Homeless on the Range

Originally printed in the USA Today on August 14, 2008

Horses are being abandoned by the thousands across theUSA. Some are strays, others a result of overbreeding or a sour economy. Howshould we humanely lessen their numbers?

By Mary Zeiss Stange

It's a climactic scene in the 1962Kirk Douglas film, Lonely Are the Brave. The cowboy, Jack Burns — fugitive bothfrom the law and the civilization overtaking the open range — confronts achoice: He can scale a steep rock face and escape to Mexico. But to do so, hemust leave his palomino mare, Whiskey, to either be recovered by the possepursuing him, or to run wild in the New Mexico desert.

It takes him but a moment to decide:Whatever the outcome, he and his horse are in this together. It is a noblesentiment and an ultimately tragic decision. In the end, the horse is literallydead and her rider at least metaphorically so.

No one who owns and loves horses, asI do, can fail to note the counterpoint the film provides to what is happeningto horses in America today. There is a national epidemic of "surplus"or "unwanted" horses. Domestic horses are being abandoned as neverbefore. Some are being released as "strays" on public lands. Othersare being left to starve in pastures denuded of grass. The reasons are variousand excruciatingly complex.

Overpopulation problem

There are, to begin with, too manyhorses in the USA: 9.2 million as recently as 2005, up from 5.3 million in1999. Indiscriminate breeding leads not just to too many horses, but also totoo many with physical or behavioral faults that render them unsuitable fordomestic uses.

Then there's the economy. Horses arenot cheap to keep. Factor in training, vet care, tack and feed, and the expenseaverages $1,800 to $2,400 per animal, per year — and rising, as grain and fuelcosts increase. According to the American Horse Council, a third of horseowners have household incomes less than $50,000 a year. When it comes tofeeding your horses or putting gas in the car, the choice is simple, ifpainful.

But the single overriding cause of"surplus" horses is the movement to ban the sale of horses or theirmeat for human consumption. Activism forced the last three horse slaughterplants in the U.S. to close last year. They had hitherto processed about100,000 horses annually, mostly for meat sales to France and Japan, where horsemeat is considered a delicacy.

On its face, the closings would seemto be a victory for horse lovers. Former New York representative John Sweeney,who sponsored a bill in 2006 to curtail horse slaughter, told Fox News thatslaughter is a "brutal, shady practice" because horses such as Mr.Ed, Secretariat and Silver are American icons.

Julie Caramante of Habitat forHorses, a rescue operation in Houston, told USA TODAY in March that horses arepets, and that "we wouldn't even dream of selling our pets" for food.

Supporters of the horse slaughterban include the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, as well as such majoranimal rights groups as the Humane Society of the United States and People forthe Ethical Treatment of Animals. But most major veterinary medical groupsoppose it, as does the American Quarter Horse Association.

Why would advocates of horse healthand welfare oppose a ban on the slaughter? Mostly because humane slaughter ispreferable to neglect or abuse. But there is an additional irony: Horses boundfor auction, even if that means eventual slaughter, are better cared for thanthose that have little economic value. Auction prices have plummeted since theslaughter ban went into effect. And so, too often, has the level of careafforded many unwanted horses.

Bought for slaughter

An increasing number of these horsesare now bought to be shipped to slaughtering facilities in Canada or, morelikely, Mexico. In the latter case, their treatment is liable to be nothingshort of barbaric, compared with the methods employed by the now-shuttered U.S.slaughterhouses, which had conformed to the standards of the Humane SlaughterAct. The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) reports that horseslaughter exports to Mexico have in a single year increased by 312%, to morethan 44,000 horses in 2007.

In response, animal rights activistsare pushing the extension of the ban to include the transport of horses toother countries for slaughter. Federal legislation to this effect — thePrevention of Equine Cruelty Act of 2008 — was introduced in the House justahead of Congress' summer recess. The AVMA calls the situation a horse welfarecrisis. It attributes the cause primarily to the coalition of slaughter-banactivists spearheaded by the Humane Society, and its failure to suggest viablealternatives.

The way to the current crisis was,of course, paved with good intentions. But the options available, for dealingwith 100,000 unwanted steeds, are unfortunately limited, and largelyunfeasible:

* Euthanasia is a possibility. But it is costly,$100 to $600 per horse. The cost of burial or cremation could add severalhundred dollars.

* Rescue facilities are an option; many alreadyexist. But their capacity is about 6,000 horses, and we are looking at asurplus of roughly 100,000 horses every year. At $1,800 to $2,400 to keep eachanimal, that comes to $180 million to $240 million annually. Because many ofthese horses will live several years until their natural deaths, the cost couldballoon exponentially. Who will bear it?

* A limited number of suitable horses can bedonated to schools and therapeutic facilities, and for veterinary research.

In the longer range, the breeding ofhorses must be sharply curtailed. In the meantime, the resumption of humaneslaughter in this country should be seriously considered.

The Prevention of Equine CrueltyAct, should it eventually become law, does not mandate funding for the supportof surplus horses. And opponents have failed to raise the funding for rescuefacilities, adoption programs and so forth.

Meanwhile, ever-increasing numbersof unwanted horses are languishing in grassless pastures, dazedly roamingdesiccated public lands, and living with disease and chronic pain. Whatever youmight think about the relative merits of horse meat, this is a hell of a way totreat an "American icon." The cowboy Jack Burns wouldn't have stoodfor it.

Mary Zeiss Stange, a professor atSkidmore College in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., is a member of USA TODAY's board ofcontributors. She rides a Peruvian named Amante.

Overpopulated, emaciated, overwhelmed

Most states do not record exactnumbers on abandoned horses. In 2007, the Unwanted Horse Coalition estimatedthat 170,000 abandoned horses lived in the U.S. Abandonment takes variousforms, as recent news reports illustrate:

* It is estimated that 200 of 1,200 wildhorses overpopulating the Virginia Range near Reno, are actually"strays." Many won't survive in the wild, and the mustangs could beat risk of disease from domestic horses.

* In January, 48 emaciatedthoroughbred horses — some believed to be descendents of Triple Crown winnerSeattle Slew — were rescued from a farm in Loudoun County, Va.

* In March, 70 Tennessee Walkinghorses were removed from a farm in Jessamine County, Ky. Officials said that ona scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being the worst condition, most of the horses rateda 1.5.

* In May, 120 starving horses wererescued from a ranch in Central Florida when, according to reports, their owner"had become overwhelmed by the demand of caring" for them.