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Log in‘Crisis situation’
‘Crisis situation’
by Outspoken on Thu Nov 20, 2008 6:49 am
‘Crisis situation’
Requests to send horses to rescue ranches in Maine at record level
By Sharon Kiley Mack
Staff Writer Bangor Daily News
At Last Chance Ranch in Troy, volunteers are mucking out stalls on a cold winter morning, tossing the horses hay, and giving some much needed brushing and attention to the rescued horses sheltered here. Their winter coats are filling in and they look velvety and healthy.
CarolAnn Spreda of Albion is asked “How many rescues are here?”
“Fourteen,” she answers.
“How many do you have room for?”
“Fourteen,” she repeats.
Yet that is no where near the number that is needed.
“Maine’s horse industry is in crisis,” Last Chance owner Mary Myshrall said Wednesday. “I get calls every day from people looking to surrender their horses. People are terrified of what is coming next.”
The high cost of grain, hay and veterinary care, combined with today’s economic crisis across the country and a general horse overpopulation, has horse owners surrendering their animals in record numbers, unable to feed and financially care for them over the winter.
“They are having a hard time feeding themselves, much less their horses,” Spreda said.
Hay that was $1 a bale last year, is now $4 a bale. A 50-pound bag of grain that was $8.50 is now at $15.
It’s not just backyard horse owners that are struggling.
“I had one phone call from a breeder who needed to get rid of 18 pregnant brood mares,” Myshrall said. “That’s 36 horses, in the end.” Myshrall predicted that since every equine rescue and shelter in Maine is full, those 18 horses will either be sold to meat markets or euthanized.
“There are days that I just sit down and cry,” she said. “This is a crisis situation and a vicious cycle. Breeders keep breeding and dumping the sub-quality or ill horses, meat buyers only want the best and fattest horses, so the ill, the old, the infirm — that’s what ends up at the rescues. And no one wants them. What is the differ-ence between an owner euthanizing their horse and me euthanizing it? Responsibility.”
http://www.bangordailynews.com/detail/93632.html
BANGOR DAILY NEWS PHOTOS BY KATE COLLINS
Requests to send horses to rescue ranches in Maine at record level
By Sharon Kiley Mack
Staff Writer Bangor Daily News
At Last Chance Ranch in Troy, volunteers are mucking out stalls on a cold winter morning, tossing the horses hay, and giving some much needed brushing and attention to the rescued horses sheltered here. Their winter coats are filling in and they look velvety and healthy.
CarolAnn Spreda of Albion is asked “How many rescues are here?”
“Fourteen,” she answers.
“How many do you have room for?”
“Fourteen,” she repeats.
Yet that is no where near the number that is needed.
“Maine’s horse industry is in crisis,” Last Chance owner Mary Myshrall said Wednesday. “I get calls every day from people looking to surrender their horses. People are terrified of what is coming next.”
The high cost of grain, hay and veterinary care, combined with today’s economic crisis across the country and a general horse overpopulation, has horse owners surrendering their animals in record numbers, unable to feed and financially care for them over the winter.
“They are having a hard time feeding themselves, much less their horses,” Spreda said.
Hay that was $1 a bale last year, is now $4 a bale. A 50-pound bag of grain that was $8.50 is now at $15.
It’s not just backyard horse owners that are struggling.
“I had one phone call from a breeder who needed to get rid of 18 pregnant brood mares,” Myshrall said. “That’s 36 horses, in the end.” Myshrall predicted that since every equine rescue and shelter in Maine is full, those 18 horses will either be sold to meat markets or euthanized.
“There are days that I just sit down and cry,” she said. “This is a crisis situation and a vicious cycle. Breeders keep breeding and dumping the sub-quality or ill horses, meat buyers only want the best and fattest horses, so the ill, the old, the infirm — that’s what ends up at the rescues. And no one wants them. What is the differ-ence between an owner euthanizing their horse and me euthanizing it? Responsibility.”
http://www.bangordailynews.com/detail/93632.html
BANGOR DAILY NEWS PHOTOS BY KATE COLLINS
"Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything."
Plato (427-347 BC)
Plato (427-347 BC)
