Here’s a thought provoking post on 03/23/11 by Ray Paulick on the Paulick Report:
http://www.paulickreport.com/index.php/news/ray-s-paddock/the-200-million-question/
Around this time last year, the board of directors of the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation held a facilitated, day-long retreat to discuss a myriad of challenges facing the organization.
There was an ambitious agenda of items to discuss, but for me the overwhelming issue dealt with something I wrote about last week: too many horses, not enough money.
To draw attention to the issue I found a magazine cover I remembered from my college days, the January 1973 issue of National Lampoon, a now-defunct humor rag. It was the “death” issue of the Lampoon, and the cover depicted a frightened looking dog with a gun pointed to its head. The cover line read: “If you don’t buy this magazine, we’ll kill this dog.”
The board discussed that approach in connection with the TRF’s financial difficulties. Should we send a message to the industry and its various stakeholders that says, “If you don’t support the TRF, these horses will die”?
The debate focused mostly on whether or not the message would help or hurt fundraising efforts. (It didn’t help National Lampoon that much. It went out of business not long after that issue was published.) What we avoided that day was a serious adult conversation about whether or not we would follow up on our threat, and euthanize 200 horses to get the TRF herd to a more manageable number that could be sustained financially.
I have long believed that euthanasia is necessary when money cannot be raised to support the quality of life an animal deserves. I personally see it as an unfortunate but realistic necessity and a far better alternative to neglect or slaughter (which, along with the unhappy ending, brings with it the terrible transportation issues that the federal government was to have solved many years ago but has not).
Others disagree, and while I respect their opinions, I have always asked them to suggest a solution other than euthanasia when the money just isn’t there to support a horse that no one else wants.
I did the same thing last week in writing that there are no easy answers to the TRF’s financial challenges. Sure, some people said simply, “Feed your horses,” but I wonder if they also sent a donation to the TRF or other Thoroughbred retirement charity to help and have taken an active role in fundraising from their contacts. Others said to “raise more money” or “cut your administrative costs.” It’s hard to do both at the same time.
Many believe every Thoroughbred born deserves to live out his or her life without the threat of euthanasia or neglect. In a perfect world, that would happen. This world is far from perfect. Nevertheless, many people set that idealistic goal and do everything they can to achieve it.
How easy would that be?
Here are some eye-opening numbers:
- There are an approximately 100,000 unwanted horses from all breeds born each year; some estimates have put Thoroughbreds at about 10%, of roughly one third of each year’s Thoroughbred foal crop, or 10,000 foals
- The cost of caring for a one horse, for one year, is approximately $2,300.
- The average horse lives to the age of 20.
Let’s do the math and be conservative. Let’s say there are 10,000 Thoroughbred foals that required needs, and the annual cost is $2,000. Let’s say they don’t enter the “unwanted” category until they are 10 years old, and they live another 10 years.
That’s 10,000 x $2,000 x 10. That means each Thoroughbred foal crop’s castoffs bring with them a $200 million price tag for lifetime care.
Who will pay?
Question.
If the TRF couldn’t do it properly, who will? Who can you trust to ensure an animal’s welfare?
If the answers were so easy, perhaps the solutions might have happened. They didn’t. Money is power in the horse business. It’s a win-win situation right now, for those who buy quality super cheap. If nothing pans out, they still make some coins back. It’s so sad…
That’s another reason the questions are so devisive. Horse people are a widely varied lot, aren’t they? “They” encompasses every single type of echelon you can imagine. I don’t believe for one second that EVERYbody out there is breeding 100 to 2. Those are the stupid people, who don’t understand what they are doing. It isn’t illegal to be stupid, sadly. There are horses raised exclusively for the slaughter market, to be shipped overseas.
Slaughter was taken off the table, in the USA. What changed? Did animal welafre improve? The answer seems to be no.
I’ll say this, and then you can all yell at me again. Until proper animal welfare is mandatory for all animals, ain’t nothin’ gonna change. Right now, it’s legal to be inhumane.
Hey, I hate it too.
Those scrawny sad, some obviously crippled, TB’s weren’t on a truck for slaughter. The money stops when the clock isn’t ticking towards their doom.
Saving them seems to provide the excitement, but the hard reality of ownership wanes. Good luck to them all.
Excuse me, but slaughter has NEVER been off the table in the US. We export as many horses to slaughter as we ever did when plants were operating in the US – they are just going Mexico and Canada. For the seller, absolutely nothing has changed. Take your horse to an auction and sell it to the killers – easy as pie. The only thing that will EVER get the breeder’s attention is for slaughter to be GONE. Even now they are blatantly flouting food safety rules by selling American horses at all. They don’t care if they kill someone, all that matters is $$$$.
These are not hard questions – or at least they shouldn’t be, and they wouldn’t be if the breed organizations cared one whit about the horses they are bringing into the world. It’s not just TB breeders. In fact, the AQHA is actually worse with more Quarter Horses going to slaughter every year than TBs. Jan had an excellent suggestion that wouldn’t cost these breeders enough that they would even MISS it.
After hearing more than one QH breeder whine about only getting 2 good horses out of every 100 foals, I have to wonder just WHAT these idiots are doing. If I were that bad at breeding, I don’t think I would advertise it… How about if the AQHA would STOP handing out breeding incentives? That would surely help. If they ALL acted like they understood the marketplace like other “producers” must do – like, don’t acquire more product than you can possibly sell in current market conditions. Nah. These sleaze balls don’t even know there has been a recession – and why should they? As long as slaughter is even a REMOTE possibility, nothing will get any better. Take slaughter OFF THE TABLE (no pun intended believe me.) and they will have to shape up or ship out. I have lost all hope they they will do the right thing unless they are FORCED to.
Excellent article, thanks for posting. Hard questions, indeed.
This is the deal. The life span of horse is no secret. For years owners with hearts have ensured their horses have retirement, either on the owners’ land if possible or someone else who has no interest in making money off it. The industry that breeds these horses and makes the handsome living should, without a doubt in my mind, take a percentage of each income produced (no costs deducted) on each horse and contribute to a demanding fund. There should be no volunteer to it. How could any group of people romanticize the real blood horse in order to hide the fact that most (and I have heard from rescues that 1/3 to 1/4 of their horses are off track TBs) horses end up to slaughter. When I think of the jets, parties, beautifully kept lawns of farms, and also the rundown and producing 50-100 foal farms – I become furious that the trade in horseflesh is so irresponsible. And I was raised near Bay Meadows and because I read of stories of horses buried on owners’ farms, I was sure all the horses were cared for in the same manner. I have been deceived in the most ethically void manner – the horse industry has been glorifying their involvement with this animal and once out of the spotlight of public events have in the night loaded up their failures or breakdowns onto trucks headed to a tormented end. Shameful! The industry of all horses is a multi-BILLION industry. And horses are still to this day dumped at feedlots with injuries, diseased, wounds from harnesses, old – to be beaten by further but more obvious negligent handlers.
Surely – surely a solution is at your fingertips. Even .1% of every dollar earned/spent/won by the horse would provide every rescue/sanctuary ever thought of or in existence with land, food for the horses and MODEST income for the farm owners or non-profit. Its not that hard – just letting go of that almighty dollar is. Selfish!!