DID YOU KNOW?

“Loose horses”: At a horse auction a loose horse is one who goes up for auction without a rider. These horses are usually doomed and will be purchased by a kill buyer if he is lucky, a rescue will purchase him as they are educated enough to preview the horses prior to auction and search out good prospects. Most people looking for a rideable horse will purchase a horse that is ridden into the ring. Many of the loose horses are great horses but were brought to auction by people who do not care what happens to the horse, could not or did not want to pay for a rider. Some did not know that having a rider might save their horse from a grizzly death at the hands of the kill buyers.

According to the New Holland horse Auction Veterinarian James Holt 20% of horses sold at New Holland go to slaughter. They are shipped live to slaughter plants in Mexico and Canada. Approximately 150 horses are sold every Monday. If his numbers are correct that’s 30 horses a week, 120 a month that go to slaughter. That is JUST for New Holland auction only. New Holland auction is notoriously known as a slaughter auction. I feel this fact is attributed to by their “loose horse” sale ideology. Many great horses have been pulled from kill buyer pens. As for me, I judge a person by the way they treat their animals. Kill buyers are heartless and I hope the faces and the screams of the horses they slaughtered haunt them for eternity.