This op ed article is reprinted from the November 2024 issues of Canadian Cattlemen. The author, Lisa Guenther, is a writer and agricultural journalist based in northwestern Saskatchewan. She is the Senior Magazines Editor at Glacier FarmMedia, overseeing Canadian Cattlemen, Country Guide and GrowPro. 

 

Our Complicated Relationship With Horses

I’ve recently decided it’s time to euthanize my old horse, Oliver — everyone calls him Ollie for short. He’s almost 28 years old, and growing increasingly arthritic. Winter is coming, and if I don’t have him put down before the miserable season begins, he may slip on ice and be unable to get up. Even if he doesn’t, winter won’t be kind to poor Ollie.

I once read that humans are the only creatures to assist other species in labour — something readers of this magazine do every year. While writing this column, it also occurred to me that we’re the only species to euthanize other animals out of mercy. Doing so requires us to acknowledge that death is not the worst possible outcome.

I was thinking about this while reading Nathan Phinney’s column, CCA Reports, in our November issue. One of the issues on the Canadian Cattle Association’s radar is Bill C-355, which seeks to ban the transportation of horses for slaughter. Because it focuses on animals intended for slaughter, rather than the conditions under which they’re being transported, it’s clear the legislation is trying to stop horse slaughter.

I don’t love the idea of slaughtering horses (especially any horse I’ve known). But as someone who eats meat, it’s not logical for me to oppose horse slaughter, and then cut into a steak. I also recognize I’m in a privileged position as a horse owner. Not everyone can give an old horse years of comfortable retirement.

Historically, horses were work animals, and if they outlived their working lives, they were usually sold for slaughter, as their owners usually needed the money. I imagine some horse owners were callous, but I think others must have felt quite conflicted. War horses met even more gruesome fates. World War I chewed through an estimated eight million horses and mules, many from North America, according to an article in the St. Louis Beacon and reposted on stlpr.org. Most surviving horses were butchered in Europe. It’s easy to be judgmental, but many Europeans were starving after that war, and there was a food shortage. I can’t imagine there were many resources to care for those war horses either, which would have suffered tremendously through the war, and were likely in poor health by the end.

As an aside, if you’re a country music fan, Corb Lund has a great album called Horse Soldier, Horse Soldier, that explores these themes.

Fast-forward to today. Horse slaughter is far less common in Canada. You might think all horses are better for it, but there are unintended consequences. Not everyone can or will keep an old horse, or a chronically injured horse, into its golden years. Some of those older horses have second careers babysitting young riders, but not all have the temperament, training or physical ability to do so. Some younger racehorses are snapped up by chuckwagon drivers, and, without a rider’s weight on their back, go on to long careers in a chuckwagon outfit. As maligned as chuckwagons are in some circles, there are good horsemen and horsewomen in that sport, and it’s not unusual to see horses still pulling a wagon in their late teens, with great gusto.

Some horse owners find a soft place for their old partners to land, perhaps with a friend who can provide reasonable care at a low cost. But often unwanted horses are sold cheaply or given away as “companion horses,” with variable results.

Keeping a horse is not cheap. Many of these older horses (along with some younger ones that are injured or not handled well) end up badly neglected. And since they can live a long time, that can mean years of suffering. There’s no shortage of examples of neglected horses being seized by authorities, and likely many more cases of neglect that escape official attention. Whatever you think of the people who hoard and neglect horses (and other animals), I doubt they will stop as long as there is ample supply of unwanted horses.

In my opinion, it’s much better for a horse to have one bad moment at the slaughter plant than years of neglect and suffering. But while this bill may be defeated, I doubt horse slaughter is going to become common enough to decrease the supply of unwanted horses in Canada. Along with general social attitudes, there are regulations around, for example, bute, that make that difficult. I do wish more recreational horse owners would put more thought into their older or unsound horse’s future instead of just sending them down the road, out of sight, out of mind. But I don’t feel optimistic on that count, either. It’s a hard decision to make, and we’ve become masters of avoiding hard choices.

Ollie has become, in some ways, a representation of my youth. It’s a little hard to acknowledge he’s old, and I’m not young. I bought him when I was a teenager, right after Princess Diana died, at an auction at Buck Lake, Alta. My neighbour, who was sitting behind me at the auction, accidentally bid against me (teenage girls do not need much help bidding on horses). Ollie was the first colt I owned. He was not even halter broke, and I did all the training, with advice from my father and a few other sources. A Percheron-Quarter Horse cross, he always had lots of go but was level-headed enough that friends who hadn’t ridden in years could handle him, and have plenty of fun. He could be a royal pain in the butt, but he was steady enough when needed. But all those thoughts are in my head, not Ollie’s, and it’s not fair to keep him around just to avoid acknowledging my own middle age or feeling sad about putting him down. It is, as they say, always better to accept reality.