Unwanted horses an emotional issue

The small stallion seemed tame enough munching on grass inside a portable pen.

Scars ran along its back and an open wound could be seen low on one side near its stomach. Still, the horse was more than happy to have its nose rubbed.

Just a few days before, the horse had been running loose through the woods and unfenced pastures near the small Geneva County town of Black. That was until it tore down part of a fence surrounding a pasture and a herd of mares.

“They’re herd animals; they don’t want to be alone,” said Cindy Lee, whose friend owns the pasture the stallion broke into. “It’s their instinct to find a herd. And he’s a stallion, he wants to find a herd of mares.”

How the small horse — actually closer in size to a pony — came to be running loose is a mystery. Nobody knows if the horse escaped from its owner or if it was turned loose because it was unwanted.

“If I lost my horse, I’d be out looking for it,” Lee said.

Lee, who owns 22 horses herself, is worried about the potential for more unwanted horses showing up in the rural community. It’s a concern across the country with the U.S. horse market in decline and an economy on a slow rebound.

It’s not an easy problem to quantify. There’s an estimated 9.2 million horses in the United States but no reliable figures on the number of unwanted horses in the country. But one thing is clear. There are more horses around the country than people who want them.

A horse may be unwanted because its owner can no longer afford to care for it or the horse may be dangerous to handle, has become ill or is simply old. While some horses are lucky enough to find new homes, others may end up neglected or abandoned.

Several national organizations have tried to tackle the issue in their own ways — the American Association of Equine Practitioners, the American Veterinary Medical Association, the American Horse Council and the Humane Society of the United States. Such organizations have differing opinions on why the problem exists and how to fix it.

Inevitably, the issue comes back to one thing — slaughterhouses.

Since 2007, there have been no horse processing facilities operating in the U.S. The last three — two in Texas and one in Illinois — closed after state laws banned the slaughter of horses for human consumption. That hasn’t stopped horses from being transported to slaughterhouses in Canada or Mexico. From there, the meat may be shipped to countries in Europe and Asia where horse meat is still consumed by humans.

Some argue the closure of the domestic slaughterhouses killed the U.S. horse market and has led to the increase in unwanted and neglected horses. Others, such as the Humane Society of the United States, see slaughter as inhumane and irresponsible owners as the cause of unwanted horses, pushing for horses to be seen for more than just their dollar value to people.

There’s no federal ban on horse slaughter, but a proposed bill would ban the transport and sale of horses if they are to be processed for human consumption. Such a measure would pretty much guarantee no horse slaughterhouses could reopen in the U.S.

“The horse issue is an emotional one,” said Salem, Ala., horse owner Donnie Hix, a former board member of the Alabama Horse Council.

Horses can live 20 to 30 years. Care for one horse can cost up to $2,400 a year.

Good horses, Hix said, still bring in good money for owners. But there’s not much of a market these days for anything less than a good horse, such as a horse past its prime or one that is difficult to handle. Hix knows of cases where owners have simply left their horses at sales because the sale fees were more than the horse would sell for.

Hix said he’s realistic about the role of slaughterhouses in the horse market. Horses are livestock, he said, although they seem to be more appealing to people than, say, cattle or pigs. But without a market for unwanted horses, there could be more and more cases of neglect if owners must choose between buying feed for horses or food for their families, he said.

“It’s a scary time to be in that kind of business,” Hix said. “ ... It’s a problem all over the country not just the south. There’s a lot of people out there suffering because of where we are with the horse market.”

Rescue groups around Alabama and the U.S. care for horses that have been neglected or abused. However, such facilities have limited space and no room to care for all unwanted horses.

Dusty Trails Horse Rescue in Montgomery was started five years ago. The nonprofit has 20 acres and can accommodate about 30 horses, said Monika Orendorf, president and founder. Dusty Trails turns away between 100 to 150 horses a year, saving space for criminal abuse cases. The group works to find homes for horses, but there’s not a huge demand for rescue horses.

“The horse market is down,” Orendorf said. “Nobody’s looking for horses that are old, lame.”

Orendorf said she is concerned more owners may simply choose to open up the gates and let their horses go.

Adding frustration to the issue is finding somewhere to turn for assistance, Orendorf said. The Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries investigates complaints of horse abuse and neglect. Local law enforcement agencies, she said, are typically the first called in abuse cases but often aren’t equipped to deal with large animals.

And finding a place to put unwanted horses is a challenge. Humane Society branches in larger cities have stables for livestock, but more rescue facilities for horses are needed, Orendorf said.

“The economy is bad,” Orendorf said. “People are having a real hard time feeding their horses or even their families, let alone their horses.”