Homeless, neglected horses multiply as Maryland's equine industry struggles

[Robbien]

Source: The Daily Times

WOODBINE — Maryland horse owners are "dumping" their unwanted livestock at 10 times the rate of last year, and the horses they're shedding are not just backyard ponies, according to informal statistics from rescue organizations.

Horse rescue operators are wrestling with a staggering number of horses in need of homes, a byproduct of the region's crumbling economy, struggling racetracks and the closure of U.S. slaughter plants.


. . .

In the past, the struggling industry's unwanted horses would be auctioned and shipped to slaughterhouses. But in 2007, the last U.S. horse slaughter plants closed. Now horses bound for slaughter must be hauled from the U.S. to plants in Canada or Mexico, a much more expensive enterprise.

"All of a sudden, now the slaughterhouses have closed down and the horses aren't bringing any money at auction because it costs too much to send them all to Mexico," Ratliff said. "So it's the same (number of unwanted) horses as before, but now the public is seeing all the horses."

With slaughter a less-viable option, and almost no market for anything but top-end competition horses, cash-hungry owners have few places to turn. Whereas selling a horse for slaughter would bring in a few hundred dollars, euthanizing a horse and disposing of the carcass costs several hundred dollars.

In extreme cases, horses are simply left to starve in their pens. A few have even been found abandoned in parks and along roadways.

Read more: http://www.delmarvanow.com/article/20090313/NEWS01/90313062/1002

[Name removed]

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[Booster]

2. So sad in so many ways. Wish I owned a lot of land, but I don't.

:cry:

[DoctorMyEyes]

3. My friend who runs one of these rescues

is one of those interviewed in this article. She's one of the kindest most generous and "can do" type of person you'd ever want to meet. She does more before sunrise than most people do in a day. She is a force to be reckoned with and I don't know how she's keeping it up.

She moved from her own small 10 acre property a couple of years ago to a larger 60 acre property so she could expand the number of horses she could care for. And it's not just about the horses - she works with disadvantaged kids. It's remarkable, the broken bodies and souls she knits back together.

I fear for her heart. It's all just so much.