of them, and as they say, that’s 9/10s of the law. They “would” have given them back to the broker/owner, but he’d have had to pay ALL of the expenses — needless to say, that wasn’t going to happen!
Maybe these guys will be similarly lucky.. In the article it says they were taken to a Veterinary Hospital… Fat chance of their dealer paying for 19 horses to receive medical treatment….. *eyeroll*
Yep, my hope is that the “owner” will surrender them rather than pay the vet bills. Fingers crossed for that outcome for them.
I saw the news article on the trailer wreck earlier today, and the first thought I had was that on a trailer like that, they were surely bound for slaughter. The news website had some pictures of the surviving horses and they looked like nice ones. Of course I couldn’t tell anything about their soundness.
Glad to see the little guy’s horse was found. I guess the owner is lucky that the thief did not think his theft through very carefully!
The horses in some of the pics look ok, except in this one. Some of these look like dirty, shaggy, starving horses… (Especially the front grey, but also the dark palomino in the back.)
I can tell you from being there that at least half of the ‘dead horses walking’ were indeed pretty skinny bunch. In that photo, the appy in the foreground was very sweet, not ancient but definitely an older horse. Hard to tell if his lameness issues on that day were directly due to the accident (although his eye certainly was) or if they were simply exacerbated by this unfortunate deadly accident. He was extra thin, bad topline, hooves okay, but very thick and filled L front ankle and knee; appeared to be old injury but you certainly couldn’t tell in that moment. The young Hackey (if you’d seen his head you’d know) beside him had a huge amount of edema in his R shoulder and between his legs and he was understandably lame from it. He was pretty much unhandled and flighty. The dark palomino I think was a mare (there were a lot of mares there) and she was VERY thin. There was another grayish/appy looking horse behind that front Appy who was poor, and the two in the upper right were HUGELY fat and without a scratch on either one of them. The mare in the foreground was that nasty alpha mare that was attacking all the others. This scene was just about the time I arrived as the orange barrier fencing wasn’t there yet.
Lol, I saw the picture of her trying to kick the other horses. I actually laughed, picturing a lovely kid safe mare I own who will act exactly the same when she has hit the end of her proverbial rope. That poor mare clearly seemed to be saying, “Okay, this is IT. I’ve been stuffed next to these idiots for days, they’ve bumped me, shoved me, and pooped in my face… and then they all flipped the dratted trailer and walked all over me! I have HAD IT!”
It’s accidents like this that make me wish I had a billion dollars. I would be happily eccentric, rescueing horses all the time, then spaying and neutering them before either turning them out into pastures with full care, or sending them on to a happy home.
Looking at the pictures of those horses all headed for slaughter makes me sick. I pray someone or some people can do something to save them. As for me I spent the morning with my own horses.
Glad to hear the bay mare made it home safely.
Hooray for Sandbox for getting reunited with her loving family. I sure hope that those 19 horses have the opportunity to find good homes. It always amazes me when I hear somebody that works with horses in a professional capacity make the comment like “some horses need to be slaughtered”. My vet tech said that the other day, the look on her face was priceless when I made the comment “Oh yeah? Which ones do you think need to be slaughtered, cause this one your currently working on was less than 24 hours from loading on a slaughter truck” Shut her up pretty quickly.
GOOD ANSWER!
Realistically, maybe some horses DO need to be slaughtered. So get your knife or gun, go out to the barn, LOOK YOUR HORSE IN THE EYES, and do the dirty deed yourself. Humanely, with skill and care for its suffering, while it munches the soft green hay you feed it. If the thought turns your stomach, then you have no business advocating sending horses on days-long trips packed into trailers with little or no food and water, to a stinking nasty place where they are handled with no concern for their fear or confusion, and killed in a situation that at BEST has a 90% successful kill rate (in other words, it’s a good day if 9 out of 10 horses are actually dead when hung up to bleed out.
Phew. Had to get that off my chest. I remember talking to an old grandma who grew up on a farm. HER mother would go out and sing the chickens to sleep before ringing their necks– it kept the meat tender, she felt, and she didn’t want the chickens upset. Our society has become desensitized to what it takes to get meat. People in other countries do love their animals, even if they end up eating them. We say we love our animals, then we put them on a trailer and send them off on a long torturous journey where they will end up dying without a single person nearby who cares enough to ‘sing them to sleep’.
Some horses need to be euthanised
NO horses actually need to be slaughtered.
There is a hell of a lot of difference between those two statements, IMO.
Agree completely!
Great response. There is NO excuse fora vet tech or veterinarian to say something like that to a client. It is completely unprofessional. You should have asked her how many kill auctions she had been to and how many times she had personally visited the kill floor of any slaughter plant and specifically how many times she was on the kill floor of a horse slaughter plant. That usually shuts them up quickly.
I’m so glad Sandbox was found! Where can we find the whole story on her recovery?
Join her Facebook group if you have Facebook. The link is in yesterday’s blog entry.
Sandbox and her kids = overload of cute! I’m so glad they got her back.
Glad to hear Sandbox is back home. That family must be so happy. The chances of that horse returning home were slim. I gave my horses carrots to let them know how lucky they are.
All those poor horses on that trailer. What a shame. Thats an overload of horses. I hope the driver/owner was at least penalized for that. They should definately get something from the SPCA. I want to know how many were dead just from being in the trailer before it crashed. I bet there were probably a few that had died just from the panic of being in there and getting squished, and falling down. It makes me wonder because you here about slaughter horses dying on the trip to the slaughter house.
Hi Fugly,
“The only parallel is being a child, and even a child can tell a teacher or another adult what is happening and get help.”
Do you want to tell the child victims of paedophile priests in the Catholic Church that all that they had to do was ask for help and it would have made everything better? If all a child had to do was ask for help, we would not have the levels of child abuse that there is. Your naivety is breath taking. Yes the horses were helpless victims, but to suggest that abuse can’t happen to people if only they ask for help says a lot about you and none of it is flattering.
“We have all the power. We can choose every single day what our lives will be like. We can make bad decisions and pay the consequences, or we can make good decisions that make our lives better and easier, like attending school, getting up and going to work, avoiding unplanned pregnancy, and most of all getting up and walking away from anyone who is abusive to us, whether it’s a romantic partner or a boss.”
Do you want to say to the families of women who were hunted down and killed by their former partners that just leaving their abusive partner should have fixed all their problems?
You can attempt to tear me to pieces with criticism. I don’t care. For your criticism to hurt, I would have to have respect for you. Once upon a time I read your blog with eagerness but not anymore.
Now it’s just a different kind of eagerness – you show up to start silly conversations and misinterpret what I have to say.
I never said ALL victims have the courage to ask for help. But the fact is, they CAN do so. Many DO ask for help and GET help. A horse cannot ask for help, no matter what. It is never a possibility for him.
An as ex-CPS worker, I was kinda bugged by your statement too. Just saying. Yesterday a 2-year-old little girl in my town was beaten to death because she had a potty accident. I very much doubt she had language skills which would have enabled her to ask for help.
Just because one type of abuse is awful doesn’t make another less awful. This is not a competition for Most Awful.
No, it’s not, and obviously children too young to speak are in the same boat as animals, as are the severely retarded and sometimes elders who can’t speak either and report that someone is hurting them. But the point is that horses and other animals are in that boat FOREVER. It’s not like they turn 5 and now can say, someone hit me. They are victims throughout their lives, totally at the mercy of humans. That was my point. To me, that’s pretty mind-boggling – and scary.
…and it still amazes me how words can become some else’s. We could go on and on about the different scenarios but the fact still remains the same: HORSES ARE FOREVER AT THE MERCY OF WE HUMANS! For God’s sake, we all know that not every situation is generalized or can be generalized. JEESH! Yes, some kids will not scream help when they should because they cannot. Worse, not every child that can will. I know because I live right next door to an abusive household, but I have no way of proving anything except that I cannot place my own life or animals in jeopardy for retaliation. It is hell beyond those doors, I know. I have had to listen to some of it. One of the kids apparently went to school looking battered and a teacher reported it, thankfully. The police were call, social services were called. There were probably some physical appearance that made that teacher call. I do not know. But I do know that when the authorities questioned that stupid little kid (he’s around 9 or 10), he would not rat out his pig-faced mother. WHY? The officer later told me they were a millimeter away from an arrest but that kid would not talk. He must really love that crack head whore of a mom who is nothing but a bottom feeder, and raising more just like her.
Fugs~ this is very theraputic for me :-}
Oh for God’s sake Kippen64…………..STFU. There always has to be someone that shoots their mouth off claiming that everything is black and white.
Fugs does more on this blog in the first 15 minutes of her day that saves an animal or puts some crap owner in the cage they belong.
And you have the gall to put words in her mouth? Might I suggest you saddle up High Horse and ride to some other blog.
I think you over-analyzed this too much. All she was saying is that an animal’s quality of life depends solely – 100% – on whatever their owner decides to provide for them. They CANNOT choose to speak out and ask for help EVER. Some, not all, but SOME children can, and battered women definitely can if they choose to (not to mention battered women chose to get involved with their abuser in the first place – kids did not ask to be born to assholes and horses did not choose to be bought by a scumbag owner and then sold to a kill buyer). If they are not getting their needs met, their only hope is that someone will notice and do something about it, but they will never ever have the option to ask for help. *Disclaimer: Sorry if I offend any battered women here (I mean that sincerely, not sarcastically). I fully admit that that is a topic that I’ve never been able to relate to. I just cannot imagine any situation where I’d choose to stay with a man after it became obvious that he had abusive tendencies, even if those signs didn’t show up for a while. I’ve never understood the whole “but we have too much history to throw it all away” excuse. My brain just isn’t wired that way, but then I never was one to get overly emotional when a relationship ended for whatever reason.
LOL @ Kippen
You should’ve read her blog posts more carefully Kippen, because you’d know that your comment would be totally out of line as fhotd chooses her words carefully, because she knows that people tend to lash out just like you just did and put your own twist into it. You would also know that she is smarter and more understanding than what you give her credit for.
You get the Follower of Today’s Post Award. Wear that gold star proudly.
I was so happy to hear Sandbox was found. Chalk one up for the good guys! Too bad the thieves won’t be punished, but I guess this will have to do.
As far as the slaughter-bound horses. Why can’t we create some sort of issue with auctions and mass buyers? or is it not illegal to send horses to slaughter?
OMG even if there weren’t 30 of them, where else would they be going in this condition, if not slaughter or a feedlot! Those pictures of them wandering around look awful!
Oh, and I am glad that boy’s horse is back. I wonder if whoever took it just sorta kicked it out their gate and watched it walk into the sunset or how the hell did it end up walking up some road… o.O What if she ended up walking into less populated areas and died? Who does that stuff…….
Oh yes, and did you notice how these slaughterbound horses just survived a crazy trailer crash and watched other horses die or be put down and all they can think is ‘FOOD! OMG there is grass here!’ Gosh this sort of stuff sends me into a rage
I noticed that. They were like, ok, whatever, I SEE GRASS!
As someone else noted, it’s not that hard to keep the surviving 19 horses off the slaughter line. Simply explain to the owner that he can have the horses as soon as he pays the vet fees for each one, and the cost of having to herd the horses together and off the road. I figure an easy $1000 per horse is reasonable.
No one has mentioned this, but if our buddy the LOVABLE TRUCKER fell asleep, how long do you suppose he was driving before nodding off? There are rules about how many hours you can drive before pulling off for a rest. Maybe another ticket in the works there too?
My husband owns a trucking company (heavy equipment-not livestock) and I can tell you that the DOT takes these things very seriously. A citation for any violation to do with big trucks costs a LOT more than a ticket issued to a passenger vehicle. There are all manner of safety rules, and if there is an accident, they go all through the wrecked truck and trailer to make sure everything is in order. Right down to looking for burned out light bulbs. If they find any violations, it’s a very big deal. And the log book (where the hours of service are documented) is gone over with a fine tooth comb, they check freight manifests and fuel receipts to make sure they match what is in the log book. Drivers are subject to random drug screening year-round. All this stuff to do with trucking is very heavily regulated, and the fines are stiff.
I sure hope the authorities check that drivers log book. Of course, it was probably fudged. DOT in every state is hot for money and I see many $$ signs for them with this. I would be anxious to hear the outcome of the driver and his company. Ratty trucks like that usually are not road worthy.
I agree. He is so lucky he did not kill a human (or a bunch of them). What a horrible accident.
it’s this type of situation that makes me so glad that I (so far) can keep my mare and 2 rescue-pony-lawn-mowers out of harms way while I myself am sick. Would my life right now be a lot easier without them? YOU BET (at least financially, that is) – the very thought of anyone even considering putting one of mine through something like this gives me a chill so deep I feel like vomiting. I know what it’s like to be helpless and forced to depend on someone else for my very existance – my heart goes out to those poor horses who don’t have someone in their lives that care enough to give them dignity.
So glad that Sandbox has found her kids! Now, if we could only find the losers that did it…and maybe stick THEM on the potbelly to Mexico, we’d be all set!
Fly, my little OTTB, enjoyed his tasty Safe Choice and supplements, a Lady Pink apple core courtesy of Mom, and was ecstatic when he got his diluted bottle of orange Gatorade today. Does he know he’s spoiled? Probably not. But from the scars on his legs and his random fears regarding other horses and saddles, I think he knows what it’s like to be in harder times.
And Winnie, my “upgrade”, got carrots, hugs, and kisses from two little boys who adore her today. We’ll never be able to make her forget what was done to her, but she’s happy and she has one person who’ll look out for her no matter what. I mean, I took her out of a horrible home, sold her to a wonderful Pony Club home, and then drove four hours with a truck, trailer, and $500 in my pocket so I could bring her home when her little girl’s family hit hard times. She, Fly, and any other horse that has passed through my life has a permanent home with me.
The two horses in the foreground of the articles picture both look a bit seedy. Nothing some good calories and a little love would not correct, but certainly indicates to me they were slaughter bound. I’m looking to adopt a rescue in the coming year, if I were anywhere close to OK I would offer for one of these guys. The truly sad thing is that when I get my barn up there will be no shortage of horses in desperate need of a home.
Sadly, yes those horses were slaughter bound to Mexico. 11 died instantly and 3 more were put down (shot) by the Oklahoma Highway Patrol troopers because they were critically injured. One of my friends was on the scene and was interviewed on some of the video so this IS good information. She did pull one “miracle” horse off the trailer that was buried UNDER several dead ones! He was a tall, gorgeous, black gelding.
Here is the part that totally PISSES me off–”they are under the care of a veterinarian until they can CONTINUE to be transported”. OMG !!
The sorry asshat that put them on the truck is a notorious KILL BUYER, George Baker of
George Baker Stables
2245 E Highway 66
Stroud, OK 74079-5509
(918) 968-9000
He purchased the horses at the auction in Bristow OK……I have heard this is a PER POUND auction, but I cannot verify that as my heart cannot take attending horse auctions.
I am sure as soon as he can piece together another trailer and another minimum wage driver to fall asleep at the wheel he will go load the remaining horses up and off they go to HELL. Wish he could experience the same kind of hell. I Googled him and discovered according to this he makes between $5 million to $10 million per year. OMG !!
George Baker Stables Business InformationClaim This Profile
George Baker Stables is a private company categorized under Wholesale Horse Dealers and located in Stroud, OK. Current estimates show this company has an annual revenue of $5 to 10 million and employs a staff of approximately 1 to 4.
Also Does Business As
George Baker*
HQ, Branch or Single Location
Single Location
Annual Sales (Estimated)
$5 to 10 million
D&B: $250,000*
Employees (Estimated)
1 to 4
Hi OK Paint Lover: Your friend must be Jeanette, whom I met and helped out. We were the two interviewed. She was wonderful!!
Lisa Johnson
All that fucking money and still drives pieces of shit trucks. What do you suppose his house looks like? And his wife? a winner no doubt, all bedecked in fancy shit. probably take the cream of the crop and run ‘em into the ground for their own kicks. These kind of people compare to the likes of Washington DC and the indecent people running this country. ( ( puke ) )
I’m sure that could open a can of worms…
And YES, I did go out and feed my 3 chubby, spoiled horses carrots and cried into their manes over those poor horses. Never thought I would consider 14 dead horses “lucky” but at least they died quickly.
About 20 minutes from Silicon Valley … seriously sick mofo. “Horse tied up, sexually assaulted.”
ttp://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_15120276
Well, it looks like George Baker, KILL BUYER, is responsible for another trailer full of horses going to slaughter flipping over and killing horses….. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003507055_horse03.html
Did you see the feet on some of the horses in the newscast? Horribly overgrown! No wonder they didn’t run far.
Long feet were only some of the issues, but if you could imagine the hours they were on that suicide truck, the conditions prior to their trip, the traumatic outcome….many of them were laying down when I arrived…not good….not many of them had energy or were healthy enough to run. Some of the horses miraculously had not a scratch on them.
Maybe now that his trailer is horribly mashed all up he will consider another more lucrative career. Like being a stunt double for major motion pictures or something?!
This is terribly off topic but I have this inner need to speak about this and perhaps make myself feel better for it.
I have raised 2 sons with as much compassion for life as I have in myself. 3 weeks ago my eldest son (23) come home with the tiniest kitten telling me he “found” her along the road. Oh boy, just what we needed was another animal. We live in town and already have 2 cats and 2 dogs. (not to mention 2 horses on a rented farm a few miles away). My husband and I fretted for a few hours but as this little kitten came into our lives it was obvious that she belonged here with us. Everyday shined with enthusiasm and love from this one little being. We ALL loved her, christened Jazzy, nick named Miss Personality. What a character! Showing no fear of our small rambunctious dog and baby sat by our older dog. They tolerated her with love and playfulness. Jazzy slept usually with my son or on the sheepskin in the living room. She knew where everything was from day one; food, water, litter box, me, the dog, you name it. If she wanted something she couldn’t reach she would come to ask to be picked up so that you would put her on the counter for a drink or a bite of food. She was never lost.
She was becoming a young “teenager” as I mentioned yesterday to my family. We all looked forward to her antics.
This morning I woke to no Jazzy. I knew that something was not right. After a bit of getting myself awake, I walked into my son’s room to find Jazzy lying on the floor wrapped in a blanket, dead. She had apparently got stuck in the blanket and perhaps couldn’t find her way out? or maybe my son laid on her? Who knows. But she was not going to come back. She was still somewhat warm. I tried cpr to no avail. I knew it would not work, she was too far gone. I am sad beyond imagine. I don’t know if I am feeling worse for our poor Jazzy, or for my son. It is not easy to see your grown son cry with regret. My heart is bleeding for him, and for the loss of our beloved Jazzy.
…and writing this has not made me feel even the slightest bit better.
but thanks anyway.
Oh, I’m so sorry. How weird! That said, I do a lot of cat rescue and cats do just die with very little warning sometimes, from multiple reasons. I had a perfectly healthy-appearing one fall right over from FIP. It is unlikely she was stuck in a blanket, kitties burrow all the time, and I doubt your son laid on her. She probably had something you could not see, with no symptoms. I’m so sorry.
Thank you for your condolences, Cathy. As much as your response makes one think, I really think it was the suffocation. When I found her on the floor she was still in the curled up position (core tep was still warm but gums and such pale white and dull) but you could tell she must have been laboring as she was quite moist around her mouth and little paw. After writing the previous note I felt so terrible for not trying enough to revive her I went and dug her up and tried once again, in vain. I cried. She was so special. It will be some time to find such a soul to replace her. I feel like a little child grieving so. Perhaps it is just some icing on my cake…:-(
It is incredibly sad to lose a pet like that, but please consider that without your son’s caring and responsible decision, that kitten would have died alone and scared on the side of the road. You gave her a great wonderful few months, and until her last moments she was happy and loved. It was her time. Take a deep breath and let her go.
I am pro-slaughter but I am anti-Mexican slaughter. My biggest problem with this story was that the media didn’t mention where these horses were heading. They went out of their way to make sure they didn’t say… If you are going to send a horse to slaughter, at least have the courage to say that it what was going on.
From the other post this truck was coming from Stroud, OK… The truck had been on the road for LESS THAN ONE HOUR! That is ridiculous in terms of commercial trucking. If you show up to drive any commercial rig and you can’t stay awake for an hour then you really should have stayed home!
I drive past the other local killer buyer’s place every single day on my way to work. I have to say compared to the stories I have heard on this site, he is REALLY GOOD. The slaughter horses are out on huge pastures (30 – 50 acres each) with tons of grass and space. Over the winter I saw loads of nice quality hay turning into his drive constantly. When they do haul out they haul in these very large flat load trailers and not in potbellies. He also has a separate pasture for the skinnies and they have lots of space and lots to eat. I have seen their condition improve and all of them look very content and happy (like they are finally getting a good meal after years of missing meals). Are they indoors, blanketed and eating mush? No. Are they getting regular farrier and veterinary care? Probably not unless they have a problem would limit their ability to survive until slaughter. But they do have adequate care in the time they are with him. I also know trainers that he works with if he sees a particular horse that might be re-trainable and sellable (NOT rescues but local trainers who are making a couple bucks picking out good ones from the lot and training them into something that has a market).
Why are you pro-slaughter?
I’m always curious to hear. Do you think it is unreasonable for people who pay horse expenses anyway (obviously, a luxury) to pay for euthanasia?
Not all horses are a luxury. I know a lot of people who work ranches and in that culture horses are tools for accomplishing a job. I grew up in that culture. We never euthanized a horse, when they were old or lame they were sold at meat sales. Granted those horses exist with very minimal pharmaceutical intervention so the meat is probably acceptable to go into the food chain without the drugs that hobby horses have in their systems. I acknowledge that this is a very small portion of the horse population but it is what I’m most familiar with.
I have luxury horses now. And in a perfect world all owners would maintain a viable cushion to take care of the needs of their horses. But the US is one of the worst nations in terms of saving money so I would guess that at least 90% of the luxury horse population does not have a rainy day fund set aside for them. In that case what are the options? Euthanasia and disposal are fairly expensive. I had an old mare put down last fall simply because I didn’t want to put the money into her expanding nutritional requirements if she was never going to be sound or raise a foal again. Euth cost was around $100 and I had a friend with a backhoe so I didn’t have to pay for burial but it would have been around $100 also. Is that too much to ask of many people? Apparently, yes. Did I pay it? Yes. But I can’t presume to impose my choices on other people. I had a lot of horse friends that asked me why I paid that instead of “selling her down the riverâ€. If US slaughter still existed would I have sold her to a slaughter buyer? Probably. It just seems wasteful to euth a horse and pay for disposal rather than using that meat for something.
I agree that Mexican slaughter plants are brutal. I know how cattle and other livestock are treated on ranches or in plants south of the border… I’m sure horses fair far worse. At least when slaughter was in the US it could have some level of controls and regulation and improvements could be made. Pushing all slaughter out of the country ensures more suffering without even the possibility of improvement.
I DO think that the US slaughter ban has been a good thing in the sense that it brought this issue to everyone’s attention. If your faucet was running but the sink was un-plugged then you never noticed that there is a problem because the sink doesn’t over flow. If you plug up the drain then you notice pretty quickly that the water is running at too high of rate. The horse market had a similar situation. Overbreeding was flooding the market with horses (the open faucet) but the market (the sink) didn’t notice because the slaughter market was taking the excess (the drain). When the slaughter market stopped the market suddenly realized that overbreeding was a problem! Once that is corrected I think that a smaller scale slaughter process would be possible.
I just don’t think it’s too much to ask. People are forced to come up with the cash for car insurance, for example, which is several hundred dollars at best. The alternative is taking the bus. If you are still using horses for work like the situation you grew up in, a bullet is cheap and you probably already own a backhoe or a neighbor does. That’s the vast MINority of U.S. horse owners these days. For most people, it’s an expensive pet. A saddle is a few hundred dollars and people come up with that money. Everything associated with horses is pricy, so to me it’s pretty easy – just don’t own them if you aren’t willing to sacrifice in other areas to pay for the necessities, and I’d consider euthanasia one of those inevitable necessities.
I don’t have any problem with the meat being used and I don’t have a problem with gunshot euthanasia (by a knowledgeable person). That way the meat could be used. I don’t care if the meat is used, heck, I don’t even care what is done with my body after I’m dead. Once you’re dead, you’re dead. I object to suffering.
Everyone has a different view on monetary priorities. For you or I maybe the other potential uses of that $200 do not out weight the potential for suffering of a horse that we own and feel a responsibility for. However, I know many other recreational horse owners who made the other decision and chose to sell their horses to a slaughter buyer. I can’t judge them for that. I also can’t make the leap to euthanasia as a necessity. To me that is a luxury as there are cheaper means of disposing of an unwanted horse.
With the other horse related purchases you are getting something in exchange for you money. If I buy a new saddle and spend a few hundred dollars, I have a new saddle. Sure those horsey related purchases are expensive but you have something tangible (and most importantly re-sellable) for your money. With euthanasia you don’t. At best you have a good feeling knowing that you didn’t allow a horse in your care to suffer… but that is only worth something if you would have had a bad feeling for knowingly selling the horse into suffering. Not everyone has that ‘bad feeling’. In fact most people can sell a horse at auction and just assume that he sold to a good home. They can go home and sleep like a rock that night with a GOOD feeling… even if the horse is in all honest on a double decker by the time the sun comes up the next morning.
I totally agree that the ranching world is a very minority… Less than 2% of the US population is involved in agriculture. However, according to the “Demographics of the U.S. Equine Population†(from 2005, there may be a more recent study but I don’t have hands on it right now) approximately 24.8% of the horse operations are classified as being primarily farm and ranch work. That is more than I would have thought… In that world, a bullet may be cheap but putting a nominal fee from the killer buyer in your pocket and not having to spend time taking the backhoe out to the pasture and bury a horse is a more profitable decision.
“…At best you have a good feeling knowing that you didn’t allow a horse in your care to suffer… but that is only worth something if you would have had a bad feeling for knowingly selling the horse into suffering. Not everyone has that ‘bad feeling’. In fact most people can sell a horse at auction and just assume that he sold to a good home. They can go home and sleep like a rock that night with a GOOD feeling… even if the horse is in all honest on a double decker by the time the sun comes up the next morning. ”
I call this turning a blind on to responsibility. Out of sight, out of mind, even if it is delusional. But that very horse did suffer because YOU placed it in that position. I know that farmers are quite the ones with the cold heart, warm hand so long as money is passing INTO it. To treat any animal as if it were the last dollar you will ever have to spend is callous. I was raised on a dairy farm. My father never, ever chose to slaughter an animal or even kill an animal just for the sake of money in his pocket. And we were dirt poor. I can still see him coming in from the barn with tears because he had to shoot our 13 yr barn cat (at which time we had 30 of them) not because she was now blind, but because she could no longer find her way around (neurological damage from age??) and he did not wish for her to become lost and then starve and suffer. We ate our own meat, yup, but not without treating that cow with respect and a caring touch before it became our dinner. This all took place in the 50′s and 60′s.
I think to ask a horse to service us, carry our fat asses around, do what they would never do in nature, put their utmost trust in our hand and NOT offer them a piece of tranquility before departing from this Earth is pretty lowly.
AQHA has a huge following for that very mindset, and their excuse? Their horse may cost them something in return. Very shrewd.
Now this is your typical “what’s in it for me?” kinda person. They say, “OH, I love my horse!” As long as she is putting out for me. Then when she can no longer earn her keep, when she has carried you for many miles, has been a really good horse, has done everything and then some for you-well it’s Sayonara sister. Off to the knock box for you. And by the way-Did I tell you how much I love you? PLEASE! I know exactly your reasoning because I’ve heard if before. Why shouldn’t I make a few more dollars off of my good ole gal? After all-she has no soul. She can’t feel pain. And I’m the superior species. God made you to serve MY purpose.
Speaking of choices, here’s an easy one *grin*
Click Here and Vote Daily in the Pepsi refresh everything contest, and help us help horses!
so sad for those horses. i wish i could save them all.
I was the 3rd ‘civillian’ on the scene. One other woman who was not a horseperson but whose daughter was, was helping out making phone calls. I also made phone calls and got one coworker/friend and another friend out to help. Thank god for people like us and I’m not tooting my own horn. I literally was 10 seconds away from the group of horses when I heard it on the radio–and there I was in heels and a dress (which I usually never wear to work and couldn’t have picked a worse day for that) but dammit, I was NOT going to NOT stop!
Here is the rant I posted on one of the boards I frequent that has nothing to do with horses:
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Crappy, crappy morning.
Many of you might not know that since the 3 slaughter houses in the country were closed a couple years back, horses now purchased for such a heinous end have to be transported either to Canada or Mexico. Yes, yes, all so they can get consumed by the Japanese, the Belgians, the French and assored other nationalities. Many horse owning, horse showing individuals don’t even know this.
Stop reading if you can’t stomach more.
FYI they try to slaughter horses like cattle, with a bolt gun to their temple. Sometimes it works. Most of the time it doesn’t. You see, horses are NOT cattle and they don’t take kindly to having their heads constrained, especially while hearing other horses whinny and/or scream, and smell fresh blood. IF horses could be succesfully slaughtered in this manner I wouldn’t have quite as big a problem with it. But I also cannot tolerate the manner in which they are transported.
Horses make groups and bands by their own choosing, not by humans telling them they should be able to live together, or even be tied next to one another, and especially not hauled like sardines. Horses beat the shit out of each other all the time. Why would anyone think that it can’t happen when they are slammed together like fish? Well, it does. Horribly. Quite horribly. For every truck full of horses that get loaded, there’s always one or two that get trampled, maimed, etc. Some die. Some never had the health to make a trip anywhere, let alone like this. And do the math, horses purchased in oh, let’s say Indiana, probably go to Canada where it’s closer. Utah? Probably Mexico. But rest assured, these horses never get off the truck, they are not watered or fed prior to unloading.
But I digress.
I was in heels and a dress this morning–I had pulled the jeans on but thought, “hey this is not a windy day here in old Oklahoma City, I think I’ll wear that new one.” I had the radio on, listening to the music, the weather report, whatever. I was just about 50 yds from a major intersection that joins up an interestate. And what did I hear? “An overturned semi with horses is cloggin up traffic…..” and then I heard the name of the intersection that I was approaching. OH SHIT. DAMN DAMN DAMN.
I first saw a couple county trucks sticking out from a seldom used frontage road, and as I creeped up I saw horses. Lots of horses. SKinny horses. Horses laying down. OH SHIIIIIIIIT. I backed my truck up and parked it right away, turned on my flashers and thought “What the FUCK am I gonna do in a dress?” I called work and said: “I’ll be a tad late, I’m catching horses, overturned truck etc…” they are very understanding. After all, I do work for the horse racing commission! For that I am grateful.
Made a few more calls of horse people friends and started walking towards a Hwy Patrol officer, who was very helpful and kind. He admitted he didn’t know squat about horses and if I did, then he’d back me up. There were two other women there, one had to leave and admitted she only paid the bills on her daughter’s horse, that she didn’t know one end from another. So that left me and a gal who I came to know as Jeanette. Fortunately the horses, understandably, were either grazing or laying down. Poor bastards. There were fat ones, thin ones, bloody ones, young, older, the works. There was one particular alpha female that was a holy friggin terror and we knew we had to keep her as separated as possible. She was attacking downed horses like a stallion. It took a while to catch her as she was one of the ones without a scratch.
This is already long, right? So I’ll try and keep it from becoming a novel. Jeanette and I had both fortunately made the right calls and our friends started showing up with trailers and halters and leadropes. There was also a local man, Jesse, who was THE best help, he was a big horseman with a quiet touch and strength and understood you don’t smooch and wave your hands around horses. THANK GOD. He caught the hardest ones and I’m sure it would have become uglier had he not been there. Some of these horses still had their auction stickers glued to them. Then the media came of course. The county road supervisor didn’t want them there but I tried to explain that it was NECESSARY and at least THIS bunch of horsemen/women wanted them there. He had no clue either. He was very nice and turned out to be quite helpful. This nasty little secret needs to be told.
The driver had fallen asleep just exiting the interstate, the troopers say. I think it was a miracle that only 11 died in the truck–it had a rag top and was a shitty rig anyway but that likely saved the lives of a few more. However, since they were headed to a much worse fate, this still might have been better. Of those 11, three of them had to be shot by a trooper. They must have been bad. So here were the rest of the motley crew. Some didn’t hardly have a scratch on them, two were euthanized when the vets got there. Of those, one’s face was 1/2 hanging off and the other’s mouth and teeth were gone. Mercifully they got the blue juice.
Of the remaining 18 or so, I’d say 6 of them you could hardly touch. Two of those were less than a year old. Several were very fat and friendly, obviously taken care of, several of the thin ones had feet so big they could trip on them–nobody gave a shit about those horses. And they don’t just get skinny overnight. Several of them had eyes swollen shut, which made it harder to catch them because they can’t see you coming and it scares them when you try to touch them. And you try real hard not to approach strange horses (horses that you don’t know) on their right sides. There was one definite Tb mare with dapples and a short bridle path and was too fit looking to not be a recent racehorse. There was another young black stallion (one of the ones approx a year, perhaps two) that had a pretty head, fairly tall and still gangly, seemed to be nice conformation but we really couldn’t spend time checking them out.
The Oklahoma County animal control seized them and I think/hope that outside of a couple of them that are probably not adoptable, the rest of them certainly could be. The first horse I caught was an old Appy gelding that had seen better days, and wasn’t sound (at that point) but it was hard to tell what happened between the auction and this morning. He was nearly skin and bones, lame, and also had a swollen shut eye but damned if I bonded with him immediately and hope that he can recover and have a family. He deserves it. The second one was brought over to me, a very thin bay mare that was eating horse cookies like crazy–she obviously was a pet at some point. Other than being thin and having feet like platters (rows and rows of heat lines on her hooves but didn’t appear to have foundered) she seemed at first glance to be adoptable. The gal holding the fat alpha mare bonded with her too and she was obviously handled prior to this event and was quite tractable. Of her two running mates (also fat almost as agressive mares which leads me to believe they were either her daughters or at least came from the same farm somewhere), one was the unfortunate one to have 1/2 of her face sliced virtually off was euthanized. There were definitely several adoptable horses from this group.
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The driver wasn’t talking–at least not on that day. This morning I had heard from our legal counsel at work that she had heard that the driver said he was transporting them to the OKC stockyards. Liar. They only auction cattle. And how is it that their coggins (I overheard the state vet’s assistant and know several didn’t match–shocker, right?) were ffrom MO and destination was TX….which is aka Mexico. As far as the notorious George Baker, I’d bet dollars to doughnuts that he had a finger in this deal but can’t verify it at this point. Originally I had thought they’d come from Bristow until I had heard that. They still could have been.
All I know is I was glad to have been there to show some kindness, some gentleness and give some scratches and loving pats.
http://www.koco.com/video/23599940/index.html
Lisa
Thank you so much for posting that. Now I am, of course, thinking about the Thoroughbred OTTB mare…I hope she gets another chance.
If you would read the article at newsok.com/article/3462117 it clearly states that Baker didn’t own or have anything to do with these horses. They didn’t come from Bristow, the Interstate Heath papers and coggins clearly states the horses came from Missouri.
Fugly your comment struck home: “and most of all getting up and walking away from anyone who is abusive to us, whether it’s a romantic partner or a boss”.
On that last word in your sentence, you are dead wrong.
In the field in which I (we) work there are a LOT of abusive bosses. It comes with that territory. Some of us have to endure viciously abusive bosses BECAUSE in our area there may simply be no other jobs available. In the hinterlands where I am, the actual unemployment rate (not the one the government would have you believe by claiming mendaciously that the “discouraged job seekers who have given up” aren’t counted in the unemployment numbers) is over 22 percent. Here as in many areas we are damned lucky to have ANY kind of a job. And you know why those of us in this benighted profession (hey – you non-legal types, EVERYTHING they say about lawyers is TRUE and I have the decades of experience to back this up) stay in it? Because we cannot find a financial way to go back to school and at any rate what chance would we have even armed with another degree to find another career when some of us are only a few years away from retirement. WE DO THIS, WE ENDURE ABUSIVE BOSSES BECAUSE WE ARE DOING EVERYTHING IN OUR POWER TO KEEP OUR HORSES OUT OF SLAUGHTER TRUCKS AND KEEP THEM FED AND HOUSED AND CARED FOR.
No, Cathy, in THIS economy today, most of us do not have the choice to walk away from an abusive boss. If we do that without having first found other employment (where???) we will find ourselves on the street and our animals going hungry or worse. That is why some of us endure rage-a-holic alcoholic bosses who are evilly disgusting subhuman beings who think nothing of behaving completely unethically and immorally right down to sending filthy e-mails and video clips through office e-mails while uncaringly padding their bills to clients and treating staff like something that came up on their shoe in the parking lot.
There is no true CHOICE of employers where there is an economy like this – it isn’t a CHOICE to stay with an abusive boss it is an absolute necessity because the opposite is unthinkable.
I don’t agree with that. There is always a choice. If you really put your nose to the grindstone about finding another job, you can do it. And there are things you can do to become the MOST desirable employee in a field, even in a competitive one. You’re using the legal field as an example so let me give you some thoughts: You can be the most technologically savvy candidate. Learn to make a web site, you have no idea how many firms thought it was a HUGE bonus that I could maintain their web site in-house and fix the computers and save them money on I.T. Also, the person who is ALWAYS willing to come in weekends or work late ALWAYS has an edge. I’ve used that edge many times. Finally, there is a tremendous and often overlooked edge in being POSITIVE. Yes, I have met angry, drunken lawyers but nowhere NEAR as many grouchy, crabby, whiny legal secretaries and paralegals as I’ve met. If you walk in every day and are nice and friendly to people, and have a positive can-do attitude, you are unlikely to be stuck with the angry drunk for long. I just don’t buy the victim mentality. Sure, you may have to suffer through a bad job for a while to feed your animals, but if every job is a bad experience, then it’s time to look in the mirror and ask yourself what you are doing wrong that is making that happen. My experience, overall, is that lawyers are great people – I really have only ever worked or temped for 2 bad ones. OK, 2 bad and one insane, ha ha, but most of them are great!
You’re lucky. You’ve never been in the ‘work for the abusive boss or end up on the streets’ situation. I have. It was the ONLY JOB I COULD GET AFTER OVER A YEAR OF SEARCHING.
Most people have the choice.
Some simply do not. And it’s amazing what you can put up with when the alternative is losing everything you have…and I don’t want to think about if I’d had animals.
It’s also not so easy to leave an abusive spouse. It’s not easy psychologically. It’s particularly difficult for men, heterosexual or homosexual, as most resources for battered spouses are directed at women.
And I personally KNOW a woman who was shot dead, along with her first husband’s mother, by her abusive husband IN FRONT OF HER KIDS after she left him. He tracked her down and he killed her IN FRONT OF THREE VERY YOUNG CHILDREN. Those children are going to be in counseling for the rest of their lives.
Most people in abusive situations need HELP to get out of them, whether it be a place to go, protection from the abuser…
(And if anyone tries to say heterosexual men don’t get abused by their partners, I’ve known two. Okay. That’s a very small number…but it certainly happens. I think men are less likely to try and get out because their egos don’t want to admit to the abuse).
I never said those situations don’t exist. The domestic abuse, of course, many women do not walk away from that alive. Again, the point is that as a human being you have choices. They may not be great ones – they may include moving back in with family, allowing a house to be foreclosed, or even living in a shelter – but they exist. You are not a slave that is owned and can neither ask for help nor quit nor walk away. A horse has no choices – his choices are all made by the person who owns him.
I just don’t want the situations some people find themselves in to be belittled. And DV is a bit of a sore spot with me. I’m not technically supposed to say its the husband as he hasn’t been convicted. But even if it’s not, my wonderful sister-in-law is now raising the true victims…the two children, both of whom have experienced severe trauma and possibly PTSD.
I’m not saying we should not advocate for animals…some of us may disagree on things like eating meat, but everyone here wants to see animals have better lives. Just that we should not belittle the fact that people can be trapped with no good choices and no way out.
I did years of volunteer work in domestic violence including for a storefront poverty law clinic in Seattle where nearly 100 percent of our clients were DV victims. What most people like some I won’t specifically identify but are fond of victim blaming do NOT get is that a woman in a DV situation is in greater danger when she leaves than she is when she is in the situation – home, whatever, – with the abuser. Statistically most DV homicides occur when the woman obtains a restraining order and it is served on the abuser, when she leaves the residence or has him removed from the residence, or both of the above. Many women we counseled and assisted stayed because of severe poverty issues compounded by extreme stress due to fear and ultimate non-employability – we are talking the poorest of the poor and largely uneducated here and they also sometimes stayed because shelters and safe houses would not take their animals. Many humane societies have in the past decade instituted programs to protect pets so that abused women and their children can get out of the immediate situation and get to a safe house.
Fugly, respectfully, there is a bigger and scarier world out there than you are looking at outside of the horse world where your acumen is considerable. Please do not judge before you have educated yourself.
I live in the same world you do, and have been exposed to numerous unpleasant elements of it. Really.
Now you are just engaging in that great American pastime (no, not baseball) victim blaming. IFYI I work for a solo practitioner and there is no HR person to go a-whining and a-sniveling to. And in this biz if you are inclined to whine and snivel you do not last – and I have done this for forty plus years. I don’t have victimitis but what I do have is a grim and solid determination because no matter what happens to me my animals are not going to suffer one iota. By the way – The “technosavvy” person is already on the job in this teensy weensy job market out here in the tooliedingles. There are simply NO OTHER JOBS in this area. There is not a choice for now. I have been looking for another position since I moved here and got through the first week on the job going (a) where the hell was my radar??? after 4 decades in this biz I had pretty damn good radar but it was in the “off” position the day I was interviewed and immediately offered the position; (b)I will do anything I have to do to survive this recession including working for Beelzebub himself but when this is past I will be so gone and believe you me this Aho WILL be turned into the Bar AND will be sued in civil court (I do not have any kind of victim mentality whatsoever and have zero hesitation about hiring a pit bull employment lawyer to go after this jerk).
Fugly by and large you are right on with everything. Please spare me the generalizations when you do not bother to think about the specifics.
It’s not blaming the victim, it’s merely observing that some people are more pro-active than others with taking actual actions to change and improve their lives. As my mom used to say, where there is a will, there is a way and I’ve found that to be true. Look at how many people have made good money with ebay business or even blogs like this one, without ever leaving their own home, and with no or very little initial investment. Having a side business could give a person the funds needed to relocate to an area with more opportunities, for example, or take a job for less pay but with a much nicer boss.
You can argue this point forever, though. For example: Why do some children raised in terrible homes excel in school and come out and excel and leave the bad world they came from behind, whereas others just repeat the cycle? We have multi-millionaires in this country who started with nothing. If you want to change your life, as a human being, you can do so. Most of us have faced some adversity whether it is health or finances or bad relationships that brought us down or just starting off on the wrong foot with a dysfunctional family – but we still have choices and opportunities to improve our lives and rise above our hardships. Animals really can’t do a thing to help themselves. They don’t even have enough reasoning to understand that if they do X, they are more likely to have a good home and receive proper care.
Some of what you are speaking to has to do directly with a person’s personality. I know of many, many people in various bad situations and when you point out to them that there are other possibilities, the answer is almost always, “yeah, but…” I am a very strong, very motivated person and someone may get over on me once but don’t ever count on that happening again. I have come to the realization, however that there are people in today’s age that can endure all kinds of verbal and physical abuse and or other forms of mistreatment and not see they can have better for whatever reason. It downright frustrates me. I have a friend right now who took her horse to a man for training (where we both previously boarded and both we and our horses were treated like dogs and her worse than me because I work full-time and she was there everyday) who uses very old, very outdated methods, which to me border on abuse. I kept trying to get her to see that there are other wonderful trainers out there for less $$$$ even that will reward your horse and actually teach it to do something instead of getting what I refer to as bludgening into submission. The guy hadn’t even ridden the horse and was putting her daughter on the horse that was rearing and bucking and they were using a gag bit on her and tying her head to the saddle with the gag bit. I told my friend he was pushing the horse too fast and printed out a bunch of info on gag bits and how severe they are and I think she listened but hasn’t spoken to me for a week. Prior to that, she was telling me how awesome the whole experience was with, get this, them helping to train the horse (meanwhile paying this guy a full training fee). What a racket! I told her I pay my trainer 2/3 what she is paying this guy and my horse is out there earning points and money. This is just one of many examples of people who don’t listen to the voice of reason. Oh and must I say she went out and bought a three-year-old unbroke mare for her basically novice dauther to ride after I warned her against doing that. She commented that now she is training the horse with the trainer and hopes to teach her daughter who is shy with the horse (yeah, because it tried to hurt her on numerous occasions) that it takes patience. UGH!
Sorry to vent.
Oh, I hear you and I would vent too. It’s so hard to watch them be ruined like that!
George Baker was not the owner or transporter of the horses or the semi tractor trailer. Get your facts straight before you post info that you have no idea about!!! It would be pretty easy to find out who owned thr truck by the tags. They were Missouri tags and according to the info you provided Baker live in OK! Tags can be run very easily and tell you who owns the truck and it WAS NOT Baker! I can’t believe someone would be dumb enough to think that ANYONE would make $ 5 to $10 million in the horse business. Do you realize who much $10 million is? Get real. Do you even have any idea would the real owner is? Maybe some research should be done be asuming you know everything about George Baker.
I believe naming George baker was an open ASSUMPTION and nothing more. Perhaps such a person as he, already has a reputation to give good cause to name him, even if only unassumingly. Besides that, many trucks run tags from other states because they can get away with more DOT issues. That is fact, especially by unscrupulous people. So perhaps that apple wasn’t all wrong, if I’m right.
We all know that Fugly Blog is all about naming names. I am confident that Cathy didn’t mention a name just because he’s so nice. It will all come out in the end, you’ll see.
I don’t understand how anyone can defend the antics of people’s unethical behavior. Maybe they weren’t the lead roll on this story, but they must have deserved it at some time or another.
I didn’t mention a name because I didn’t have one. I’ll be happy to update when the guilty party is determined!
Bristow Ok didn’t even have a horse auction Monday. And they sold horses there for $1000 and $1300 the week before, I can’t see them going to slaughter. Can u?
Of course Boo, if they’re selling for upwards of $750 or so they’re obviously NOT going to slaughter. Duh. I have no idea what days Bristow has their sale but I do know a lot of horses run through there on a weekly basis just as they are at EVERY auction EVERY where around the country, especially these days.. and a lot of those go to slaughter. Jones has an auction every Thursday night and I know for a fact that George Baker is there (or his son or employee) every week– buying and selling–I also know that you can count on seeing a couple really nice horses every week that will sell high and get good homes and a few that SHOULD sell higher and don’t go to good homes at all. It seems apparent to me that you’re on ol’ Georgie boy’s side and find no reason to malign him in any way. I don’t know him from from Adam, personally, but I think anybody in this “business” is a sorry SOB. I will NEVER understand how anyone could knowingly send a horse to slaughter! PERIOD. Making a living out of it makes me puke; it’s just as depraved in my mind as any murderer, pedophile, or pimp.
I DO think that horses are a luxury no matter HOW you benefit from them, whether it is gathering cattle for YOUR pocketbook or jumping over fences. No horse deserves less than a merciful ending. The more humane, the better.
I’m glad they found sandbox!! The story did not say if the person collected the reward. If he did or it was unclamed I hope that it could be donated to an equine rescue. They could really use $8000 to save some not so lucky as sandbox, like all the poor souls on the overturned semi.
we need to pass a law stating : all horses must travel with a halter and be tied in trailer.
that way when these to “fat for my belt buckle horse dealers” crash at least rescuers have a way to catch them.
Also: They couldn’t pack 30 horses on a trailer if they had to be tied.
the only people this would hurt would be the kill buyers.
Haltering would be a good idea, but I disagree with requiring horses be tied in a trailer. If a horse is tied in a trailer and it wrecks like this one, one of two things can happen. 1) the halter will break, or 2) the halter won’t break and the horse could hang itself in the trailer as it turn over.
My horses wear halters in the trailer, but I only tie them about half the time.
I ship only with leather halters as a precautionary measure. Leather is much more forgiving than nylon, which will break a horses neck.
Which brings another thing to mind: did the driver have all the necessary paperwork for these horses? Did I not read somewhere that there may have been some discrepancies as to which papers went with which horse? I know how shady KBs are and agree that they are very unscrupulous. Seems that someone mentioned that this truck had only been on the road for less than an hour??(that doesn’t sound right) I know Missouri is not that far. Surprised they weren’t traveling at night, or maybe he was, all night. I really hate people. What some won’t do to get out of working a real job and making a living that they can actually talk about openly.
I agree – leather is definitely the halter of choice for hauling!
I always go to post a comment then realize you pretty much said it all….
Very sad that they never have a choice. But we as humans should know better….SHOULD……I tell my horses every night how lucky I AM to be able to care for such a majestic animal. I thank every horse I ride when I am done, for taking such good care of me. It is a LUXURY to own/ride. Too bad more people don’t understand this…..
When I saw that hoof with thrush, the smell immediately came back to me, just by looking at the photo.
I went out and gave our rotten little pony a carrot. He was $10 away from being on one of these trailers. He’s such a brat I’ve often wondered what the heck I was thinking when we brought him home…Today he seemed to know what I was thinking about, he was a perfect little gentleman when I went out to visit with him, he let me lead him around, pet him and even brush his hair out of his big soulful brown eyes… I’m glad I have him.. Even if he is a brat.
The truck didn’t have to be George Baker’s for those horses to have been at least momentarily “owned” or brokered by him. He could have purchased the entire truckload from another KB in MO for all we know.
I have a problem with the media in this case too, they love exposing stuff so much why in the world is this topi so hush-hush? When I was interviewed I made sure I told them these horses were slaughter-bound and that they were tragically heading for Mexico. Of course they edited out that part. On one hand I realize you cannot tell the whole story in a 15 or 30 second clip, and on the other hand there needs to be exposure to this cruel and despicable act.
I am not against slaughter either, like FHOTD says, but only IF a person knows how to do it correctly with a gun– or euthanized. If the stories and videos from MEX are a truthful indication (and I’m sure they are) then God Bless those poor horses. The whole “strung up and bled out” thing pisses me off even if it were a snake or possum or any creature!! I am against the inhumane transport for many reasons AND the obvious method used, and probably also the hours or days leading up to the massacre.
I spoke with our state racing vet the morning after this tragedy and asked him why in the world couldn’t horses be electrocuted. The reason I ask that is because I’ve had a racehorse electrocuted on a shorted out hot-walker (obviously unbeknownst to me AND the owner of it) years ago and let me tell you he was G O N E instantly! And I know of others that it happened to. And then one unfortunate night I was watching some cable show on fur farms and sickened to happen to see a mink get pulled out of its cage and an electrically charged bar held in front of his mouth that he clamped down on (yeah, they’re caged and wild, go figure they’d bite when scared huh?) and INSTANTLY died. GONE. Simple. Appeared pretty painless. AND SAFE for the animal, the slaughterhouse ‘handler’ aka Neanderthal (sp?) bubba trying to get the bolt gun to the head of a horse (like, who cares about them. I damn sure don’t) . There would be no misses. There would be no “almost got ‘em” cases. Our vet says it’s absolutely a good way to handle this and he has no idea why it’s not utilized. Gee, maybe a nanosecond of electricity is far, far too costly to use on these horses.
I just wonder if any person who calls him/herself a horseman could actually work a slaughterhouse for a day with horses, and still feel the same way about themselves and their feelings and their opinions about it? Really? I’m sorry but I just don’t think you can say you truly love and respect and make money from horses and then ‘sell them down the river.” EVER.
winningcolrz, I like you. It’s ashamed you and I can’t rule the world. There would be no innocents to suffer from the cruel deeds of heartless and evil people. I have wondered many times why people do not want to know the truth. They prefer to stick their heads in the sand and pretend it doesn’t exist. I hope the surviving horses don’t have to continue on their journey to Mexico. Why can’t the SPCA or Humane Society step in? Everyone involved with this dirty little secret knows the horses are being treated cruelly so when something like this accident happens, whats going on comes to light. Maybe more people will take a stand and put a stop to this. This is a story that I intend to follow. The palomino in the pitcures and video really stood out. With a lot of TLC that horse would be absolutely beautiful. As far as that goes, they would all make beautiful horses in the care of someone who cares. I have rescues that have transformed from ugly duckling to beautiful swan.
As for your question about how many fit on an air-ride Semi, the answer is 24 or 25. My riding organization uses those to transport their horses, and it works pretty well. They’re packed in like sardines, true, but at least they don’t have room to full-on kick one another. All horses are required to wear polo wraps wrapped down over the coronet band AND shipping boots to protect their legs. It’s certainly not the best method for longer journeys, but it’s more economical to use two of those to haul 50 horses than to use a bunch of smaller trailers. I also think on longer journeys, they stop and unload everyone to offer them water and let them stretch their legs. I don’t know for sure, I’ve never been involved with a journey longer than an hour or two.
My experience has been that the old Sreamliners hold 12 horses.. six head to head front and six head to head in the back. I prefer this set up to any other because the Streamliners are tanks, and also because each horse is fully accessible, with a ramp for the six in front and a ramp for the six in back. The bigger rigs, like the Pegasus trailers hold 15 horses.