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Copyright 2008 Rocky Mountain Rider. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Reproduction of any editorial material, artwork and photos is strictly forbidden without express written permission of the publisher. For information about reprint rights, please contact the editor; editor@rockymountainrider.com.
May 2008 Issue
[Editor’s Note: This is the fourth article in
our series about the issue of Unwanted Horses, and the related topics of
slaughter, euthanasia, rendering, animal law and cruelty to animals.
Among the many recent letters to RMR about the unwanted horse
issue have been a couple from writers who have put the blame on wild
horses as being a major cause of horse overpopulation. Another letter
came from a reader who had adopted a “Premarin horse” and wanted
more information on the Premarin mare and foal industry. (Read the
letters in the April 2008 RMR). The Unwanted Horse issue is complicated, with
no clear answers, but we have collected some facts about wild horses,
Premarin mares and foals, and the horse racing industry. They all
contribute to overpopulation. There are more horses than there are
people who want them — except those people in the horse meat
industry.]
According to the Unwanted Horse Coalition, “there are no
accurate figures to document how many unwanted horses actually exist,
their age and sex, the breeds represented, how many are purebred versus
grade, their most recent use, their value, or what happens to them in
the long run. Tens of thousands of horses that could be classified as
‘unwanted’ are being sent to processing facilities… each year.” Wild Horses and Burros
In 1971, the Wild Horse and Burro Act became law. According to a
2006 report, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) had, by that time,
removed a total of 231,925 wild horses and 36,784 burros from the range.
Of the total horses and burros removed, 216,942 had been adopted. Although the amount of
land — approximately
53.5 million acres of herd management areas
— has remained the same since 1971, demands on the public land
in terms of livestock and wildlife grazing needs have changed and forced
a reduction in the total number of wild horses. In 1980, at peak
population, 62,638 wild horses and burros lived on the range. February
2007 statistics show the BLM managing 28,563 wild horses and burros. Goals for the wild horse and burro free range
population are 27,492 animals.
As RMR stated in the April 2008 issue, about 31,000 wild horses
and burros are being held in BLM corrals and in privately-owned large
pastures contracted to the BLM. Some of those horses have been held for
years.
In 2005 a law came into effect authorizing and directing the BLM
to sell excess animals more than 10 years of age, or that had been
offered unsuccessfully for adoption at least three times. An estimated
7,000 to 8,000 animals fell into the category created by the law. The
BLM has urged public lands ranchers and Indian tribes to consider buying
wild horses that must be sold under that law. As of January 2008, the
BLM had sold more than 2,500 of these horses and burros.
The BLM has continued to state its policy and commitment not to
sell wild horses for slaughter and to find permanent homes for them,
both through its adoption program and at private treaty sales. Read
RMR’s related article this month, “PZP, Equine Contraceptive” —
about preventing wild horse pregnancy. Pending legislation
Two bills have been introduced in the U.S. Congress in the past
year that could affect both wild and privately-owned horses.
H.B. 503/S. 311 would end the slaughter of American horses
for human consumption and prohibit their export to other countries for
slaughter (passed by the House; passed by Senate committee; and now in
the Senate for consideration).
H.R. 249 restores the prohibition on the commercial sale
and slaughter of wild free-roaming horses and burros (passed by the
House; now in the Senate for consideration). Find more information on wild horses and
burros, including how and where to adopt one, at the BLM Wild Horse and
Burro website: www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/html,
and then click on Programs; Wild Horses & Burros. Premarin Production Industry
Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, the company which has made the hormone
drug Premarin since 1942, describes the drug as one to be used by women
after menopause or hysterectomy to “reduce hot flashes, to treat
dryness, itching and burning in or around the vagina, and to help reduce
the chances of osteoporosis.”
Premarin (PMU) is basically isolated estrone (an equine hormone)
from pregnant mare’s urine (PREgnant MARes’ urINe).
Premarin was once the most prescribed drug in the
At one time, mares in the PMU industry numbered between 50,000 to
60,000 in
Premarin mares are often draft breeds, due to their larger urine
output and quiet temperament. In the spring, mares are put out to
pasture to have their foals and be bred. When mares are about four to
five months pregnant, and their hormone levels have increased, foals are
weaned and the mares are then tied in standing stalls with some bedding
and enough room to lie down, for the remaining five to six months of
pregnancy. They are fitted and strapped into urine collection devices. In 1995, the North American Equine Ranching
Council was created to assist PMU ranchers in education, breeding and
marketing better foals, which are still sold mainly to feedlot
operators, who feed them like cattle and then send them to slaughter in
After the Journal of the American Medical Association published
research in 1999 about a relationship between hormone therapy and health
problems such as breast cancer, heart attack and stroke, sales of
Premarin dropped dramatically. However, according to Wyeth, it remains
the fourth most prescribed drug in the
According to the HSUS, beginning in October, 2003, Wyeth canceled
one-third of all contracts and reduced all other herds by 35%, leaving
less than 50% of PMU mares in production. This caused about 40,000 mares
and foals to go to auction, and each year since then, a decrease in
demand for Premarin has cut the population of mares. Currently there are
about 5,000 mares in production, with most producting a foal each year. Wyeth Pharmaceuticals spokesperson Natalie de
Vane says, “We have no plans for changing the number of ranches we
have contracts with in the future. Right now we have contracts with 70
ranches that have about 5,000 mares.”
Greg Dowling of Bitterroot Drug in
Peg Brownlee, a pharmacist who lives in
“Premarin prescriptions are down dramatically in the past ten
years – at least 50% — and that’s a good thing. There are so many
safer alternatives now,” she says. One of the largest PMU rescue and adoption
organizations is PMU
Rescue at wwwpmurescue.org. Horse racing industry
According to a 2005 study by the American Horse Council, of the
9.2 million horses in the
A few are retired to breeding facilities or live out their days
on an owner’s farm. A few thousand find new careers as pleasure or
show horses, either by direct sales at the track or training facility,
or adoption after re-training through rescue organizations.
“We have no central source of the number of horses that are
retired from racing each year,” says Christopher Scherf, Executive
Vice President of Thoroughbred Racing Associations, in
“There were 72,966 starters in 2007,” he explains, when asked
how many individual horses were racing last year.
“What I do know is that not many retired racehorses go to
slaughter. They would not pass inspection for human consumption due to
so many having been given the drug Clenbuterol, which is very commonly
administered to racehorses.” Clenbuterol is a drug given as a decongestant
and bronchodilator. It is used as an asthma drug in humans and as
treatment for allergic respiratory disease in horses. It also induces a
greater proportion of muscle to fat.
Gen Sullivan, spokesperson for the Standardbred Retirement
Foundation in
Chris Colflesh, Executive Director of CANTER (an ex-Thoroughbred
racehorse retirement alliance), Ohio, says “I see the truck from the
local auction yard every Friday waiting at the racetrack to pick up
horses that are then sold for slaughter.”
Allie Conrad, Executive Director of CANTER, Mid Atlantic, says,
“We see Thoroughbreds go to slaughter buyers every day. Absolutely.
They are a constant supply at the kill pens. I’d say that 20% to 30%
of all horses going to kill buyers on the East Coast are Thoroughbreds.
None of them are tested for drugs. We get a lot of queries asking if we
have the kill price (about $500) to buy a horse so that it doesn’t
have to go to slaughter.” Two of the most well-known non-profit
organization that retrain and find homes for retired racehorses are CANTER,
at www.canterusa.org;
and the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation
at www.trfinc.org.
No Clear Answers
Although horses from the above categories contribute to the
overall horse population, they do not make up the entirety of the
“unwanted horse” population. Remember, there are no firm figures for
the numbers of unwanted horses. Add to those figures the unknown thousands of
horses humanely euthanized each year and thousands more being held by
horse rescue organizations and the BLM. Population History According to USDA–APHIS, the total number
of equids (horses, mules, ponies and donkeys) on farms peaked at 25.2
million in 1920 (with about one fifth being mules). After that date many
horses and mules were replaced by motorized vehicles. An American Horse Council study released in
2005 states that the horse population of 9.2 million had increased by
33% between 2000 and 2005, but the number of horse owners had increased
by less than 5%, and the average expense to keep a horse had risen to
$2,882 per year. According to the United Nations Food and
Agriculture Organization, in 1961, the first year population data was
gathered, the population of horses in the In 2007, the USDA surveyed The survey found that there are more horses,
donkeys, mules and miniatures in
Most were being used for recreation and pleasure (57,500). Horse
racing figures declined while trail riding increased. Breeding and
“idle” horses were next in population, with 21,000 each. Idle was
described as a horse maintained for grazing or as a pet. Horse
operations had increased as well, up to 35,000 as compared to 27,500 in
1996, with two-thirds having fewer than ten horses. Slaughter figures
The highest figures reflect the years after the “mad cow”
disease outbreak in A recent American Veterinary Medical
Association (AVMA) report states that in 2006, 10,783 horses were
shipped to Mexico for slaughter; and that in 2007, 44,475 horses were
shipped to Mexico — an increase of 312%. Price per pound
In 2001 an average 1,000-pound horse was selling for about $600
to $800 to killer buyers for slaughter. Now the prices have lowered to
$30 to $150 in many states. “Meatier” horses sell for more.
Twin Falls Livestock Auction, in Idaho, reports horses under
1,100 pounds selling for $5 to $10 per hundred-weight; and horses more
than 1,100 pounds selling for $10 to $20 per hundred-weight in March,
2008.
Missoula Livestock Exchange reports that canner prices in their
April 2008 sale were about $450 per head ($37.74) for a 1,200-pound, #1
(fat) horse; and $327 ($29.75) for an 1,100-pound, #2 horse. Thin horses
were selling for only $50 per head.
Jacobs Livestock & Rodeo in Justin Tupper at the St. Onge Livestock
Company in Breed registration figures
Registration numbers from most of the top pure
breeds in the • Quarter Horse registrations in the • Paint Horse registrations for 2007 were 35,032; down from
39,357 in 2006. • Thoroughbred registrations have declined since 1998, when
40,333 foals were registered in the • Tennessee Walking Horse registrations decreased in 2007
to 9,345 from 13,366 in 2006. • Arabian Horse registrations declined 7% from 2006 to
2007. Half-Arabians declined by 11%. AHA registrations were 7,003 in
2006, and 6,520 in 2007. • Appaloosa Horse Club registrations decreased 12 percent
between 2006 and 2007, with 6,749 registered in 2006 and 5,945
registered in 2007. • Morgan Horse registrations increased slightly to 3,482 in
2007 from 3,461 in 2006. • Missouri Fox Trotter registrations were 2,840 in 2006 and
2,452 in 2007. • Paso Fino registrations were 2,408 in 2006 and 1,844 in
2007.
Copyright 2008 Rocky Mountain Rider. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Reproduction of any editorial material, artwork and photos is strictly forbidden without express written permission of the publisher. For information about reprint rights, please contact the editor; editor@rockymountainrider.com.
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