By Karen?Woodmansee
There won’t be a merry Christmas this year for the wild horses of Nevada
Wild horse advocates are upset that the Nevada Department of Agriculture has sold Virginia Range horses to a horse broker in Elko with a reputation for selling the animals to slaughterhouses.
According to Shirley Allen, who runs Lucky Horse Rescue Corral for Least Resistance Training Concepts, eight horses that had been kept at the Northern?Nevada Correctional Center after being captured in the Steamboat Parkway/Carat Drive area, were driven to Elko, and turned over to Kevin “Ole” Olsen, a horse broker in the Elko area.
A review of legal ads in area newspapers indicates an estray notice was placed in the Reno Gazette Journal on August 21, but no notice of sale was found, according to a staff member in the legal department of the newspaper.
An estray notice indicates horses were rounded up and gives the owners a certain amount of time to reclaim them. A notice of sale indicates the animals will be sold and gives others an opportunity to bid on them.
Tony Lesperance, executive director for the Nevada Department of Agriculture, confirmed the sale to Olsen and said the sale was properly advertised, though he could not provide publication dates.
He also did not say how much the state was paid for the animals.
He said he was doing as much as he can within budgetary constraints.
Chris Collins district brand inspector in the department’s Elko office did not return calls seeking information on legal advertisements.
The eight stallions ranging in age from 2 to 5 years could be sold to slaughterhouses in Mexico unless Olsen trains them and sells them locally, though the horse broker said last year in an interview with the Helena (Montana) Independent Record that it’s harder to sell horses with the economy the way it is.
"Stopping horse slaughter in this country was the worst thing that ever happened, because people don't have a market to take their animals," said Olsen said to the paper in a Nov. 16, 2008 article.
He buys some horses to be trained for resale at other auctions and others that end up in Mexican slaughterhouses, the article said.
In 2007, 106,963 American horses were slaughtered in Canada and Mexico.
In the article, Keith Dane of the Humane Society of the U.S. described conditions in Mexican slaughterhouses
He said when horses finally get to the facility they are knifed several times in the spinal cord, rendered paralyzed but not unconscious before slaughter.
Lesperance said he doesn’t wish that fate on horses, but is limited by a budget he has to cut by 3 percent and doesn’t have money to feed horses. He said the only horses his department collects are those causing damage in neighborhoods, like the 8 on Steamboat Parkway.
“We have done our level best,” he said. “We can’t leave the horses eating people’s lawns and trees. On the Virginia Range, several have been hit by cars.”
He said he ran ranches all his life and it broke his heart the only time he put down a horse.
But Allen said that wild horse groups could raise funds for hay or find homes for horses, rather then sell them to brokers.
Comments
I find it very strange that no record of a sale for these horses is available. Also why were just stallions rounded up ? Is this a deliberate attempt to wipe out these horses by removing herd sires ? I think these Virgina Ranch horses are getting a bad deal . What a shame. The state of NV should be doing everything possible to keep these historical , natural treasures.
So now he says he loves horses. Just last year he stated publicly " I care
more about the land than I do about those !*@#! horses." What a joke!
This just sounds suspiciously ignorant. If these are wild horses, then return them to the wild. The horses in the picture look fat and healthy. Wild horses by nature are easy keepers. And why in the world would a "rescue" sell wild horses to a known buyer who sends horses to the slaughter? This whole scenario smells bad.
Olsen said ""Stopping horse slaughter in this country was the worst thing that ever happened, because people don't have a market to take their animals,"
If slaughter was stopped, I'd like Olsen to explain how 134,059 American horses were slaughtered last year. It hasn't stopped. The same auctions and same kill buyers. The only difference is that instead of being butchered alive on US soil, it's happening on foreign soil. Other than that, it's business as usual.
I really wish reporters would fact check. Or at least explain when one of their quotes is WRONG and misleading.
"'Stopping horse slaughter in this country was the worst thing that ever happened, because people don't have a market to take their animals,' said Olsen"
What planet is Olsen living on? American horses are absolutely going to slaughter right now. There is no federal ban on it. Brokers visit auctions or scan "free to good home" classifieds to fill their trucks. The only thing that's change in the last 2 years is the distance the horses are shipped to be killed (Mexico instead of Texas, Canada instead of Illinois).
Please also investigate WHY the push is on to round up more and more bands of wild horses on public lands. Guess what happens to lands emptied of wild horses & bison: cattle ranchers get use of the land for a tiny token amount. Nevermind public lands belong to the people, not to some cattle businessmen. :-(
Of course, Esperence is a notorious wild horse and burro hater, and Olsen is his horse-slaughter loving friend. What a money hungery bloodthirsty alliance they have melded themseves into in their war against wild equines.
It has to be clear that the state of nevada is not interested in working with any of the advocate groups or the general public. There is no reason that these horses could not be placed, but the expedite answer to the gov. and Mr. lesperance is to round them up and get them off of the public lands. The time is to use your vote and kick these people out of office. They seem more interested in breaking state laws and circumventing federal laws--shame on them, but more importantly shame on us for having these people in office being paid by our tax dollars. Get out and vote them OUT of office!!
I live in Nevada and am hating this. I love all animals and most especially some, ie, horses, dogs, cats and birds. What the hell is wrong with people, always have to kill SOMETHING, ANYTHING. Why? Get a life, get a clue, get something to change the hate in your heart. Why must you KILL? God you people make me sad.
Time to ship Tony out!
I hope that I am wrong about this and I wish somebody would tell me that I am well here it goes. Europe does not want the meat from Racehorses do to the drugs in the Horses system, but we have 30000 wild clean Horsemeat on the hoof in holdingpens. well that's my thought and I hope I am wrong.
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