[Dana Ramey]

OMG that is so sad , I can't belive some people can be so heartless It breaks me heart !!!

when I was a kid my parents lived in the city, i had a pet rabbit named flower he was black with one flopped ear and one straight up, I loved that rabbit I had a harness and use to walk it around the block, anyway one day my parents neighbours ( non english speaking chinese) came into my parents yard and well butchard my rabbit !! and took him home for supper I was devistated!!! my parents house backed onto a man made lake and another time they where down there caught a couple ducks ( they where tame,a house across the lake tamed them and looked after them they where hurt as ducklings) anyway my mom got a hold of fish and wild life and they found the ducks in his garage in a cage with his knives they where about to be that nights supper too!! but they saved them. all this happend 19years ago now ... man i feel old
R.I.P Flower my poor black bunny

[Beeks]

It is not illegal to kill and eat horse in the U.S. It is illegal to kill it for the purpose of commercial sale. If you, I or the neighbor down the road wants to have a horse BBQ, we are all well within legal parameters to do so. I don't think the slaughter issue has anything to do with these horses being killed and everything to do the the seedy subculture of the areas in which they are being killed.

Fighting Pit breeders, satanic cult followers, etc comes to mind, when I hear horrific stories such as these. There is no compassion for the animal being slaughtered.

If hunger were the issue, the goat population is far greater than the horse population and the goat can be quietly stolen an put in a vehicle, even a small one, and taken to an isolated place and quietly butchered.

The sensationalism of these killings leads me to believe it is more than just killing out of need, or black market greed. It makes no sense to me, that someone would pay $20-40 a pound for horse meat when they could buy and butcher one for around $6.

Whoever is doing this, I hope they are caught and punished effectively, but I doubt that will happen. All we can do as horse owners is be much more vigilant. Perhaps I should start breeding Anatolian Shepards.

[KristinJ]

Wow that is just sickening!!! I hope they find those guys and torture the sh!t out of them! My horses are in my backyard and if I hear one strange noise I am out there with a flashlight but it still worries me ...

[mftx4]

The problem with flying out the door with a flashlight is that you don't know what these people are capable of. Hopefully they are cowards and would run. I understand what your saying Beeks. Was it just as prevalent when the slaughter houses were open? I also realize that it's legal to slaughter your own horse for what ever reason you choose. If people are willing to pay up to $40 a pound, do you think it's Joe Bow down the street that's buying it? Probably not. The little guy that's out of work and has a family to feed? I doubt it. It's the guy driving the Rolls Royce. The meat is considered exotic, just like alligator, ostrich or elephant. People eat those too.

[Beeks]

It just doesn't make sense to me though. Why would a man whose lifestyle allows Bentleys or Rolls Royces, eat black market meat.....black market horse meat at that. Buy a fat healthy unmedicated horse and have your kitchen staff feed it to you everyday. Now if we are talking elephants or panther or something, than yes, it would have to be purchased on the black market, but not horse.

It is the horror with which they kill, that makes me think it is more than greed or hunger. I am not bashing Floridians but the underbelly of Miami subculture is seedy, dangerous and without mercy.

If you want to illegally kill an animal and get away with it, why on the earth are you using a chain saw???

[mftx4]

I don't know either. Why are those the types that sell illegal drugs and guns. Because they can. Could they havest enough to illegally ship it overseas? I don't know that either. If they can get that stuff shipped into and out of the country, why not horsemeat? Europeans feel we have the best so I'm sure they're willing to pay the price. I've heard that the Japaneese think nothing of paying $100 to $200 for a meal with horsemeat. My son had to leave the restraunt. In France he said it was common to see it on the menu.

[Sheza_Angel]

I am sure it is happening all over the country.

It becomes sickening even to pro-slaughter people at this point. It isn't humane by any means and to think that it is people's pets who have nothing wrong with them to boot.

I am fairly certain people are doing this in my area because there are suspicious buyers at the auction every time it runs on Saturdays.

Looks like having a good guard dog who won't mess with the horses but will intruders is a good plan about now.

[Beeks]

It is not illegal to go to a sale and buy a horse intended for slaughter. Europeans can still get American Grown Horse meat, it is just now being exported by Canada and Mexico. In the interest of supply and demand, is a foreign buyer going to buy his horse meat at three to four times the going price, in smaller quantities of questionable quality, or is he going to by from a commercial market, at better prices a product that has been tested for human consumption and thus avoid law suits. The meat showing up on the plates of the Japanese enthusiast was not purchased in the back allies of the Florida Metropolitan areas. 17 horses in six months, is not a booming trade, it is something ritualistic or the horses are being fed to fighting dogs or illegal exotics.

I also do not believe that the bold taking of private horses, who are slaughtered with chainsaws before they are dead, is taking place throughout the U.S. It seems to be concentrated in the Florida area and Hialeah in particular. It is also not being done for profit of sale or the foal would have been taken as well. They are taking particular cuts of meat for a particular purpose. What that purpose is and who is doing it, is beyond my comprehension.

[mftx4]

You may be on to something, Beeks. Fighting dogs? Just would be cheaper to go to a supermarket and buy beef. I haven't read anywhere that mentioned any particular Parts being taken or the mention of chainsaws. The news report in May, that was mention in another thread, says it's happening in more parts of Fl. A lady caught a guy walking up the road or her driveway, in broad daylight with her horse.

[Beeks]

Stolen meat is always cheaper than buying it at the store. Fresher too and bloodier. One of the earlier posts said they cut into the mare with a chainsaw before she was even dead and only took the choice meats. Might have been heresay though.

In my mind, the morals and ethics of those who fight dogs would be condusive to killing pet horses,to feed to them. If they don't care about the suffering they inflict on dogs for personal gain, why would they care about a horse, or the emotional storm left in it's demise. They want to get in and get out and if that means cutting before death than so be it. Seventeen horses in six months is just not a big enough number to make me believe it is a black market thing. I think the black market stories are perpetuated by slaughter advocates (of which I am one) as a tactic to try and bring slaughter back. I don't want this to turn into a slaughter debate, because it is not. Nor do I condone, if I am right, those tactic used.

When I think of black market I think of fake rolexes, pirated dvd's, drugs, fire arms, etc. Not 1700 lbs of ill gained horse meat over six months. The profit margin is just not there to make it worthy of the chances taken.