By Ray Paulick
A national survey from the Unwanted Horse Coalition released Thursday shows that the number of neglected, unwanted or abused horses has been on the rise as economic conditions across the country have worsened. No surprise there (though a group called the Equine Welfare Alliance said the Unwanted Horse Coalition survey was “slanted” and was released in conjunction with a Senate committee hearing in hopes of stopping federal anti-slaughter legislation). Eighty-seven percent of the participants in the survey (horse owners, equine industry stakeholders and non-horse owners) believe the issue of unwanted horses has become a “big problem,” and 63% of horse rescure or retirement facilities polled are at or near full capacity.
The national survey also said 38% of horses brought to the facilities are turned away.
That isn’t the case with the Kentucky Equine Humane Center, according to the non-profit organization’s development director, Cyndi Greathouse. “No horse is ever turned away,” Greathouse told the Paulick Report.
Opened in April 2007, the Kentucky Equine Humane Center, located on Catnip Hill Road in Nicholasville, Ky., has taken on 400 horses of all shapes, sizes and breeds (including donkeys, miniatures and mules). It accepts horses from individuals, corporations, county animal control agencies throughout Kentucky, other humane societies or equine organizations. “We are a shelter much like the animal shelters for cats and dogs,” said Greathouse. “After an equine is surrendered to KyEHC, they are wormed, immunized and have a physical examination by a licensed veterinarian. Those that are deemed physically and mentally suitable, are put up for adoption.”
Horses not qualified as adoptable, due to severe injury, illness, or mental unsuitability, are humanely euthanized by a licensed veterinarian.
Lori Neagle, co-founder of ReRun, another Kentucky-based non-profit that helps develop second careers for Thoroughbreds, serves as the Kentucky Equine Humane Center’s executive director. The center maintains a small paid staff (three full-time and one part-time employee) but relies heavily on volunteers. Volunteer orientation is held every second Saturday of the month.
Greathouse said the “mission of KyEHC is to provide humane treatment and shelter while working as a clearinghouse to seek adoptive homes for all of Kentucky’s unwanted equines, regardless of breed. KyEHC is also committed to educating the public and raising awareness for responsible horse ownership so that fewer horses end up in crisis. Our goal is to work with and serve as a model for organizations with the same mission in other states: to save America’s equines from inhumane treatment.”
The Kentucky Equine Humane Center works with the Bluegrass State’s major Thoroughbred tracks (Turfway, Keeneland, Churchill Downs and Ellis Park), where owners can surrender horses directly from a training or racing stable. The racing secretary’s office at each tracks has “surrender forms” that owners can fill out, volunteers for Kentucky Equine Horse Center will care for the horses until the organization arranges for transportation to the Nicholasville farm.
“We ask for a donation when a horse is surrendered,” said Greathouse. “But because the surrenders usually stem from financial reasons, owners giving up their horses can not afford donations that are enough to even offset the cost of transporting the horse to KyEHC.”
The Kentucky Equine Humane Center was founded by: Josephine Abercrombie, Alice Chandler, Dianne Curry, Carol and Tracy Farmer, Becky and Greg Goodman, Staci and Arthur Hancock, Margaret Jewett, Julia and Arnold Kirkpatrick, Lori Kirk-Wagner, Judy and Chris McCarron, Debby and John Oxley, Marylou Whitney and John Hendrickson, and Kim and Nick Zito.
Visit the KyEHC
website to learn more about the organization and its various programs (the “Horse of the Week” is featured on the web and is also spotlighted every Friday on WTVQ, the Lexington ABC affiliate, and an “Open House Adoption Day” is held every third Saturday of the month at the center).
The Kentucky Equine Humane Center is a charitable 501(C)3 organization that is sustained solely through grants and private donations. Greathouse said it is the only equine organization in the state of Kentucky with “an open-door policy where no equine in need of shelter is ever turned away and no fee is required to surrender an equine.”
For more information about the Kentucky Equine Humane Center, adoptable horses, or volunteering please visit
www.KyEHC.org or call executive director Lori Neagle at (859)-881-5849.
Liberation Farm celebrates the many horsemen and horsewomen who strive each day to make things better for horses and those who work with them. To learn more about Liberation Farm, click here.Copyright © 2009, The Paulick Report
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July 10th, 2009 at 11:24 am
“Horses not qualified as adoptable, due to severe injury, illness, or mental unsuitability, are humanely euthanized by a licensed veterinarian.”
Under strict guidelines, what is preventing tracks nationwide from adopting such a practice? After the finish line is where this industry fails in the litmus test in the court of public opinion. And having task forces go over the same issues time after time after time after time is not going to sway anyone outside a segment of individuals within the industry who believe it’s 1969…not 2009.
July 10th, 2009 at 11:31 am
Thank you very much, Ray, for consistently doing an exceptional job of reporting the good and bad of our industry.
In particular I would like to thank you and your Good News Friday sponsor, Rob Whiteley, for these columns. There’s so much gloom and doom in the horse business these days–some real, some imagined–that we need something to lift our spirits, occasionally.
Keep up the good work, both of you.
July 10th, 2009 at 12:30 pm
The KyEHC is doing a tremendous job in very difficult times as are countless other rescue and adoption organizations across the country. Everyone is pulling together to try to bring as many horses safely through the economic crisis as possible.
The “survey” from the Unwanted Horse Coalition, in which Tranquility Farm did not participate even though we are the largest TB adoption organization in the western US, was from first reading a not too cleverly disguised rationale for resuming horse slaughter in the US. “Processing” has no place at the table when valid discussions take place between legitimate welfare organizations on solving the unwanted horse crisis.
There are 10 million equines in the US, with about 120,000 being exported for slaughter each year. Close to ninety-nine percent of the horse population in this country dies of natural causes or is euthanized by a veterinarian. Somehow responsible horse owners manage to afford the cost and have avoided a environmental damage with their disposal.
The Thoroughbred industry is just now awakening to their responsibility for creating approximately 20% of the unwanted horse problem, and should have taken action long ago before it came to a humane and public relations crisis. But it didn’t, and today underfunded and stressed organizations all over the country are struggling to deal with the fallout.
There is a simple solution for removing retiring racehorses from the unwanted horse population. Change the rules of the game to make it impossible for an owner to simply walk away from an injured horse and tell the trainer to get rid of it like so much trash. Countless horses could be diverted from slaughter if owners were required to leave a deposit in the racing office at every track where they run to cover costs in case their horse is injured and needs to be donated to a non- profit. There are retirement organizations all over the country standing by helplessly when horse are injured and no longer wanted by their owners because they do not have the resources to accept them into their programs.
This situation is a disgrace to the industry and could be rectified with the slightest amount of forethought and contingency planning. We know that every horse in training will some day become non-competitive, and we know the vast majority of these will be unwanted by their owners at that time. Let’s quit making study groups and deal with it. Horses are dying.
July 10th, 2009 at 3:03 pm
How about “tithing to the horses”. Trainers get 10% jockeys get 10% and everybody gives up 10% of their share of the purse money and puts it in a retirement account for the horse. It is totally unfair for the horse not to get a share of the money he/she earned with the “sweat of their brow”. Breeders who make a profit should have to tithe to the horses retirement account also. If he/she dies the money goes to their most needy relative or relatives or a designated horse rescue. New York City police horses gets pensions. All horses should get pensions.
July 10th, 2009 at 3:46 pm
you know a ten % retirement fun for horses that earn money is a wonderful idea
but then you have to create the space and people to take them on in that role
more infastrucuture is easy and that can happen quickly but we would need lots more land and people which may not be easy task to create
July 10th, 2009 at 5:08 pm
It is not the lack of will, character, courage, knowledge, hard work, compassion, dedication, love, land and volunteers which prevent rescuers from saving more racing and breeding horses from hell, it is the lack of financial support from the industry which breeds and uses these horses for entertainment and financial gains and pro-slaughter groups deeply entrenched in horse racing such as the NTRA, AAEP, AQHA and AHC.
Is the HBPA against horse-slaughter? Should I even ask?
July 10th, 2009 at 8:25 pm
Thanks, Ray…especially for referencing the http://www.equinewelfarealliance.org press release that disputes the AHC/UHC release re: the “study”. I took it and the questions were definitely slanted and frequently a survey taker could not choose “None of the above” as an option. One minute Dr. Lenz says we need humane “processing plants” in the US and next he goes down to Mexico, files a report with AAEP and says everything looks good to him; ending an equine’s life this way is atrocious. Which is it Dr. Lenz? US v MEX/CAN? None to me, save for distance (and the occasional puntilla in MEX).
As I have said on different posts, equines are not raised as a meat animal for human consumption in the US. Therefore they are not managed as a food source with regard to handling, medication and production records for same by the USDA and FDA. In other words, dangerous meat for humans to consume on top of the cruel death for equines.
Joe:
Depends on the State HBPA…nationally speaking, I don’t know. Some are trying; some don’t give a damn.
Keep up the good work KyEHC and thanks.
July 11th, 2009 at 3:38 pm
It is not at all surprising that the UHC would release yet another “report” lobbying for the reopening of horse processing facilities in the United States. What is disappointing is that their survey participants were apparently unaware of publicly available USDA statistics on the number of American horses slaughtered over the past couple of years.
Survey participants, listen up. An aggravation of the so called “unwanted horse” problem cannot be “caused” in any way by the absence of processing facilities in the United States. Since the closures of the last such facilities, in Texas and Illinois, USDA statistics show that more American horses have been shipped to and processed in Mexico and Canada on an annualized basis than were being processed in all three countries prior to those closures. Clearly, if an owner chooses to “un-want” his or her horse, whether racing stock or other, slaughter is the option for disposal that it always has been - and more.
Perhaps Mr. Lenz and the UHC should worry, by the unhappy and confusing confrontation of their survey participants’ conclusions with actual USDA data - a period of more “unwanted” horses corresponds to a period of more slaughtered horses - that the establishment of new processing facilities in the United States will “cause” an increase in the “unwanted” horse population? But, since I read the UHC’s literature to almost define an “unwanted” horse as one that is slaughtered, that might be a natural conclusion to draw.
Southern California Thoroughbred Rescue, like Tranquility Farm, also was not asked to participate in the UHC survey.
July 12th, 2009 at 2:09 am
There are alot of false stories going around. The truth is the AVMA and the AAEP took an Oath to protect animals and they have failed. They knew double deckers were used until exposed of all the accidents. A loophole law was created that loophole allowed horses to still be hauled in double deckers to Feedlots and Rodeos yet not directly to slaughter.
The plants in Mexico owned Beltex so it was only common sinse that there slaughter production increased. The false stories are that the pro slaughter call us emotional peta people that created the problems. Yet it was the Texas Cattle Raisers Association that was getting paid $3.00 per head slaughtered in Texas. Seems the livestock industry is having a hard time selling beef to foreigners because of there E.coli problems in the states. Not to mention the inhumane handling of a california processing plant that was exposed.
Fact is slaughter exports are only raising because the lost of one plant in Canada called Natural Valley which was shut down by Canadain Officals for many violations and the newly adopted program of Passports on horses in Europe. As stated in this article from france.. http://equinerescuefrance.wordpress.com/2009/07/11/facts-about-the-horse-meat-trade-in-france/
Slaughter will NOT make irresponsible people responsible it will only reward and promote abuse and neglect. IF the AVMA and the AAEP really cared about horses and lived up to there Oaths they would at lease be neutral on our horse bills HR503 and S727
Instead they turn the head and allow horses to be collected at auctions in bad conditions because the wrong people have them for trading commodities and NOT responsible obligations. Then traded with killer buyers for profits and hauled to feedlots which by the way there are allowed to haul horses with out coggins or health papers as we responsible people are subject too.
Just recently a horse was dump on the side of the road and officals recovered the horse and had notice the brand marking had been removed. This clearly shows these are criminals with bad intentions not caring for the horse or anyone that may have an accident with there vehicles or that they proved they did not want to be caught for there crimes.
http://www.dailysentinel.com/news/content/shared-gen/ap/National/US_Abandoned_Horse_Cruelty.html
August 19th, 2009 at 8:03 am
Very useful post. where can i find more articles on this subject ?