These people make my blood boil. Where I live there are people who take unwanted horses out to the desert and leave them. Sure, there are wild horses out there who are able to survive, but their older or lame horses that are now "useless" aren't equipped to live out there, and they die an awful death. I don't know what the answer is, but it breaks my heart to see how irresponsible and cruel some horse owners can be.
The fact that there are people out there that have no problem doing this sort of thing to such a beautiful and probably faithful animal breaks my heart.
My boss trailered her two big warmbloods to an A circuit jumper show. While she had one out of the 2 stall trailer, she came back to untack and found a skinny QH in the empty side! Someone actually abandoned him in the trailer. After notifying the authorities, we ended up getting ownership of him. The only thing wrong was that he had an abcess, and was underweight. Now that he's all fixed up, he is a beautiful mover and is jumping 3'. Such a shame.
I'm normally not an eye-for-an-eye kind of person. Except when it comes to animals and kids. There are not enough horrible words to call these abusers nor enough lawbooks to throw at them to satisfy my need for justice. And before anyone chimes in with, "Well, if we hadn't closed the slaughter plants.... " NO. That is not the reason for this kind of .... California hasn't had an equine slaughter plant for decades, but still horses are sold for slaughter. These idiots are just plain old everyday abusers and they need to be in jail.
These are the same kind of people who take the family dog to the pound when it misbehaves or gets old or sick. The dog ends up stuck in a cage for a few days and then killed by a stranger. Horrible!
AMEN!!!! we need to tell the people who think they can just buy and horse and have fun with it that there's a a serious side to owning a horse!!!! You must take be able to take care of it right or not buy one!! Don't just by a horse cause every body else is doing it, consider all the pros and cons; can i really take care of this horse, do i have enough money, or am i just going to ride it for a couple months then forget about it??? We need to take careof the wonderful horses that God has blessed us with!!!
THANKS FOR ALL THE THOUGHTFUL COMMENTS. THE NETWORK NEWS CARRIED THIS STORY ON TV, TOO. THE WITNESSES LITERALLY SAID TO THE GUYS LEADING THE OLD HORSE INTO THE PARK, "YOU AREN'T GOING TO DUMP THAT HORSE OUT THERE, ARE YOU?" BUT THEY DID. WHEN THEY WERE CAUGHT BY THE SHERIFF THEY DENIED IT WAS THEIR OLD HORSE. BUT OOPS! LOCAL VIDEO SURVEILLANCE CAMERAS HAD THEM ON TAPE, GOING INTO THE PARK WITH 3 HORSES AND COMING OUT WITH ONLY THE 2 THEY WERE RIDING. LIKE YOU GUYS, I STRUGGLE WITH THE COSTS AND HEARTBREAKS AND STRESS OF TRYING TO KEEP MY HORSES HAPPY AND HEALTHY. IF HORSES WERE EASY AND TROUBLE-FREE WE'D CALL THEM 'BICYCLES.'
I'm in total agreement. My beautiful Paint Mare was a rescue. The former owner couldn't afford to feed her so when she did feed her it was leftover garbage and she didn't keep up with worming or shots. Thank goodness the barn owner where my daughter boards her horse rescued Shawnee and I eventually ended up with her. I've vowed never to breed my mare or my daughter's mare when there are so many horses that need good homes. My motto has become "If you can't take care of an animal, then you shouldn't own it".
I almost wish there was a license to get before you are allowed to own a horse - best with a legal agreement that unwanted horses MUST be donated through a responsible organization, and an agreement not to breed...