Off Topic Theft at AHDF

Yesterday I went to the Post Office to collect the mail for AHDF. I opened the box and noticed immediately that something was wrong. The mail was open, letters outside of their envelopes. I immediately spoke with the clerks on duty and they couldn't offer an answer as to what happened. The postmaster was out so I would have to go back. Today I went in and spoke with the Postmaster who is "very sure" it didn't happen at his post office, the mail had to be tampered with before it got there.

One thing that was determined is that the mail was delayed. One letter was postmarked the 4th of August and it didn't arrive until the 18th of August.

We have determined that 3 letters are unaccounted for. We don't know if they were donations or letters. There is simply no way for us to find out. We do know that one person who called AHDF was planning on sending a large donation. The loss of a single dollar is devastating to our budget.

The AHDF operates 100% on donations and volunteers. With those donations we operate the AHDF website, the Horse Care Online website (where people can find info on caring for horses and can ask questions), care for horses in foster care, work on legislation and much more.

We will be pursuing all legal options and working to find out what happened to our mail. It was never in a public place where it could be stolen. It was at a post office where all mail SHOULD be safe. It is just incredibly sad how some people act and how low they will stoop. Another reminder how our world has changed and how unsafe it is.

New Bill to Protect Horses Introduced

A new bill has been introduced in the House to ban horse slaughter for human consumption, HR 6598. This version is different from HR 503 and the text of the bill is below, so you can read and make up your own mind. 6598 is an excellent alternative to HR 503, which is stalled in the House Committee on Agriculture.

6598 states clearly that horse slaughter is inhumane, something that welfare advocates and the public who have taken time to know the issue know only too well. Horse slaughter is a brutal and cruel process from the beginning to the end. In auction houses the horses who are destined for slaughter are jammed together in overcrowded pens. Kill-buyers, who obtain and transport the horses to slaughter, are just out to fill a quota and transport the horses without food, water or rest for days. Treating the unlucky horses as if they are already dead. The treatment and killing of the horses in slaughter plants is so horrific that people have become physically ill watching the process.

At this time there are only 12 cosponsors plus the sponsor for a total of 13. Some people believe that we need hundreds of cosponsors for a bill to pass, that isn't true. A bill can pass with little or no cosponsors. What is most important is the votes a bill gets on the floor. However, we need to have as many cosponsors as possible to move the bill forward. Since the bill is similar in goal to HR 503, gaining cosponsors should be fairly easy. Just contact your Congressperson and ask them to support HR 6598. If you don't know who your Congressional Representative is you can go to www.house.gov and enter your zip code to find out.

The issue with this bill is time. We have VERY limited time to get this through the House and Senate and signed by the President before the current session of Congress ends.

The bill HR 6598 has a hearing scheduled in the House Judiciary Committee, sub-committee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security on July 31, 2008 at 9:30 am. You can call or fax the members of the committee and ask them to support the bill. Their contact information is below.

Please don't forget to contact your Congressperson and ask him/her to support the bill, HR 6598.

110th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 6598

To amend title 18, United States Code, to prohibit certain conduct relating to the use of horses for human consumption.

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the `Prevention of Equine Cruelty Act of
2008'.

SEC. 2. SLAUGHTER OF HORSES FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION.

(a) In General- Chapter 3 of title 18, United States Code, is
amended by adding at the end the following:

`Sec. 50. Slaughter of horses for human consumption

`(a) Except as provided in subsection (b), whoever knowingly--
`(1) possesses, ships, transports, purchases, sells,
delivers, or receives, in or affecting interstate commerce
or foreign commerce, any horse with the intent that it is to
be slaughtered for human consumption; or
`(2) possesses, ships, transports, purchases, sells,
delivers, or receives, in or affecting interstate commerce
or foreign commerce, any horse flesh or carcass or part of a
carcass, with the intent that it is to be used for human
consumption;
shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three
years or both.
`(b) If--
`(1) the defendant engages in conduct that would otherwise
constitute an offense under subsection (a);
`(2) the defendant has no prior conviction under this
section; and
`(3) the conduct involves less than five horses or less than
2000 pounds of horse flesh or carcass or part of a carcass;
the defendant shall, instead of being punished under that
subsection, be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than
one year, or both.
`(c) The Attorney General shall provide for the humane placement
or other humane disposition of any horse seized in connection with
an offense under this section.
`(d) As used in this section, the term `horse' means any member of
the family Equidae.'.
(b) Clerical Amendment- The table of sections for chapter 3 of
title 18, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the
following new item:
`50. Slaughter of horses for human consumption.'

Committee Member Phone Fax Cosponsor HR 503

Chair: John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) 202-225-5126 202-225-0072 YES YES
Rank: Lamar Smith (R-TX) 202-225-4236 202-225-8628 NO NO

Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) 202-225-2906 202-225-6942 NO YES
Howard L. Berman (D-CA) 202-225-4695 202-225-3196 NO YES
Rick Boucher (D-VA) 202-225-3861 202-225-0442 NO YES
Chris Cannon (R-UT) 202-225-7751 202-225-5629 NO NO
Steve Chabot (R-OH) 202-225-2216 202-225-3012 YES NO
Howard Coble (R-NC) 202-225-3065 202-225-8611 NO NO
Steve Ira Cohen (D-TN) 202-225-3265 202-225-5663 NO YES
Artur Davis (D-AL) 202-225-2665 202-226-9567 NO NO
Bill Delahunt (D-MA) 202-225-3111 202-225-5658 NO YES
Keith Ellison (D-MN) 202-225-4755 202-225-4886 NO YES
Tom Feeney (R-FL) 202-225-2706 202-226-6299 NO NO
J. Randy Forbes (R-VA) 202-225-6365 202-226-1170 NO NO
Trent Franks (R-AZ) 202-225-4576 202-225-6328 NO NO
Elton Gallegly (R-CA) 202-225-5811 202-225-1100 NO YES
Louie Gohmert (R-TX) 202-225-3035 202-226-1230 NO NO
Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) 202-225-5431 202-225-9681 NO NO
Luis V. Gutierrez (D-IL) 202-225-8203 202-225-7810 NO YES
Darrell Issa (R-CA) 202-225-3906 202-225-3303 NO NO
Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX) 202-225-3816 202-225-3317 NO YES
Hank Johnson (D-GA) 202-225-1605 202-226-0691 NO YES
Jim Jordan (R-OH) 202-225-2676 202-226-0577 NO NO
Ric Keller (R-FL) 202-225-2176 202-225-0999 NO YES
Steve King (R-IA) 202-225-4426 202-225-3193 NO NO
Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) 202-225-3072 202-225-3336 NO YES
Dan Lungren (R-CA) 202-225-5716 202-226-1298 NO NO
Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) 202-225-5635 202-225-6923 YES NO
Mike Pence (R-IN) 202-225-3021 202-225-3382 NO NO
Linda T. Sanchez (D-CA) 202-225-6676 202-226-1012 NO NO
Adam Schiff (D-CA) 202-225-4176 202-225-5828 NO YES
Robert C. Scott (D-VA) 202-225-8351 202-225-8354 YES NO
F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr. (R-WI) 202-225-5101 202-225-3190 NO NO
Brad Sherman (D-CA) 202-225-5911 202-225-5879 NO YES
Betty Sutton (D-OH) 202-225-3401 202-225-2266 YES NO
Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) 202-225-7931 202-226-2052 YES NO
Maxine Waters (D-CA) 202-225-2201 202-225-7854 NO YES
Melvin L. Watt (D-NC) 202-225-1510 202-225-1512 NO YES
Anthony Weiner (D-NY) 202-225-6616 202-226-7253 NO YES
Robert Wexler (D-FL) 202-225-3001 202-225-5974 NO YES

BLM's Proposal to deal with "excess" horses

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has in its infinite wisdom has removed over 75,000 horses from the wild since 2001. While allowing over 4 MILLION cattle to remain grazing on public lands that were set aside for the preservation of the wild horses and burros.

Many of these removed wild horses end up in long term holding facilities. At its best the adoption program could only adopt out between 5,000 to 8,000 wild horses into homes (actual adoption rates fall far short of these numbers, especially in times of economic hardship like those facing the country right now). This means most of the horses removed eventually end up at the long-term holding facilities. It is no surprise to those who follow the issue that there are over 30,000 wild horses in these facilities at a cost to the tax payer of over $26 million a year ($10.9 million for long term holding and $15.5 million for short term holding where many long term horses are housed until they can find a place in one of the overcrowded facilities). At best wild horses are held for approximately 200 days by the BLM before adoption.

Many wild horse advocates have warned over the years that the aggressive removal program that the BLM was advocating would lead to issues such as this, but the BLM was determined to remove as many horses as possible. Shocking, but now the BLM says that they have too many horses in long-term holding! Their solution? To kill all the horses in those facilities. It would save money and it would free up more budget to remove even more horses. So, in a few years there would be an overflow of horses once again who would all need to be shot (they also want to shoot horses on the range so they don't have to remove quite as many horses). With such a plan in place is it crazy for wild horse advocates to say the goal of the BLM to destroy the wild horses?

I should say here that the BLM has authority to euthanize horses under the 1971 law. This authority was given to them to allow them to put down horses with extreme injuries or who were suffering. The BLM already uses this authority to destroy healthy horses with any type of deformity or illness during removals. However, in previous years when they sought Congressional approval or budget for mass euthanasia, Congress has not approved such measures.

A report prepared by American Herds (posted July 9, 2008) says that there are currently so few horses remaining in the wild that they may already be in danger of becoming extinct. The report shows that the process that the BLM uses to estimate the number of wild horses living wild on the range is flawed and their estimated number of 33,000 is off by approximately 20,000. If the report is correct, and the research was intensive and can be checked by anyone who can add, the current number of wild horses residing on the range is closer to 13,500 to 16,000. The BLM says that the Appropriate Management Level (AML) for the range of over 125 million acres is around 25,000 horses. According to the BLM this is the total number of horses that the range can support.

The BLM states that they arrive at the AML by taking a number of factors into account, including range health. According to the BLM wild horses and burros do more damage to the range than cattle or sheep. Wild horse advocates charge that this is a blantant falsehood. I did a simple search on Google and found that even Wikipedia disagrees with this charge. According to Wikipedia "Researchers note that most current Mustang herds live in arid areas which cattle cannot fully utilize due to the lack of water sources. Horses are better adapted by evolutionary biology to such climates.^[17]; they may range nine times as far from water sources as cattle, traveling as much as 50 miles a day.^[18] This allows them to utilize areas not grazed by cattle. In addition, horses are "hindgut fermenters," meaning that they digest nutrients by means of the cecum rather than by a multi-chambered stomach. In practical effect, horses can obtain adequate nutrition from poorer forage than can cattle, surviving in areas where cattle will starve.^[18]"

However, wild horses are blamed for all rangeland degradation. The BLM is in the process of removing wild horses in areas where they are "starving" or because water holes have dried up. In the recent removals of wild horses observers noticed that while horses being removed were fat and fit. In response the BLM issued statements that the horses were being removed under emergency orders because the horses might possibly starve, not because they were.

The BLM also proposes gelding stallions and returning them to the wild. This may sound, on the face, like a good idea to control herd growth, but it has far reaching problems. Gelding stallions would create a problem with herd structures as well as inhibiting herd health and viability. Geldings would suffer greatly in the wild. They would be targeted by unaltered stallions and create an break in the strict societal structure of herd life. In the herd area that is on Nellis Air Force Base the BLM proposes removing ALL wild horses and replacing them with a total gelding herd. This would ensure that when the last gelding died of whatever, no horses would remain on that herd management area. PZP is the preferred method of birth control because it is reversible and allows the animal to contribute to the genetic pool, but with the herds at dangerously low levels in most areas it is not needed at this time. Gelding removes those genes from the pool forever because it is not reversible and it disrupts the herd dynamics to the point of putting the herds in danger on a number of levels. It is simply another way the BLM proposes to remove every horse from the range.

I was recently told by a reporter that my suggestion that the BLM was mis-managing the program which could lead to the extinction of wild horses was overly dramatic because the BLM would lose funding if they didn't have the program. That is untrue. The BLM oversees many programs, the wild horse and burro program is simply one of many programs. The BLM is an agency under the Department of the Interior and would continue to receive funding to oversee the grazing of cattle and other livestock, other wildlife, mining, drilling and public land use. They do NOT need the horses to justify their existence. I stand by my statement that the BLM has abused the wild horse and burro program, mis-managing it to the point that it has become a fraudulent use of taxpayer funds.


As of this writting the BLM is under investigation by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). When the GAO previously investigated this issue they found that the BLM was not properly administering the program. However, the investigation was stopped short. We sincerely hope that this time the GAO, who is supposed to be unfettered in their investigations, is allowed to pursue the issue completely. Their preliminary report is due in September 2008 to Congress. Congressman Rahall and Congressman Grajalva have asked the BLM to postpone any actions toward killing any horses in long term holding facilities until the GAO report is complete. They have also asked for answers to a number of questions. In previous years the BLM has not responded well to such inquiries. Hopefully, they will be more forthcoming with this request as these Congressmen head the committee that funds the BLM.

The government needs to have the wild horse and burro program taken over by another agency, preferably a new agency without the same conflicts of interest so our wild horses and burros can survive for our future generations as Congress intended when they passed the law for their protection in 1971.

If you would like to voice your opinion on the BLM's proposal you can call a special number they have set up for public input 1-800-710-7597. You can also donate to a variety of programs designed to help the horses, including the AHDF.

A note from Sen. Landrieu

Thank you again for signing on as a citizen co-sponsor of my legislation to stop the slaughter of thousands of American horses. Though a recent court ruling has curbed horse slaughter in our country, these beautiful animals remain vulnerable to being shipped across our borders to slaughterhouses everyday. That's why I introduced the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act to ban the export of our horses for slaughter -- and thanks to people like you, over 4,500 people have joined me and co-sponsored my bill to protect our horses!

Now, it's time to bring the attention of my fellow Senators to this often-ignored but important issue. Already, 38 Senators have joined me in co-sponsoring the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act -- and with your help, we can convince even more of of them to safeguard our horses.

Click here to email your Senators, urging them to co-sponsor the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act today!

I'm proud to be sponsor of a bipartisan solution to the needless and inhumane slaughter of horses. Every year, tens of thousands are crammed into overheated, double-decker trailers and transported across our borders. Many do not even survive the journey, and the ones that do are slaughtered in unnecessarily brutal ways. This practice must be stopped -- but I need your help to do it.

With a crowded legislative calendar and the usual distractions of a presidential election year, it has been difficult to bring the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act to a floor vote in the Senate. But together, we can finally address putting an end to horse slaughter.

Click here to email your Senators, urging them to co-sponsor the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act today!

I'm committed to fighting against this despicable practice until the Senate passes a law to protect our horses -- but I can't do it alone, and I'll need your help to get the job done.

Thank you so much for your support,

Sincerely,

Mary Landrieu
U.S. Senator

P.S. It will only take a minute of your time to email your Senators -- we've provided a letter template for you, and we will automatically deliver your email to the appropriate Senators. Click here to email your Senators, urging them to co-sponsor the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act today!

Win in Keeping Cavel Closed

The Supreme Court has decided not to hear an appeal by the Cavel slaughter plant in Illinois.

The plant was forced to close when the Illinois state legislature passed a law prohibiting the slaughter of horses. Cavel filed a case stating the law was un-Constitutional. The Federal Court allowed the plant to operate while they were deciding the case. However, the lower court upheld the law forcing the plant to close in 2007. Cavel had hoped that the Supreme Court would overturn a decision, but in rejecting to hear the case they have basically agreed with the lower court's decision and Cavel will not reopen.

While this is incredibly good news for those who support a ban on horse slaughter it isn't the end of horse slaughter. Horses are now being shipped to Mexico and Canada where their slaughter methods are horrific for the animals and making it even harder for owner to recover their stolen horses or horses obtained through fraud.

In Texas, where their law was finally upheld and 2 slaughter plants were closed, they are using state facilities to ship horses into Mexico. While the majority of Texans are opposed to the slaughter of horses and stood up for their 1949 law to be upheld, state resources are still being used to promote horse slaughter.

In California where horse slaughter is illegal, some auctions are openly selling horses to kill buyers and the law is being ignored and these horses are going to slaughter in Mexico.

Feedlots are springing up in the north to funnel horses to Canada.

The answer? Ask Congress to pass pending legislation to protect our American Horses. Ask your Representatives to support and push for the passage of HR 503 and your Senators to support and call for a vote on S 311. These bills have been stalled for far too long and the people deserve a vote on the issue. No other bill with the support these bills have has ever been denied a vote for as long as these bills have.

The Truth About the AQHA and Horse Slaughter

More often than not this forum is me posting information that I or others from the American Horse Defense Fund (AHDF) have collected and our articles. It isn't that there aren't a number of other great folks working on the issue, it's just that they usually have a forum themselves to say what they want to say. However, there are times when other's work is compelling and should be shared, especially when it's reach is limited.

There has long been speculation about the connection between the AQHA and their promotion of horse slaughter. We know that PMU breeders worked out a deal with the AQHA to register the foals that are produced as a result of the PMU industry (usually a cross between a Quarter Horse and a Draft). The AQHA profited by registering more horses and the PMU industry could profit by selling these foals for more money to individuals and introduce a preferred breed for the slaughter industry.

There are similar connections to most if not all of the organizations who support slaughter. Such as the AQHA sponsorship of certain AVMA and AAEP programs. See the following links
http://www.aqha.com/showing/news/2007rulechanges.html http://www.aqha.com/foundation/scholarships/scholarshiprecipients_2007.pdf http://www.aqha.com/foundation/index.html (This page shows that they fund many AAEP research programs and scholarships for vet students)

Anyway, enjoy this article by Duane Burright on the AQHA and their connection to horse slaughter.

SS

This article appeared online on the HorseTalk of New Zealand website on May 22, 2008 (see
link: http://www.horsetalk.co.nz/features/horseslaughter-149.shtml)

Quarter horse policies part of the problem, not the solution

An opinion piece by Duane L. Burright

A few weeks ago, I wrote an opinion piece which argued why the opponents of the American
Horse Slaughter Prevention Act (AHSPA) are wrong. Among these opponents is the American
Quarter Horse Association (AQHA), whose standard argument against the horse slaughter ban is
the old "unwanted horses" rhetoric that many people are familiar with. If you look at any of its
public statements on the AHSPA, the AQHA always acts as though it is concerned about horse
welfare. Since this organization keeps saying that we will be overrun by "unwanted horses" if the
horse slaughter business is shut down, one would think that they would be doing something to
keep the horse population in check.

But you'd be wrong.

The reality is that the AQHA recently registered their 5 millionth foal (see link:
http://www.aqha.com/news/2008%20Press%20Releases/182008fivemillionwinner.html) and that in 2007 the AQHA reported 140,000 registered foals. That is almost five times the number of registered Thoroughbred foals for the same year and is very close to the number of American
horses that were slaughtered in 2007 which, according to US Department of Agriculture records,
totals 122,459.

So how is it that so many American quarter horses are brought into the world in one year?

Three words answer this question, VOLUME VOLUME VOLUME, especially since the AQHA
endorses the use of artificial insemination. Using this method, a quarter horse (QH) breeder can
likely get 8 to 10 of his or her mares pregnant with just one visit to the farm stallion. Think about
this for a moment. The AQHA keeps arguing that slaughter is needed to prevent the United
States from being overrun by "unwanted horses" while QH breeders are busy churning out
140,000 registered foals in a year's time. Now if there is truly an "unwanted horse problem", why in the world does the AQHA appear to be sanctioning what could be referred to as "puppy mill" type breeding practices?

Quarter Horse breeders can make good coin on the horses which meet the breed group's
conformation standards, as can be seen by Googling "Quarter Horses For Sale" (see link:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Quarter+Horses+for+sale). As can be seen, the
average quarter horse can fetch a good price which targets the well-to-do horse owner.
But what about the rejects, the horses which don't meet those "perfect" conformation standards of the breed? Records show that quarter horses seem to show up at the slaughter plants in very high numbers as compared to other breeds (http://www.kaufmanzoning.net/horsemeat/DC/DCInventory10012004.htm). It would appear
large quarter horse breeding ranches dispose of horses that don't meet conformation standards by sending them directly to slaughter since they cannot sell the animal for the prices seen in my web search. This is the fate that their burned out breeding stock meets as well.
It does not appear to matter to them that many of these horses might make a good, cheap trail
horse for someone who doesn't have a lot of money. These breeders have no interest in selling
what could be considered a "grade" horse.

While doing some research I came across an article on the Animal and Plant Health Inspection
(APHIS) / USDA website (http://www.aphis.usda.gov/vs/nahss/equine/eva/EVA_2006_Multistate_USAHA.pdf) describing an outbreak of equine viral arteritis which originated at a large-scale quarter horse breeding facility in 2006. Mare management practices at the affected QH farms were described as an "intensive 'feed lot' system."

When you think of a "feed lot" you think of a place where livestock such as cattle or hogs are
fattened before slaughter. I certainly wouldn't characterize a feedlot with raising horses, but then I'm not the typical large-scale quarter horse breeder. When you consider that a former brand inspector at the now defunct Dallas Crown horse slaughterhouse described the quarter horse as the "slaughterer's breed" due to their bulky conformation and the records cited above, the feedlot reference becomes ironic.

Think about the profits quarter horse breeders can make by putting their industry's cast-offs on
the dinner plates of the Belgians with horse meat fetching $20 + per pound in that country. It's a
profitable little side business for them. Since the AQHA is the mouthpiece of these breeders,
perhaps this is the real reason the group is opposed to the AHSPA.

The position of the AQHA becomes clearer when you consider its support of practices that
encourage the spewing out of thousands of new foals in a year's time while repeatedly claiming
that slaughter is necessary to humanely dispose of "unwanted horses." I'd be willing to bet that
the "unwanted horse problem" the AQHA and AVMA keep repeating like a broken record was
really fabricated in a cigar-smoke-filled lobbyists' office - the type of place where Charles
Stenholm (see link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Stenholm) and now Conrad Burns,
known for the infamous "Burns Amendment" which basically gutted the Wild Horse and Burro
Protection Act of 1971 (see link:
http://www.wildhorsepreservation.com/resources/burns_story.html), make their living.

Anniversary of Bel-Tex Rescue

One year ago, on June 2,2007, a plan that had been worked on for several months paid off. The Friends of Barbaro and a few other individuals, including myself, had been working on saving a number of horses at a slaughter plant. The work began while one of the plants in Texas was open and culminated when they had closed but were shipping horses to Mexico. We managed to save a large number of pregnant mares and very young foals. Many of these horses ended up at an AHDF foster facility where nearly all have been adopted.

At the time we couldn't tell their story because it could have been dangerous for the volunteers who pulled it off (and we still will not give too much of that information) and it may have endangered the horses still on the lot and those we had hoped to save later. However, some of the information did slip out and any further rescues from the lot are impossible. So, now their whole story can be told. I can say that the funds raised by the FOBs was incredible and the dedication of those who worked tirelessly to save these animals was awe inspiring and I am incredibly proud to have been a part of the rescue efforts.

These horses were all headed to slaughter in Mexico from the Bel-Tex feedlot in Morton, Texas. The only thing that saved their lives was the fact that most were so heavily pregnant that they were in danger of giving birth on the trip, or that they had just given birth. These supposedly unwanted horses were incredibly difficult to save as it is Bel-Tex's policy not to release a horse once it hits their property, they must be slaughtered.

An agent was employed to negotiate the purchase of the mares and foals. A price was set for a small number under the pretenses that the horses were going into a breeding program. The original agreement was for 12 pregnant mares. Later the agent negotiated for even more horses. The original price was $500 a pair (mare and foal) but the final price for the horses ranged between $350 and $900 each. After the first load was removed the agent told the manager that the buyer would take as many as possible and as many horses as they would release were saved.

On 6-2 the first load of 12 horses were loaded on trailers to head to a foster home where they were separated and sent on to rescues across the country. 28 horses headed to the AHDF foster home the following week.

When the mares and some young foals arrived we had a vet check them out carefully. That is when we discovered our first problem. While most were in good condition, nearly all had strangles. This condition is not unusual at feedlots, most horses arrive in good health and contract it because of the poor mangement of the horses at the lots. In our case this meant that the foster home was quarantined until completely cleared. This took about 2 months. During this time we could not adopt out any horses.

This created a problem with finances as we had counted on early adoptions to help pay for the care of those needing longer term care. The FOBs paid for the first few round bales, but other than that there was no funds for long term care or the extensive vet bills. The bills mounted and we received less than $100 in donations during that time to help with the costs.

Once the horses were healthy and cleared by the vet we could begin to evaluate the horses and build back up their health for adoptions. Finally the adoptions began. Some could not be adopted because of their advanced pregnancy. We also found out that a few incredibly lucky horses were not even pregnant, they were just heavy animals! We were told that employees at the feedlot were breeding the mares to increase their weight. Thankfully it appears that the mares were not properly bred and there were no pregnancies from these actions.

Nearly all of the horses were handleable or had some training. While a few had little to no handling, all left with the ability to lead and have their hooves trimmed. All this from our foster home who was working with a fairly large herd with little to no assistance. All of the horses were/are beautiful. All (except for two older mares) were between the ages of newborn to 7. Nearly all were in decent to good condition until they got sick and recovered their health quickly, although a couple did take longer to get back into good condition. All have had or are getting training except an older wild mare.

A year later we have 3 mares from that group to find homes for. One is an older wild mare (around 20) and we are still looking for the best sanctuary situation for her. Our foster home reports that potential adopters are asking when we will get in more horses!

We are still accepting donations to assist with paying the bills we incurred with the Bel-Tex horses and the 14 mustangs that followed and for the care of those still awaiting adoption. You may make donations on our website or via Paypal (make payments to president@ahdf.org) or by mail to AHDF 1718 M St NW #191 Washington, DC 20036.

There ARE homes for these supposedly unwanted horses, even in the current economy. We have homes looking to add to their pastures even now.