Horsemeat at an all time high

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'S'teamed

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Supply and demand is bouyant....

As things are, I dont foresee any change for low end market ponies.

TB's/WB's are averaging £550 per carcass..a good mark-up seeing as they are bought cheaply at market for around £160/280

The Zoo/Safari Park Fodder Market is also alive and well...prices for these poor souls are averaging £4 per pony.

There is no light at the end of the Tunnel for the foreseeable future.

....and there are far worse fates than Death:(
 
Something that I would think needs more regulation if its going to be more common. So sad :(

I would love to get a couple of the ponies, but not sure I could cope with the sales, I would come back with the lot! :eek: :(
 
Stencilface said:
Something that I would think needs more regulation if its going to be more common. So sad :(

I would love to get a couple of the ponies, but not sure I could cope with the sales, I would come back with the lot! :eek: :(
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Agreed! I'll be looking for a foal next year and I'm certain I want a rescue...but how many would I end up rescuing!?
 
'S'teamed said:
Supply and demand is bouyant....

As things are, I dont foresee any change for low end market ponies.

TB's/WB's are averaging £550 per carcass..a good mark-up seeing as they are bought cheaply at market for around £160/280

The Zoo/Safari Park Fodder Market is also alive and well...prices for these poor souls are averaging £4 per pony.

There is no light at the end of the Tunnel for the foreseeable future.

....and there are far worse fates than Death:(
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Really? when did it jump from being onley pence per pound because of the huge amount of unwanted horses.
Out of interest (and being really bad at maths) what is the price per pound at the moment?
 
A gruesome question, the ones for the zoos, do they also go to the slaughter house, or do the zoos have somewhere else to do it? :(
 
Stencilface said:
A gruesome question, the ones for the zoos, do they also go to the slaughter house, or do the zoos have somewhere else to do it? :(
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Maybe wrong, but wasn't their a thing on country file about it, back in the summer. I think they shot the ponies in holding pens at the farmers/owners farm.

May have got that wrong though.
 
Fii said:
Really? when did it jump from being onley pence per pound because of the huge amount of unwanted horses.
Out of interest (and being really bad at maths) what is the price per pound at the moment?
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Lion Fodder hasnt really changed

But the TB's are around £1 per lb
 
hundreds of cute calves get sold at market every week but no one cares, why do we get so upset at equines going for meat:confused:
As long as they are treated with the same respect as any other livestock what is the difference:confused:
I think i would rather see an animal go for slaughter than face a life of sales rings and dodgy dealers:(
 
Ibblebibble said:
hundreds of cute calves get sold at market every week but no one cares, why do we get so upset at equines going for meat:confused:
As long as they are treated with the same respect as any other livestock what is the difference:confused:
I think i would rather see an animal go for slaughter than face a life of sales rings and dodgy dealers:(
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agree 100%
 
'S'teamed said:
100's, possibly 1000's every year go to the Zoo's/safari parks

they are dispatched at Regulated Abattoirs
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I doubt that very much! I spent 5 years looking after the lions and tigers in a safari park and we only fed horse meat during the foot and mouth when it was the only kind of meat available.
It's too rich for the cats apparently.
 
it is rumoured horses are being used in hollands pies as they are cheaper than cows...it has something to do with the jelly in the pies..i say rumour but it has come from a very reliable source
 
I don't have a problem with horses going for meat. I do have a massive problem with live transport.
Also with the best will in the world horses respond in a different way to cattle and sheep and slaughter houses are not well set up to deal with them. For example, think of a herd of cows crowding in a field, maybe as you are walking through them, they cram together jostling and pushing and and crowded round on all sides, horses would never be comfortable in that situation, they like to be in groups but they will always maintain individual distances. So in a slaughter house pens and crushes are quite comforting for cows where as horses find them stressful. I feel once a horse is dead what happens to it's carcass is irrelevant, I actually quite like the idea of it being made use of by the hunt kennels or a zoo, but IMO horses should all be humanely destroyed with a gun as close to their home environment as possible.
 
theres a horse going through exeter sales this week, says on ad confirmed rearer, she is well breed, i thought at the time shed be better off being taken for meat rather that what is likely to happen and the price she will fetch in the ring.
 
Ibblebibble said:
hundreds of cute calves get sold at market every week but no one cares, why do we get so upset at equines going for meat:confused:
As long as they are treated with the same respect as any other livestock what is the difference:confused:
I think i would rather see an animal go for slaughter than face a life of sales rings and dodgy dealers:(
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Because a horse or dog is a animal we respect as our faifull servants and its in our soul to give them higher status than animals we breed for meat and wool , but I agree humane slaugter is better than abuse or neglect. its fine for the disposal of unwanted equines , I have a problem with long distance transport of live animals for slaugter this is one of the worst and unnessary parts of the meat trade, totally indefenceable .....
 
take it easy said:
it is rumoured horses are being used in hollands pies as they are cheaper than cows...it has something to do with the jelly in the pies..i say rumour but it has come from a very reliable source
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If you eat cheap dirty meat like that you don't give a **** about animal welfare anyway so you probably wouldn't be bothered!
 
take it easy said:
it is rumoured horses are being used in hollands pies as they are cheaper than cows...it has something to do with the jelly in the pies..i say rumour but it has come from a very reliable source
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and why not, they are used in sausages.. hate to say it but it does tast nice :eek:
 
Ibblebibble said:
As long as they are treated with the same respect as any other livestock what is the difference:confused:
I think i would rather see an animal go for slaughter than face a life of sales rings and dodgy dealers:(
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I wasn't aware that animals going to abbatoirs were treated with any form of "respect". There have been numerous threads on here with video footage showing that "respect" is far from the norm.
 
So in the event you decide humane slaughter is the best option for your horse, what is the next step? Do all abbatoirs take horses? Someone asked me this the other day and I tried to look up horse abbatoirs on the internet, but couldn't find anything.
 
ajn1610 said:
I don't have a problem with horses going for meat. I do have a massive problem with live transport.
Also with the best will in the world horses respond in a different way to cattle and sheep and slaughter houses are not well set up to deal with them. For example, think of a herd of cows crowding in a field, maybe as you are walking through them, they cram together jostling and pushing and and crowded round on all sides, horses would never be comfortable in that situation, they like to be in groups but they will always maintain individual distances. So in a slaughter house pens and crushes are quite comforting for cows where as horses find them stressful. I feel once a horse is dead what happens to it's carcass is irrelevant, I actually quite like the idea of it being made use of by the hunt kennels or a zoo, but IMO horses should all be humanely destroyed with a gun as close to their home environment as possible.
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Agree absolutely - well said
 
Re Mucky Shavings post, I don't see anything at all wrong with shooting at the farmer's /owners' premises, SO LONG AS ITS DONE BY AN ACCREDITED MARKSMAN. Far less stressful than being transported through markets and to abbatoirs. (I have word of mouth from a disgruntled lorry driver who, some years ago, in bad weather, had picked up his first consignment of cattle at 6 a.m. in Camborne (Cornwall). Having gone via Dorset he was in north Somerset at 4 p m, and then had to drive to an abbatoir in Yorkshire as that was the supermarket's 'preferred' abbatoir). I know this was cattle not horses, but I think the standard of welfare (or not) is pretty much the same.

I want to see a really punishing tax on breeding foals (and indeed puppies and kittens). It's the only way to knock the unscrupulous, thoughtless, out of the market. And if one more person says to me they can't ride their old mare any more, or she's not suitable, so they'll breed from her, I think I'll throttle them. I ride with some vets and veterinary nurses, and they are appalled at the profligate breeding that's going on at the moment. They are all for very sever restrictions.
 
CeeBee said:
....... Do all abbatoirs take horses? Someone asked me this the other day and I tried to look up horse abbatoirs on the internet, but couldn't find anything.
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No, they don't. EU regulations and the British horse owning public have now virtually killed off the trade in horse meat.

Passports now have a section where any owner, at any stage through the horse's life can now sign the relevant page, and the horse will be barred from entering the human food chain. I wonder who's bright idea that was.

The byproduct of this, is that we have many unwanted horses, with no clear or humane end for them. They are handed in to sanctuaries (sic), they stand in open fields with little food or shelter from the elements, and that's absolutely fine. Why? Because we love them. Do we? Do we really have the best interests of our horses at heart? I don't think that we do.

Give the horse a humane end, put its carcass to some use, and the appalling welfare problems which we witness daily, will diminish.

The equine charities will all so often agree with my arguments, but only privately. They wont publicise their agreement, because there primary concerns are fund raising, and what would we think of that?!! :eek:

Sooner or later, we're going to have to wake up, and face reality. I realise that my thoughts may not make me too popular, and yes, I do care for my horses. All of them.

CeeBee, there are two abattoirs which I know of. Potters near Bristol, and another in the Midlands, the name of which escapes me. They're the only two which I know of.

Alec.
 
I have been in attendance at two of the main horse abattoirs - Potter's and Maslins and both were perfectly humane with the horses not knowing anything about what was going to happen.

One time when I went to Maslins back in 1976, when hay was very short due to drought there were pens of New Forest foals straight off the forest, other holding pens with horses bought at sales , all were well bedded and being fed top quality hay.

Laws in the UK are very stringent, no animal entering the human food chain can be killed without a vet present. A horse may not be put down in the sight of another.

I agree with Alec and all he has said. I would rather have a horse shot than pass problems onto someone else where the horse will not be cared for properly.

A little known fact is that if a horse has been given bute at any time during its life it should not enter the food chain!

Rules out many horses.
 
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