BISMARCK, N.D. -- A recent case of officials in North Dakota's Burleigh and Morton counties finding 99 dead horses in a man's custody and seizing an additional 157 live ones that hadn't been properly cared for has brought new attention to North Dakota's animal welfare laws, described by many to be among the weakest in the country.
Crimes against animals -- whether they be abuse, neglect, abandonment or the worst cruelty a person can imagine -- are considered, at the most, Class A misdemeanors in North Dakota, punishable by up to one year in prison and $2,000 in fines.
Officials seized the horses from Bill Kiefer, who has homes in New Salem and Fargo. The 25 worst of the Morton County horses were taken to Triple H Miniature Horse Rescue, located south of Mandan, N.D. Two of those horses have since died.
Allison Smith, the founder of Triple H, stood near the corral where the horses are being kept one recent day. The horses were eating hay, wearing new blankets that cover the bones visible through their hides. Smith had worked on a ballot initiative, voted down in November, that would have offered prosecutors a Class C felony animal cruelty charge to levy in the worst cases.
"This is why we need that," she says.
ADVERTISEMENT
The initiative went down, though most public sentiment surrounding the measure was not against the idea. The initiative only took into consideration dogs, cats and horses, which put many people off. Others were bothered by the influence of out-of-state interest groups.
Behind the scenes, the group North Dakota for Responsible Animal Care already was working on a complete remodel of the state's animal laws. Rather than just add a felony crime to existing law, the group, which includes livestock and agricultural representation, along with animal shelters and humane societies, rewrote the entire title in the North Dakota Century Code, which now has taken shape as Senate Bill 2211. The bill has had a committee hearing, but no action has been taken on it.
State veterinarian Susan Keller says it remains to be seen whether the legislation, if passed, would stop cases such as the one ongoing in Burleigh and Morton counties. It would offer law enforcement and state's attorneys more guidance in what to do in such cases and would give prosecutors more charging options, she says.
Smith says the legislation "looks awesome" and that anyone who doesn't vote for it is "totally not with it."
Poor market
Separately, Keller worries that more cases such as the present one are possible, given a poor horse market. The U.S. Department of Agriculture cut off funding for inspection of horse slaughter facilities in 2006. Keller explains that hasn't stopped horses from being slaughtered; now they are shipped to Canada or Mexico.
New Mexico state veterinarian Dave Fly says 130,000 horses were exported from the U.S. for slaughter in 2012. The added cost of transportation means the price for all but the top horses has shrunk to the point that some horses don't even bring bids at sale barns.
Keller says efforts to halt horse slaughter have, unintentionally, led to more problems. People don't want to put down their own horses or pay to have a veterinarian euthanize and dispose of a horse. Instead, many horses end up standing around, sometimes not being cared for properly, she says.
ADVERTISEMENT
"My fear is, we're going to have more like this," Keller says.
In New Mexico, cases of abandoned or abused horses are weekly occurrences. The state's 10 horse shelters are filled to capacity and low on funds, Fly says.
"It's difficult to find a place to go with them," he says.
Fly talked to the New Mexico House Appropriations Committee recently about the budgetary problems caused by a glut of horses. His state deals with additional problems that further stress the situation, including an ongoing severe drought and the fact that horses from the eastern U.S. bound for slaughter in Mexico occasionally get dumped off into New Mexico.
Divisive issue
Keller says slaughter is a divisive issue within the horse and livestock industries and even talking about it can be difficult. Smith, who is firmly against horse slaughter, agrees that the issue divides horse owners.
Smith, who also belongs to the North Dakota Anti Horse Slaughter Coalition, believes the problem isn't lack of slaughter facilities but is an overbreeding problem. She says responsible horse owners buy horses knowing that they come with veterinarian bills and need care throughout their lives. When horses become unusable, responsible horse owners call a veterinarian and have horses humanely euthanized, she says.
Horse meat also isn't suitable for human consumption because of medicines given to horses, she says.
ADVERTISEMENT
Fly says disposing of horses has become a problem nationwide, though, because some landfills in his state won't take horses, and efforts at composting are in their infancy. He understands the argument about the consumption of horse meat; however, many zoos import horse meat from Canada for animal consumption.
"I have a hard time understanding why we can't find a way to humanely euthanize these animals, and why, in this day and age of limited resources, we waste a good product," he says.
Smith doesn't believe horse slaughter is the solution to keeping horses from starving. Owners make the choices not to properly care for horses, and breeders make the decision to keep breeding animals beyond what the market can handle, she says.
"They come with responsibility," she says.
Fly agrees that stopping overbreeding, owners providing proper care and increasing education are issues that would make a big difference in the long term. However, that won't stop the problem today.
"We're working from an emotional standpoint, not a logical standpoint anymore," he says. "So, it's put us in this jam."
