Who knew you could pack nearly 60 horses into a double-decker trailer designed to haul pigs and cattle? The owner of those Belgian draft horses that were being hauled through Lake County obviously did. So far, 15 of them are dead with the remaining 44 safe at area farms.
The driver has been ticketed and national equine associations say they're going to fight to take those remaining horses away from the owner, who as of now remains a mystery.
And what were draft horses being hauled from Shipshewana, Ind. to allegedly an auction in Minneapolis? Equine folks tell The Hound they believe the steeds were headed to be slaughtered for pharmaceutical estrogen production someplace in Canada. Most of the horses were yearlings or two year olds, prime fodder for estrogen used in estrogen replacement therapy, The Hound is told.
Authorities have praised horse volunteers who rushed to the scene, taking them off the trailer one at time. Volunteers praise law enforcement for keeping a safe accident scene at Route 41 and Wadsworth Road, near the BP station. No humans were injured in the rescue attempt.
What did Gandhi say, something about the way we treat animals says something about a society?
The horses were probably by-products of the PMU ( Pregnant Mare Urine ) industry. In order to collect the urine, female horses
( many times draft breeds like these Belgians )are impregnated because that is the state the horses need to be so that their urine contains the estrogen used by Wyeth in their estrogen replacement drugs sold under names like Premarin. The resulting babies are usually sent to slaughter and many times shipped alive to Japan where baby horse meat is a delicacy. They like it fresh and not frozen so the babies must arrive alive in Japan and are then slaughtered. The babies are sometimes killed for their skin and used by Gucci,Fendi, etc. for shoes and handbags ( known in the fashion industry as "pony fur" ). It's not from ponies but from baby horses and they must be dead in order to be made into fashion accessories. So these poor unfortunate babies were born and thrown away like garbage by Wyeth, after all they only want the urine. The baby horses are merely a necessary but useless consequence of pregnant mares. So they are not slaughtered for their estrogen, rather slaughtered for their meat and shipped to France, Belgium and Japan. They came into being as a result of the estrogen producing phamaceutical company, Wyeth. There are many sites on the internet that will give you more information about this disgusting practice. I just hope that these poor, innocent baby horses will be given a chance at a real life as horses and not as steaks on dinner plates in Europe. They need to go to horse rescues!!!! Next, we need to stop the foreign slaughter of Americans horses for export by contacting our legislators and demanding that they co-sponsor the bills before them in the House and Senate. The legislation will stop the transport of horses to slaughter. In the Senate it is bill S 311 and in the House it is HB 503.
Federal guide lines for hauling livestock state that only hogs and sheep can be hauled on an upper deck, and that is only when the bottom deck is loaded to capacity. Live stock such as cattle and horses are not permitted to be hauled on the upper deck. Period. I'm sure it was a horrible site. Not one easily forgotten by the many, many there to help. Especially those not familiar with the horses. They are very vocal animals and I'm sure the screeming was intense. The calling. It was an extremely dangerous situation for all.
"Equine folks tell The Hound they believe the steeds were headed to be slaughtered for pharmaceutical estrogen production someplace in Canada"
About your comment above. Premarin, an estrogen, used by menopausal women, is not from 1 or 2 year old horses. It is extracted from the mare's urine while she is pregnant. After she gives birth, they have no need for the foals, hence they end up at the auction and soon the slaughterhouse.
Just want to clear something up -- the horses would not be used to produce estrogen. These horses could be the BYPRODUCTS of the PMU/Premarin (PRegnant MAre uRIN) industry, wherein pregnant female horses are confined in stalls and their urine collected and later refined into a pharmaceutical rich in estrogen. The babies that enable the estrogen production while in utero are, once born, just a side-effect -- they have been sold for slaughter on a regular basis, being large young tender horses.
There have been a lot of PMU farms in Canada, but these horses would not likely have been headed there -- though we don't yet really know where they were going, it's more likely they were headed for the Canadian slaughterhouses, to be turned into expensive frozen steaks for Europeans to eat.
THE HOUND SAYS: As of Oct. 30, authorities naively say the horses were headed from Indiana to Minnesota for an auction house for possible sale to Amish farmers.
The comment about the horses being 'slaughtered for pharmaceutical estrogen production' is wrong.
Premarin is obtained from the urine of pregnant mares. The mares are kept pregnant and the foals are the disposable part of the operation.
Please get your facts correct before writing articles.
THE HOUND SAYS: Perhaps a better wording would have been correct, but you must agree that without mares becoming pregnant there would be no urine for PMU. Thus, to this dog the foals' death is part of the process.
I am a horse owner and have been for many, many years. I have a great bond with each of them. I would never eat one of them any more than I would throw my dog on the spicket. How ever some do eat horse meat. So there is a market. If we really think about it, are the yearlings really any different than veal calves from the meat/milk market industry? Lets face it, the drug companies are as controling as the oil companies. They will always need mare urine, they will always get it, and there will ALWAYS be babies. You will never stop the slaughter. They will just be shipped alive to where ever they can be slaughtered. Now, here's the real problem. They are shutting the slaughter houses down. Trucking (shipping) is expensive. So in order to make money they have to pack 60 of them illegally and inhumanely into a double decked hog trailer to get them to the point of acceptance. In a sick sense it was some what fortunate, that this horrible accident occured. It opened up a huge can of worms that has no doubt been going on, unknown, for a time. Not only is it a cruel and totally unacceptable practice, it is of great danger to every one traveling near the over weight, top heavy, live load. If you think that's the first time that trip has been made in the same manner, you're in dream land. The DOT has been violated and I really hope they go at this with a very, very sharp pencil. I can't believe the driver only was only issued two citations. Tisk tisk.
THE HOUND SAYS: The investigation continues and we are told federal and state agencies are involved and will turn over what they find out to the Lake County Sheriff's Office.
It is obvious that "the Hound " doesn't have a clue.It is not just a matter of better wording,you have your facts totally confused. You can't get urine from dead horses. These were the babies of the mares used for estrogen production and they were obviously on their way to slaughter. If they were going to auction you would not pile one on top of the other.
This is to let everyone know that the horses on that trailer were not just Belgians. There was a mix of Belgian, Percheron and Clydesdale young horses and they were not just colts. There were fillys on board also. When you see the picture of the little black horse in the paper, she is a Percheron filly.
I raise Registered Belgians and it looks to me, from these pictures that some of these horses are weanlings, about 6 to 7 months old. I can tell by the size of their heads that they are about 500 - 600 lbs. (At least the two pictured) Though it may be true that the horses were headed for sale in MN, they most likely, because of the condition they were in, would not bring good prices and would have been picked up by the "meat man" and then sent on to Canada. I have heard through a friend that the surviving horses are now "dropping like flies" due to stress Colic. Pour babies, were probably bred in Indiana and bought at sale there. Poorer quality horses are pretty inexpensive now and unfortunately the new owner can buy cheap and sell higher somewhere where there are fewer horses. (or a market) I want to add that Responsible Belgian Breeders, both Amish and English, hate these transport practices. Please refrain from blame, this is one man's very bad deed, and hopefully, he will be brought up on charges. At the very least, lets hope the surviving animals are taken from him and he suffers that financial loss.
THE HOUND SAYS: Reports from the Wadsworth farm where the remaining horses are residing temporarily are they are on the mend. Death toll is at 16, according to our sources.
You have already been corrected about your misstatement on the production of estrogen.
In a perfect world, women who suffer from extreme menopause symptoms would not need Premarin.
In a perfect world, there would be homes for all horses.
In a perfect world, there would be no over breeding by racing industries.
In a perfect world, horse rescues wouldn't be over burdened by a huge influx of unwanted horses.
In a perfect world, there would not have been wide spread drought causing hay shortages and increased cost forcing some horse owners to reduce the size of their herds.
In a perfect world, there would be no need for slaughter of the unwanted, homeless horses.
In a perfect world, I would take everyone of them and care for them.
But, we don't live in a perfect world.
THE HOUND SAYS: Said perfectly.
Amen Karen. No one could have said it better.