Kiersten's post makes a ton of sense and is how I look at the dog food issue.

I think Pedigree is to be commended for shining a light on the shelter dog situation, marketing tool or not.

I think it is likely very challenging to produce mass quantities of dog food in a bag given the fact that cattle numbers are at their lowest point in the nation EVER and commodities in general are sky-high. Many cattle with minor injuries that would have been great for dog food are no longer processed due to PITA et al., these animals are shot on farm and buried. The fear of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (mad cow)has made it so cattle that are wobbly for any reason are not processed,they don't leave the farm. Horses are no longer slaughtered in the US -- Alpo used to = horse meat. So I think it's probably gotten tough to find quality protein for cheap, which is why feather meal,fish meal, "meat digest" etc. are included ingredients.

Not standing up for corporate america here, just think there are probably a ton of factors involved.

This is probably going to get me in a lot of trouble but- I really feel that if the horse market were reopened in the US, quality meat would be more readily available for our dogs. I love my horses just as much as my dogs but have seen the problems that have occured sending the horses over the border. A good portion of my dogs' raw diet comes from dairy cows that are to old or have an injury preventing them from being transported. The cost of beef products continue to rise making it a luxury item for many families to use in their diets and I have a feeling that most dog food companies will find it (and other protein sources) more cost prohibitive than they have in the past.

A slaughter facility for horses is essential in the US.
IMO its a huge waste to just let horses get old, lame, foundered, colic - they are mostly lean meat, most are fed nearly organically (largely pasture or hay), they are not pushed for growth like cattle.
I've got 3 of them I'd ship tomorrow if I thought the trip to the end and the end itself would not cause suffering.

Betty I agree that humane horse slaughter in the US is a good idea. There are plenty of horses that would be best used for dog food.

I do have to disagree that they are lean meat. The skinny horses are lean. Horses in good flesh have plenty of subcutaneous fat as well as marbling in the muscle, which is not a bad thing for the dogs who eat it.

My problem with horse slaughter, in the US or outside of it, is the HUMANE issue. a captive-bolt gun is NOT humane, as the men who are wielding it have no compassion, and little to no training as to where the 'kill spot' is. Ever watched the undercover video's of slaughter houses, both equine, cattle, and pork? Don't. It's a miserable place, and a miserable death where few animals find a fast painless end. JMHO, of course.

Betty- have you looking into game farms in your area? We have a local place up here in the NW that will take old stock. A well aimed shot, and they are recycled back into the food chain, feeding the retired 'movie star' carnivores that live there. Of course, it'd all be very individual as to the place, and owners, but I do trust our local game farm. I still have a hard time approving of what they do, simply because of my love for all things equine, but the bears deserve to eat too! Many times a good shot can be a more humane death then b-euthanasia solution. *Shrug* Sad. Moving on now.

 Quote: Kelly Byrd

My problem with horse slaughter, in the US or outside of it, is the HUMANE issue. a captive-bolt gun is NOT humane, as the men who are wielding it have no compassion, and little to no training as to where the 'kill spot' is. Ever watched the undercover video's of slaughter houses, both equine, cattle, and pork? Don't. It's a miserable place, and a miserable death where few animals find a fast painless end. JMHO, of course.

Luckily, the undercover videos represent a very small number of incidences among the thousands that go right. The AR groups that film them (the same groups that detest working dogs and lump responsible breeders in with puppy mills) Take these videos and refuse to release them until a politically important moment. They are also very heavily edited. Most slaughter plants have worked with Temple Grandin in order to audit their systems and make the animals' deaths as stress free as possible. I am a huge fan of these audits and feel that if we were able to do the same with horses it would be a much better end for them. I have stood and watched several captive bolt deaths (I didn't enjoy it but felt it was a necessary thing when I chose to become a farm wife) and it is nothing like the videos. You don't really know the animal has been put down until it falls. It is done with compassion and humanity actually. To say the people doing this lack compassion is incorrect. My dad worked at a cattle plant when I was little. So he could feed his family with the best paying job he could find in rural Iowa. He would have been a lifer had it not closed down and he is a very caring, empathetic person. Heck, he even has been known to shed a tear during a disney movie. Most people don't do the job because they enjoy it but because they don't want their kids to starve. I do agree that proper training on shot placement and good maintainace on the equipment is absolutely necessary to ensure the best end for our meat animals though. Sorry so long

The problem (IMO) isn't so much in the US meat plants- it's the out of country plants that cater to US horses.

Think about a cow or pigs head/neck assembly. Now compare it to a horse. The horse has a MUCH larger range of motion, and can really evade, if they feel the need. (and in the situations they are in, after being unloaded from a double decker trailer... they are in the ultimate prey animal state-of-mind) Terrible. JMO, though.

These kinds of slaughter houses (that get the exported US horses) I'd bet have never heard of Temple Grandin.

I agree, that a good bolt gun hit can be as good as it gets. Quick, painless, and literally over before they know what happened. Sad, that it's not how it happens for the large majority of equines that find themselves on a double decker trailer heading North, or South over the border.

Exactly the reasons that ethical hunters DON'T go for head shots.

You miss, or the animal so much as twitches and you end up hitting them in the jaw. Jaw shots aren't fatal........until after about 2-3 weeks.

I'll agree with that one. Most plants south of the border use a different method completely that doesn't even render the horse unconcious before processing begins. Just paralyzed by a spinal cut. It makes my stomach spin to think about where our government has chosen to send our horses. I wish that exportation was illegal and we were able regulate how the end of their life was carried out. Switzerland (I think) has a very effective and humane way of dealing with horse processing. It uses specific waiting periods for calming down the animals and the horses are individually walked down a long, spacious corridor to the chute. There are so many different things that could be implemented to end the issue we have now.

"I wish that exportation was illegal and we were able regulate how the end of their life was carried out. "


Yes to both.