Posted by Antoinette Smith on 4/9/2005, 4:13 am So, let’s see, are there any unwanted horses???? Link: United States Equine Sanctuary & Rescue
208.19.250.81
Summit on Unwanted Horses, April 19, 2005
Washington, DC, at the annual meeting of the American Horse Council. The American Association of Equine Practitioners announced that it would continue its opposition to the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act, during its Annual Meeting. The American Veterinary Medical Association recently announced that its executive board approved of it actively pursuing the defeat of the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act, because of the potential for the bill to negatively affect horse welfare.
In looking at the overall population of horses in the US, nearly 7 million, only 65,000 go to slaughter annually, according to my calculator this is 9/10's of 1 percent of our national herd population. This is the number pro-slaughter (AVMA/AAEP) has designated as the overpopulation. However, if there were only one slaughterhouse in the US and it's capacity for slaughter was 20,000 horses annually then this would be the designated number of "unwanted" horses - the overpopulation count. If there were 4 slaughterhouses with a combined capacity to slaughter 100,000 annually, then this would be the designated overpopulation number of (unwanted) horses.
The numbers of the overpopulation problem perceived by the AVMA/AAEP are based on the number of horses the three slaughterhouses are capable of slaughtering, they are set by the slaughterhouses. Going by their calculations, in the 80's we were running at approximately 300,000 unwanted horses annually - or an overpopulation of 300,000, because this was the capacity of the US slaughterhouses at that time.
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