Dismal domestic animal abuse

[Jeffersons Ghost]

Abandoned Horses Are Latest Toll of Drug Trade

PHOENIX — Found tottering alone in the desert with their ribs visible and their heads hung low, horses play a backbreaking, unappreciated role in the multi-billion-dollar drug smuggling industry.

Mexican traffickers strap heavy bales of marijuana or other illegal drugs to the horses’ backs and march them north through mountain passes and across rough desert terrain. With little food and water, some collapse under their heavy loads. Others are turned loose when the contraband gets far enough into Arizona to be loaded into vehicles with more horsepower.

“We would pick up 15 to 20 horses a month, and many more of the animals would get past us,” said Brad Cowan, who spent 28 years as a livestock officer for the Arizona Department of Agriculture before retiring a few months back. “They wear poorly fitted equipment. It’s obvious they were not well taken care of. The makeshift saddles rub big sores in their backs.”

Even once rescued, the horses face an uncertain future. Since they are not from the United States, the state of Arizona must draw their blood and conduct a battery of tests to ensure that they do not carry any disease that would infect domestic livestock. Then the horses head to auction, where some are bought and shipped back to Mexico for slaughter.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/31/us/31horses.html?_r=1&ref=global-home

[NCarolinawoman]

1. Almost too sad to read.

It always bothered me when Jimmy carter sent hundreds of mules to Afghanistan as a way of aiding the Mujahadene (I know I didn't spell that right) in their battle against the Russians. x(

Horrible what the "good guys" and the bad guys do to these innocent creatures. :grr:

[xchrom]

2. sad. nt

[Kali]

3. some of them were originally stolen from this side

and Brad knows full well a lot of abandoned horses were dumped by gringos that couldn't afford to feed them and had no slaughter auction to sell them to anymore - not sure where the state is selling them now, but nobody around here takes them.

[blondeatlast]

4. Hideous. Helpless victims of the insanity of the illegal drug trade--tortured

just for marijuana.

Make it legal, and these poor creatures aren't so tortured anymore.

FWIW, I've never partaken of the stuff, either.

[Electric Monk]

5. The only reason this happens is there's such a profit to be made.

Makes ya wonder who's really behind the global drug trade... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_drug_trafficking