I have been a horse person all my life. I can't imagine feeding my horse, that is almost 30, when he passes, to my dogs or any other dog. Or feeding any horse meat to my dogs. Just can't bring myself to do that. EVER!

 Quote: Anne Jones

I have been a horse person all my life. I can't imagine feeding my horse, that is almost 30, when he passes, to my dogs or any other dog. Or feeding any horse meat to my dogs. Just can't bring myself to do that. EVER!

Same here.

Oh good.... I though I was being silly. I'm glad to hear all you other horsey folk agree with me.

I <3 my ponies.
A close friend of mine.

When my friends horse was pts she donated it to the hunt for the hounds which apparently is a HUGE honour here, made me squeamish but I was told its the circle of life and to get a grip! not something I could do though....

The suppressed 10 year old girl inside me can't though.

I couldn't either.

 Quote: Betty Landercasp

Slaughter, IMO, done w/o fear, is not inhumane.

The problem with horses is in an industrialized setting, there is fear....and it starts the moment they arrive at the plant. Unlike cows who have been selectively bred as meat animals and through the years factory farming has adapted to them as much as they have to it, the horse has not. A cow will go without fight or fear into the kill area, hold still (within reason), take the bolt that has been designed for it, and then can be processed with minimal fear through the whole thing.

A horse will smell death upon arriving at the factory (sometimes sooner) stress will go up the moment it's crammed into even a properly filled trailer, a horse will resist the box where a horse moments before has died, it will panic when shut in there, it will avoid the bolt making a good shot difficult. The same things that make horses an intelligent trainable work animal, make them unsuitable for slaughter when it's done the same way it's done for cows....which in the US, it is. Yes it's better than a Mexican slaughterhouse or even a Canadian one (the main Canadian slaughter house for horses has a LOT of humane slaughter and disposal issues).

There are places in Europe where a horse is raised for slaughter on a farm, lives out it's life in a generally normal horsey way (not broken for riding obviously) they when it's fit and mature it's slaughtered right there on the farm by hand, sent off to be butchered and tada! Horse meat. That I would consider trying. I personally would NOT eat factory slaughtered horse meat nor would I give it to my dog. 1) Because of the humane issues and 2) I do not want the cocktails of drugs that go into failed race horses, the sick family pet, the horse from a shady dealer, etc in my or my dogs food, especially if I fed raw.

And quick thing on the people feeding low end food because they didn't do their research. Maybe you have a great vet but most of them will tell you pedigree is fine and VERY high quality, and the internet hasn't been around THAT long. People trust their vets like they trust their doctors, they have no reason to second guess them so they don't often search further into it, it's not a case of not caring or even not doing research....

If only they could all go like those at Dream Catchers, when their time came... We first bathe and groom the horse till they squeak and shine, then walk them the long way out to the "cemetary" allowing them to graze along the way (assuming this is not uncomfortable for them... if mildy uncomfortable, they will be medicated so they can enjoy the walk). They are fed their favorite treats, generally apples and peppermints. They are loved on, then painlessly pts by the vet who knows them, surrounded by barn staff who love them, and buried on site. We then have a memorial service open to all staff, riders and the public who treasures these amazing therapy horses.

It is never, ever easy, but I don't think we could do it any better if we tried.

Barbara that is awesome.

I know a woman who I used to work with had her dogs on pedigree for years. She told me that her dogs who had their longevity by eating Pedigree.

I researched it and for me personally I do not see why I would feed a processed food when I could feed my dogs raw. I understand however that not everyone can feed raw. But if I was going to feed my dog a dry food, pedigree would certainly not be what I would feed. Go on line and look up ingredients in pedigree dog food. You will find that it stinks, in my opinion. Sharon