when is a 'rescue' really a rescue?

If the definition of rescue is to save it from peril or potential peril- then I 'rescued' my horse! But I sure as damn didn't. I had always wanted him, but it came about that his owner could no longer afford to keep him if I had not bought him he would have been going to the meat man. He has a few issues which meant selling to an unknown home may have been detrimental
A few people on the yard consider me to have rescued him- yes his owner was behind on almost everything- his feet were bad, but nothing a decent farrier didn't sort. I think that I bought him fair and square!
 
ApolloStorm said:
If the definition of rescue is to save it from peril or potential peril- then I 'rescued' my horse! But I sure as damn didn't. I had always wanted him, but it came about that his owner could no longer afford to keep him if I had not bought him he would have been going to the meat man. He has a few issues which meant selling to an unknown home may have been detrimental
A few people on the yard consider me to have rescued him- yes his owner was behind on almost everything- his feet were bad, but nothing a decent farrier didn't sort. I think that I bought him fair and square!
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I consider I rescued my mare when I bought her for peanuts at an auction. I had gone there for tack and ended up with a scraggy youngster who I liked the look of and then walked her the 5 (hairy) miles home in a rope halter ! (my parents were not impressed)
She was with me until she died some 28 years later. I doubt she would have lived that long if I had not bought her. (she had a very kind face and good conformation under an almost skeletal frame). She was the horse of a lifetime. But, classed as a rescue or not, I made the right decision. I don't care what anyone else thinks, I thought at the time she was going nowhere good...probably just across the road to Wiles' horse slaughterers.
 
I think it's simplistic to state that buying a horse perpetuates a certain market. Often, dealers like the one I bought my mare from, have lots of horses they sell at a big profit. My mare was meat money - less than that - so actually he probably made a loss on her. Meat man or me, one of us was giving him the cash so why not me? What perpetuates markets like that is the over breeding and irresponsible attitude to keeping horses. I wouldn't sell a dog on and I wouldn't sell a horse on.
 
twiggy2 said:
If you pay for it you are supporting a market, you may be preventing suffering and saving the individual but for me rescue means saving without funding more of the same
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^^^ This.

There are far too many people with little knowledge, buying ponies from auctions and basically creating a market. Makes me laugh when they post before and after pictures of the "huge change" in the pony in their care, when in reality all that has happened is it has lost its winter coat!
 
For me to rescue a horse is to remove it from a situation where it is receiving an insufficient level of care that shows no signs of being improved and to provide it with the care and attention it deserves. Whether it's by an organisation or completed privately.

I agree buying a horse in a state of neglect could encourage this market but at least the horse is being cared for whilst the seller is hopefully being prosecuted.

I do however disagree with the idea that every horse bought from the meat market is rescued, often horses go for meat due to ill health where if kept alive it would decrease their quality of life. Also some horses are bred for meat just as animals are bred for slaughter in the uk.
 
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