Dealers who ship horses to kill: Let's have the names!

Joe over at TB Friends has been talking about putting up pictures of kill buyers on his blog so that people will be on the alert as those kill buyers have been going to homes pretending to be "a good home" for unwanted horses. They pick them up for free, and days later the horse is dying a horrible death in a Mexican slaughterhouse.

I think it is a great idea, but I don't know that Joe is actually going to do it.

Joe seems to be afraid of legal action and/or of upsetting/offending the hordes of children who read his blog. (Who as far as I am concerned, had better learn about the realities of life NOW before they get old enough to contribute to the irresponsible breeding/ownership problem).

Along the same lines...I have a friend who does a web site in L.A. where she takes better pictures of the South L.A. shelter dogs and cats and tries to help get them adopted. She also honestly indicates on the page if they are euthanized. I remember a few years ago, some parent had a fit about her site as their child had read it and gotten upset. My response was, lady, you are mad at the WRONG person. Get mad at the asshat who dumped that dog or cat! Get mad at the asshat whose inability to GET OFF THEIR DEAD ASS and spay/neuter created it. My God, in L.A., spay/neuter is FREE if you make less than $40,000. FREE! Don't get mad at the person who is trying to educate the public so that they will change their behavior. And if your kid is old enough to use the Internet unsupervised, she ought to be old enough to deal with realities like pets that die in the shelter because their owners were asshats. I digress, but honestly it's the same thing with Joe's blog. Saving horses from slaughter is what Joe does. If your kid isn't old enough to handle the fact that slaughter exists, she should not be reading Joe's blog. You are the parent - either set boundaries or don't expect the world to do it for you.

Anyway, let's chat today. Who are the known kill buyers in YOUR area? I've said before that I don't hate the KB's and I don't. They are the garbagemen - they are not the ones who put the horse out with the trash. However, sellers need to be making informed choices. When a KB comes to your doorstep and pretends to be interested in your horse for a riding horse, that is not cool. One day at Woodburn I was in line to pay and had to hear this girl telling one of KB's all about what kind of bit her horse liked, what he ate, etc. It was horrible. He told her he wouldn't have any trouble with him. No, I'm sure he didn't.

(Yes, I should have spoken up but the auctions are weird things. You will get your ass banned if you start coming and causing trouble or having hysterics, as others have learned. The auction is like being in enemy zones in a war...you really have to shut up and smile if you are going to rescue anything. If you haven't been there and done it, don't start with me.)

Here is a list of known kill buyers in Texas as of 2004.

In the Pacific Northwest, I know of Ole Oleson and Chuck Walker. Both of them also sell riding horses, so it is not a guarantee they will sell to slaughter, but if the horse fails to sell for riding or is unsound or unmarketable (mares with no papers tend to go straight to kill) that is where they go.

In Colorado, Charlie Carter is the big one.

Who else do you know about? Let's name names. You can post links to any other lists of who to watch out for, or posts on the Internet mentioning kill buyers. HTML works for posting links - here's how to use HTML to post a link. Joe talks about Manny Phelps in northern California...who else?

Sellers, especially those of you giving horses away for free or under $300, do a site check and get a contract. It is not that much extra work.