The United Organizations of the Horse recently held an Implementation Summit that pulled together experts necessary to launch a comprehensive solution to help the horse industry start to recovery, and to stop the suffering of horses. Now they’re moving quickly to begin operations.
Russell Nemetz with the Northern Ag Network spoke with Sue Wallis about the United Organizations of the Horse via cell phone last week from Washington, DC about their effort to design and implement a humane system of horse processing.
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The organization is negotiating to take over ownership of the Cheyenne Stockyards facility which currently belongs to the Wyoming Livestock Board. This location will be the intake and rejuvenation facility where donated horses, and abandoned horses in poor condition will be provided veterinary supervised care, feeding, and supplementation to bring them back to health.
The facility will also be the place where horses are individually evaluated to determine if they have any potential extra training, or are suitable to be re-donated to youth programs, therapeutic riding programs, or similar situations.
Several other facilities elsewhere in Wyoming are being evaluated for suitability and necessary retrofit to ensure the humane handling of horses.
“The horse industry nation-wide has taken a brutal hit since the closure of the U.S. horse processing plants,” says Ted Pierce, a Wyoming rancher, “what we are doing is coming up with a common sense solution working with veterinarians, equine professionals, and experts to deal with the glut of unusable horses whose owners have no options.”
Despite constant attacks by radical animal activist groups, Sue Wallis says there remains a demand for horse meat.
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The horse industry was a $1.2 billion industry that employed 460,000 people working full-time with horses every day, and another 1.6 million who worked in indirect occupations. Since 2007 when the horse processing facilities in the United States were closed, the industry has been downsized and is being liquidated to the point that it will be cut in half, a 50{4d08edaf359bc2115b18a651716ebd427a137946ddca2143fa23b3ea721061e4} downsize, within very short order.
For more information, please visit www.unitedorgsofthehorse.org.
Source: United Organizations of the Horse
Posted by Russell Nemetz
