Marathon Pundit: Horse of a different color on abandoned equines story

Regular visitors to the blog are probably wondering why I've been posting so much about horses. Well, while my computer was broken last month, I did more actual newspaper reading, and I came across this AP story about the plummeting prices for horses because of the closing of two Texas slaughterhouses that processed equine meat for human consumption--the meat was then shipped overseas.

Had my desktop not been tabled, I would've missed it.

Late last month, America's last horse meat processing plant, owned by Cavel International, closed its DeKalb, Illinois facility.

The writer of the AP story, Jeffrey McMurray, in addition to reporting on the plummeting price of horses at auctions, made the claim, that as a result of the closing of the two Texas plants--the Illinois one was open at the time--horses were being abandoned in Eastern Kentucky's abandoned strip mine area.

Horse lovers vehemently deny this, saying the horses have roamed there for years--and there haven't been any notable increases in the size of those herds.

However, yesterday's Lexington Herald-Leader backs up their claims.

"This stuff about them being dumped here is not true," said Eugene Watkins, 71, of Quicksand. Nearly all the horses he has seen appear well-fed and healthy, Watkins said. "I've not seen any starved horses. People come up here and feed them in the winter."

The Humane Society of the United States -- the nation's largest animal-protection organization and a leading horse slaughterhouse opponent -- suspects political sabotage.

"We have no information to support this rampant and contrived speculation," said Wayne Pacelle, the group's president and chief executive officer.

This is a story I'll be keeping an eye on.

Now I want to address some of the comments made on my prior horse posts by the horse lovers.

Cavel is a Belgian company, and the horse lovers mentioned that several times in the comments. I'm a supporter of open markets--it's one of the characteristics that makes our economy the greatest the world has known. Cavel was operating in this company in a legitimate, if somewhat unsavory (to the animal lovers) fashion.

Other commenters chimed in that the meat processing plants employed illegal aliens. Sadly, lots of companies, large and small, do the same thing. If, and I say if, Cavel and the two Texas companies, Beltex and Dallas Crown, that were in the horse killing business, did knowingly hire illegal aliens, that is a problem and they should be prosecuted for that. But the burden of proof is on the accusers--as it should be.

How about this piece of idiocy: The author of the controversial Associated Press article that caught my eye, Jeffrey McMurray, is primarily a basketball writer, and knows nothing of horses. How do they know that he's ignorant on equines? Besides, Mitch Albom, who once toiled mostly as a sports columnist, somehow managed to author the best-seller, The Five People You Meet in Heaven.

There's a network of shelters of horses that can take in all unwanted horses is another mantra that was repeated in the comments. This AP story, not written by McMurray, paints a different picture.

As I've learned more about horses, I discovered that the price of animal feed is going up. Why is that? Ethanol. Corn is the hot crop now, and since so much of that corn grown is used for animal feed, the ethanol industry is driving up the price for horse feed, even though horse prefer other grains.

And that may mean more unwanted horses. Those herds of horses in Eastern Kentucky that some say are getting bigger--might end up indisputably larger soon.

Related posts:

Abandoned horses in Eastern Kentucky

Horses reprieve from slaughterhouse only temporary: UPDATED

Hey, another horse slaughter post

Last US horse slaughterhouse shut down, unwanted horse problem will worsen

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