Dear Future President,

Though you have many problems to now focus your attention on relating to your American citizens, I would like to remind you that human beings are not the only residents that have their home on this land. There is approximately 312.1 million pets own in American, and about 9.2 million of them are horses according to “American Pet Products Association’s 2015-2016 National Pet Owners Survey”. The USDA census in 1959 showed the horse population at 4.5 million, by 1968, it reached 7 million, and in 2005, it grew to 9 million. We start to wonder what’s mainly contributing to these numbers, and how do we contain them before reaching higher numbers. Several examples of contributing factors are backyard breeders, race horse breeders, and other associations that want to achieve the best built horse of that breed or discipline. “As large as horses are, they do go undetected by government and association enumerators alike.” ( “The Demographics of the U.S. Equine Population”, Emily R. Kilby) The government needs to consider creating strict and enforced law(s) for horse breeding. These law(s) need to help prevent over-breeding and to produce horses that are conformationally correct.

Bill and Jann Parker, managers of BLS Horse Sales in Billings, Montana stated, “... that it is harder and harder to get a bid on an overabundance of average and lower-end horses. The lower-end horses often are products of backyard breeders.”. “Backyard Breeder” is a term used to described as a irresponsible animal breeder who breeds for many reasons including, but not limited to, breeding for color, breeding even though they’re unable to afford it financially, and breeding conformationally flawed, lame, or knowingly inferior horses/ animals. Backyard breeders usually don’t consider the outcome of the offspring when combining a random stud and female together. Horse studs must test negative on a 5-panel genetic test which includes the diseases, glycogen branching enzyme deficiency (GBED), hereditary equine regional dermal asthenia (HERDA), malignant hyperthermia (MH), hyperkalemic periodic paralysis (HYPP), and polysaccharide storage myopathy (PSSM). (“Genetic Testing”, American Quarter Horse Association) Passing these diseases to following generations causes unnecessary suffering. The parents may also pass down flaws of the formation of the body to the foal. For example, the foal being “sickle hocked”, “club footed”, and being “down-hill” or “up-hill”. These flaws can cause the equine to be awkward looking, unable to be ridden, or possibly cause the animal to be in constant pain, where euthanization might be the best option for the horse.

When the breeder’s foal crop isn’t what they perceived, they decide to sell it. Selling a horse is a very difficult task to succeed. In today’s horse economy, buyers are looking for the exact horse they dreampt of, and the educated ones will be looking closely at the horse’s conformation and disposition; the quality of the horse’s body fixtures and the quality of the mind set and character. When breeders can’t sell their horses, they turn towards the next quick and easy choice, they take the horses to an auction house. Auction houses aren’t truly the worst place, but can be very dangerous for the horse’s sake. There are two outcomes the horse may receive. He is taken home to a rescue or a family, or bought by a kill-buyer. “Kill-buyers” could be described as a middle-man, working for slaughtering plants in Mexico and Canada. Luckily, I was given an opportunity to save a three month old foal, two years ago, from a traumatic future and past. Strict breeding laws prohibiting studs without the 5-panel test, prohibiting unregistered horses being bred, and many others could save many horses from this kind of lifestyle.

Though many of the over-breeding are because of backyard breeders, it’s also caused by big associations like American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA), American Paint Horse Association (APHA), and National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA). Only 5%-10% of the thoroughbred foal crop, each year, will actually be accepted into the races, according to HorseFund.org. Thoroughbreds are mainly bred for a flashy look and exceptional speed, but when they lack the speed, breeders wouldn’t think twice about dumping the inadequate horses at an auction to try an earn a pretty penny off of them. Once again, auction houses are a dangerous place for the horses and only have two outcomes; one good, one bad. “Unless they are lucky enough to start a new career, they are disposed of typically at a slaughtering house.”(HorseFund.org). According to PETA, 20,000 foals are produced into thoroughbred racing each year, and about 10,000 won’t meet the requirements and will be sent to a slaughtering house. Even famous, winning horses have found themselves at or on their way to a slaughtering house. As an example, Press Exclusive, a thoroughbred mare, earned $400,000 on the track and foaled 9 babies. She was found, close to death, on a slaughter-bound truck in Canada. If our government is going to allow horses to be bred for racing and have a 50-50 chance of making it to the races, they should ensure that the breeders have a plan for the adequate and inadequate horses, before and after their careers, to provide a home that will take care of them, and give them the exercise, plus a career, that they need and excel in. This law should include horses from other entertainment disciplines like eventing, barrel racing, roping, dressage, cutting, etc.

We need laws that make sure horse owners and breeders are responsible with their choices, and restrict them from breeding recklessly and carefree. These laws will anticipate horses from being born into a world where they’ll be sent away and be killed for just wanting to live a happy and productive life. They’ll help fix the percent of horses with deformations of their body, and perfect the oncoming generations of the future. These laws could easily be extended over into all species of pets, including dogs, cats, rabbits, etc.

Sincerely A Concerned Equestrian,

Cayley