4chores.org

site updated January  19, 2008

Welcome to 4chores.org - an organization of data and resources specifically for  Concerned Horse Owners Regarding Equine Slaughter.

Our main focus is education concerning horse welfare and equine slaughter. We promote active involvement by horse owners to protect horses and horse owners from those that are well meaning but not close to the horse industry.

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Drought is Hard Times for Horses

January 13, 2008 - L.A.Times

Joe Penn, a Kentucky horse and mule auctioneer, is not a sentimental man -- not once he enters the stockyard. He knows that the value of many horses is measured in pounds of flesh.

But this winter, the horses are thinner than usual, and Penn finds himself wondering what becomes of the creatures with bare ribs and flat rumps, the ones that now sell for as little as $10.

"I wonder," Penn said. "And then I tell myself I probably don't want to know."

In many parts of the United States, horse owners are struggling to feed their animals after a severe drought doubled -- even tripled -- the cost of hay. The drought has exacerbated a glut in the low end of the horse market, brought on by years of over-breeding and the recent economic downturn.

Read entire article

Horses Spared in U.S. Face Death Across the Border
January 11, 2008 - New York Times

The American slaughterhouses killed horses quickly by driving steel pins into their brains, a method the American Veterinary Medical Association considers humane. Workers in some Mexican plants, by contrast, disable them by stabbing them with knives to sever their spinal cords, said Temple Grandin, a professor of animal science at Colorado State University.

“My worst nightmare has happened,” Dr. Grandin said. “This is an example of well-intentioned but very bad unintended consequences.”

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