A very good anti-breeding poster, warning sad photo!!!

[FionaM12]

Over breeding is a problem in this country, and campaigns to raise awareness of this issue and encourage responsible breeding can surely only be a good thing.

No-one here is unaware of the problem. However a campaign would surely work better if the posters made sense? Just showing a thin horse doesn't really make the point.

 

[devonlass]

You 'think' you see a horse that has been starved. How do you know that it's been starved? Could well be grass sickness, or a whole host of other reasons.

Also, just because it is very thin, does not make it a cruelty case, may well be under vet treatment for above condition or such like.

Sorry, just pointing out how it is very easy to jump to conclusions from one photo, with little or no fact to go with it.

Well as it is clearly at a sale,I don't see what difference it makes if it has a medical condition or is purely a result of no care and attention,it's still clearly neglect to send an animal to market in that condition!!

As for jumping to conclusions,I'm not sure how you're coming to any conclusion that's different to the rest of us TBH

Who has their horse under vet treatment for a condition and then takes it for a day out to the local horse sale?? Sounds a bit bonkers to me,but I fail to see what else you're suggesting

Back on topic,it's not a particularly good advert for discouraging overbreeding,simply as the chain of thought and connection of pic to text is a bit muddled.
Overbreeding is most certainly an issue that needs to be addressed,but not sure this poster is going to fire people up to tackle it.

 

[JennyNZ]

I don't see this is a particularly good advertisement for overbreeding either

From what I can see of the mare, she looks of reasonable quality. And as an owner of Arabians and knowing how tough they are, she didn't get in that state over night.

She has been systematically starved over a long period of time - Arabians are designed to live on very little. Theories about sickness etc are just PC BS. No normal person would send a horses to sale in that condition.

But as an advert for sheer cruelty and neglect it is bang on.

 

[lastchancer]

A far more effective picture would be of a pen full of bright eyed healthy 6 month old foals all bound for the abattoir.

 

[rabatsa]

http://www.mmg.com.au/local-news/echuca/anger-at-death-of-horse-at-echuca-saleyards-1.15714

Saleyard owner John Moyle said all the horses were declared fit for sale the night before, but sometime between that assessment and the sale, the grey mare had been fed lucern hay. He said while the person who fed the horse had the best intentions, it was too much too soon for a horse in such condition and resulted in a severe decline in its health.

‘‘No-one is more concerned about animal welfare than me and it’s the same with the person who brought it in,’’ Mr Moyle said.

A statement from the DPI said the horse was assessed by a DPI veterinarian as unfit for transport. The statement said it was emaciated and suffering from spasmodic colic (abdominal pain).

‘‘The DPI vet spoke to the owner of the horse and a decision was made that the most humane course of action was to have the horse euthanised. This was done promptly and professionally,’’ the statement read.

 

[Moomin1]

Well as it is clearly at a sale,I don't see what difference it makes if it has a medical condition or is purely a result of no care and attention,it's still clearly neglect to send an animal to market in that condition!!

As for jumping to conclusions,I'm not sure how you're coming to any conclusion that's different to the rest of us TBH

Who has their horse under vet treatment for a condition and then takes it for a day out to the local horse sale?? Sounds a bit bonkers to me,but I fail to see what else you're suggesting

Back on topic,it's not a particularly good advert for discouraging overbreeding,simply as the chain of thought and connection of pic to text is a bit muddled.
Overbreeding is most certainly an issue that needs to be addressed,but not sure this poster is going to fire people up to tackle it.

My point was not that it was at the sale in that condition - I already said that was wrong.

I am saying that people automatically look at one picture, without knowing how or why that horse got into that condition, and assume that it MUST have been neglected to get into that condition.

 

[FionaM12]

http://www.mmg.com.au/local-news/echuca/anger-at-death-of-horse-at-echuca-saleyards-1.15714

Saleyard owner John Moyle said all the horses were declared fit for sale the night before, but sometime between that assessment and the sale, the grey mare had been fed lucern hay. He said while the person who fed the horse had the best intentions, it was too much too soon for a horse in such condition and resulted in a severe decline in its health.

‘‘No-one is more concerned about animal welfare than me and it’s the same with the person who brought it in,’’ Mr Moyle said.

A statement from the DPI said the horse was assessed by a DPI veterinarian as unfit for transport. The statement said it was emaciated and suffering from spasmodic colic (abdominal pain).

‘‘The DPI vet spoke to the owner of the horse and a decision was made that the most humane course of action was to have the horse euthanised. This was done promptly and professionally,’’ the statement read.

Well done! I tried to find the origins of the photo and failed.

So, it had little to do with overbreeding. No-one knows why it was in such a poor state, but it was incorrectly fed at the sale and got colic. Someone did want to buy it, but it was considered too ill to be sold and pts.

 

[rabatsa]

Earlier in the article it said the horses were in the sale due to the flooding. There was horrendous flooding in Australia last spring, with water hanging around for ages and wrecking the grazing and stored forage. Feed was transported in from a long way away but people lost everything, their homes, the lot.

 

[Floxie]

Sorry to be grim, but I can't find the answer online - what's this about grey horses not being used for meat? Why is that?

 

[Spring Feather]

Sorry to be grim, but I can't find the answer online - what's this about grey horses not being used for meat? Why is that?

Because they have a high risk of having malignant melanomas. Greys always go for glue here.

 

[FionaM12]

Earlier in the article it said the horses were in the sale due to the flooding. There was horrendous flooding in Australia last spring, with water hanging around for ages and wrecking the grazing and stored forage. Feed was transported in from a long way away but people lost everything, their homes, the lot.

That's so sad. So that mare could actually have had a loving home, but human suffering and disasters have a tragic knock-on effect for pets and livestock.

 

[Theocat]

It's a terrible poster to combat overbreeding. It will work on exactly the wrong people.

If you want to stop people breeding too many animals, you need to demonstrate that there isn't a market to make it worthwhile. They do it for business reasons, and therefore you need to convince them it's a bad business model. "Less suffering" isn't going to convince them, "less profit" might.

Plus, the writing is terrible. I'm not just being pedantic - it does matter; people are less likely to pay attention to something poorly or cheaply produced.

 

[noobs31]

This isn't an anti-breeding poster, it's a share me all over Facebook (cos somehow that way people make money I think?!) poster.

 

[Moomin1]

That's so sad. So that mare could actually have had a loving home, but human suffering and disasters have a tragic knock-on effect for pets and livestock.

And there goes to show that peoples' automatic assumption that it is 'clearly a cruelty case of neglect etc' can be so so wrong without the facts.

 

[noobs31]

And there goes to show that peoples' automatic assumption that it is 'clearly a cruelty case of neglect etc' can be so so wrong without the facts.

So what "facts" would make such an underweight and miserable mare in a pen at a sale ok?

Not defending the poster for a moment. But in my opinion no horse should be in this state. In a field, stable, pen at a sale...anywhere.

 

[Moomin1]

So what "facts" would make such an underweight and miserable mare in a pen at a sale ok?

Not defending the poster for a moment. But in my opinion no horse should be in this state. In a field, stable, pen at a sale...anywhere.

Nothing would make the fact that such an underweight horse taken to a sale was ok. I have already said that.

If you read the comments above, it appears the mare was taken to the sale by a person who had found the mare in that state and wished to try and rehome. Essentially, they tried to 'rescue' her. So they were in the wrong.

It sounds very much like, if this mare came from the circumstances described then the condition she was in was not so much of a 'neglect' case but one of catastrophe and human disaster.

And on that point, if somebody died in a major earthquake or tsunami, and their family lost their homes and everything,and in the meantime their horse became in that condition, would you class that as neglect? Or would you have the common sense to realise that it is a human catastrophe and one in which humans suffer, die and therefore their animals may do too?