Horse Slaughter
The Costs of Being “Humane”.
They are every little girl’s dream and every cowboy’s most reliable companion. Over the past 500 years they have served as weapons, transportation, recreation and pets. Horses were first brought to America in the early 1500s by Hernando Cortez; before that no Native had ever seen this four legged creature. From being used to fight off natives, to being tied to a wheel at a carnival and ridden by little kids, the horse has definitely evolved to suit the needs of the ever so changing America.
The person who had the biggest effect on the horse industry in America was Henry Ford. When the first assembly line was created in 1913, cars could be produced for much less than ever before. Now most anyone could afford an automobile. They were faster, more luxurious, and didn’t have a mind of their own. This made cars seem like a great investment and just a better way to go. (The Henry Ford) After the year 1913 horses went from being a necessity to just something that ate your gas money.
Granted not everyone went out and bought an automobile at once, but slowly more and more people stepped off their mount and stepped in to the cab of a brand new Model T. The horse was slowly losing its importance as a means of transportation and gradually climbing their way up to being more emotionally important to us. (Taaffe) Today horses are used way more for recreation and sports then are actually used for agriculture and transportation. Using horses for recreation more and more is starting to put them in the same category as our household pets, like dogs, cats, and hamsters. Whether this is wrong or right, it is definitely a long way from what horses have been used for in the past. This gradual change has led the creation of many great sports, famous horses, and a handful of good movies, but it has also led to one of the biggest problems in the horse market today, and that is a surplus of horses. This causes a quite large unwanted horse population.
Now
They are every little girl’s dream and every cowboy’s most reliable companion. Over the past 500 years they have served as weapons, transportation, recreation and pets. Horses were first brought to America in the early 1500s by Hernando Cortez; before that no Native had ever seen this four legged creature. From being used to fight off natives, to being tied to a wheel at a carnival and ridden by little kids, the horse has definitely evolved to suit the needs of the ever so changing America.
The person who had the biggest effect on the horse industry in America was Henry Ford. When the first assembly line was created in 1913, cars could be produced for much less than ever before. Now most anyone could afford an automobile. They were faster, more luxurious, and didn’t have a mind of their own. This made cars seem like a great investment and just a better way to go. (The Henry Ford) After the year 1913 horses went from being a necessity to just something that ate your gas money.
Granted not everyone went out and bought an automobile at once, but slowly more and more people stepped off their mount and stepped in to the cab of a brand new Model T. The horse was slowly losing its importance as a means of transportation and gradually climbing their way up to being more emotionally important to us. (Taaffe) Today horses are used way more for recreation and sports then are actually used for agriculture and transportation. Using horses for recreation more and more is starting to put them in the same category as our household pets, like dogs, cats, and hamsters. Whether this is wrong or right, it is definitely a long way from what horses have been used for in the past. This gradual change has led the creation of many great sports, famous horses, and a handful of good movies, but it has also led to one of the biggest problems in the horse market today, and that is a surplus of horses. This causes a quite large unwanted horse population.
Now
Cited: AVMA Guidelines on Euthanasia,AVMA.org. 2007. American Veterinary Medical Association. 10 Nov. 2010 < http://www.avma.org/issues/animal_welfare/euthanasia.pdf> Fiala, Jennifer The Henry Ford. (2003). The Life of Henry Ford. Retrieved from: http://www.hfmgv.org/exhibits/hf/ "Horse Slaughter." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia Taaffe, Edward. Geography of Transportation. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall Inc, 1996 Works Consulted