The End of The Western Horse Culture?

I moved in to an area of small ranches and horse properties in the Phoenix area about a decade ago. It was more common to see horses and riders on the road that automobiles. There are hitching posts at the convenience stores and at many homes. There is one in my front yard even. It was wonderful to live among so many horses.

The sound of hooves, their scent in the air, a soft whinny, how they called to other from ranch to ranch, the long legged wobbly beauty of the foals, the love in the mares' eyes, the grace with which they bore any burden, their joy over a few handfulls of hay, the hooves thundering in a cloud of dust. At night there would be campfires where modern day cowboys would gather and sing.

I was on the porch last evening when it struck me. I no longer smelled horses. In a landscape once rich with horses a couple short months ago there was not a single horse in sight. I ran to the back. There were no horses there anymore! Many of the horse properties are vacant now. Not too many families can afford to take care of horses anymore. Others, worried about rising hay and water costs, and rising vet fees, sold or gave their horses away before some really hard decisions had to be made.

As the economy suffered so did the horses. People lost their homes. Some could no longer afford to feed their horses or afford gasoline for their pick ups to bring in hay. Some turned their horses loose in the desert- a sure death. Others killed them in sad and terrible ways thinking it better than starvation. Many just could not afford to have their starving horses euthanized and removed. Some neglected horses were taken in and sometimes euthanized by rescue groups or the county, yet another terrible casualty of the Obama administration's failed economic policies.

As a result of all this, on November 18, Barrack Obama signed into law a spending bill that restored the American horse slaughter industry. That Thankgiving one turkey was pardoned in front of worldwide media, while behind the scenes, millions of horses were condemned to death. Slaughter was to be the Obama administration's solution in part for the abandonment and neglect born of the economic crisis. It is recorded that he signed the spending bill by autopen, using the automated signature device for the second time only in his presidency. In doing so, breaking yet another campaign promise-a promise to ban the slaughter of horses in the USA, including the export of horses to Canada and Mexico for slaughter.

I wept when I heard this, wondering what other matter was of such little significance to him that bill did not even warrant being signed by hand. Perhaps he did not have the heart. Or maybe it was a matter of not having the courage. Maybe he just plain did not give a rat's ass. In any case the American taxpayers will now subsidize a foreign owned industry that exports horsemeat. These are animals not traditionally raised as food in the USA, but that is likely to change.

November 18, the day the bill was signed, was also the day of the East Asia Summit in Indonesia. Barrack Obama was said to be the first USA president to attend this conference. Much of the focus was on helping to open up markets to American exports. Horsemeat could soon be on our export list.

What would compell the government to want to to get back into the horse meat export business when the current administration appears to be more focused on destroying industry and jobs in the USA? On the other hand horse slaughterhouses traditionally burden a community with considerable environment enforcement costs. Surely a horse slaughterhouse in any community would drive away good businesses and stress the people as well as the economy. Anyone who has ever heard the screams of a terrified or dying horse can attest to that. Just the thought of it can reduce a grown man to tears. Perhaps the horse slaughterhouses are part of Barrack Obama's green jobs agenda, subsidized more often than not on the backs of the taxpayers. A bloody, hard won, 178 (roughly) low paying jobs.

A horse slaughterhouse may open in Arizona before long. A grim sign of the times-a monument to one more American tragedy arising from failed leadership and broken promises to the American people.