Because I like going to horse auctions, I like watching the youtube channel Horse Plus Humane Society, but I also think part of their gig is a con, and a number of horse people on Facebook think they’re scamming people.
ANY rescue that is claiming to save MINIATURE HORSES and tiny ponies from “slaughter” are not legitimate and don’t know what the fuck they’re talking about. Horses under 12 hands would not turn a profit, and putting horses under 10 hands on a trailer with full sized horses for the days it takes to reach the Mexican border would probably result in their death. I don’t think Horse Plus is claiming this; minis/ponies are neglected just as much as other horses, and maybe they come to it from that angle, but they’re always saying they don’t buy any horses over slaughter price, and yet they always come away with like 5 minis, who we KNOW are not going to slaughter. If that mini is healthy, it doesn’t need a rescue’s help at auction. Sick and old ones do.
Also, in one of their videos they said a man sold the horses to them before the auction at a cheap price, which I thought sounded suspicious. You don’t sell your horses to a rescue at a cheap price until AFTER the auction, when you’ve determined you can’t get a better price. These sort of weird deals happened a lot with Hi Caliber, and those were shady af. They fostered a parasitic relationship between horse rescue and awful horse traders and usually resulted in the horses suffering.
Some of the horses Horse Plus picks up should be euthanized on the auction lot. There is absolutely no reason they should be transported when their legs are broken or their foundered so bad they can’t walk. People who drop their horses off in that condition should be PROSECUTED, and if you just buy them without demanding an investigation, you’re basically not fixing the problem.
Hi Caliber found that fundraising to buy horses at auctions and then shooting them in the head made them a lot of money. Horse Plus at least seems to have an actual vet on call and they do real x-rays, which is more than Hi Caliber ever did, but people have some questions about accountability, and I can see the issue. They highlight only the saddest cases, the ones where no one could possibly argue to prolong that horse’s life, but supposedly they’re killing more than they say, and who’s to say the horses they’re killing don’t have negligible problems? I’m not some bleeding heart who thinks every horse with any problem deserves to live; I understand rescues have slim budgets and need to think about the bottom line. Maybe that 32-year-old horse isn’t in a lot of pain, but he’s got bad arthritis and the time/money required for him is more necessary to save the lives of other horses. I understand that. But you don’t HAVE to buy horses from auction every month, and some rescues really rely on them to get donations in. Nothing makes people want to give you money more than the sad cases you see at auctions.
And there are a lot of sad cases, unfortunately.
Any horse people on horseblr follow this Youtube channel? I love the thought of rescues having the resources to purchase these sad cases, but so often these things turn into money laundering schemes, and it’s really sad, because I often wish I could show up to New Holland with $$$ and just buy every sad horse I see.
