Betty Brown argues that without horse slaughter, there would be no place for old, sick, lame horses and that horse owners would have a financial burden in getting rid of their unwanted horses.  Never mind that of the 7 million horses in America, about 10% (700,000) die each year, but only 40,336 were slaughtered in 2002.  She also argues that if the two Texas slaughter plants closed, stolen horses would go to Mexico where there is no "brand inspection program" and the horses would never be recovered.  Never mind that the Texas & Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association cannot, or will not, tell us how many stolen horses they have recovered at the two plants since they began collecting $3 per slaughtered horse on 9/1/97. 

 

I did in fact call the Beltex brand inspector, Ronnie Ober, to ask how many horses he had recovered through the Texas & Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association brand inspection program since 9/1/97.  "Just a handful", he said.

 

I asked, "How many is that?  Five or ten?"

 

"Yeah, about that many.  But I did find 35-40 BLM horses", he told me.  But the BLM recovery had no connection with the TSCRA program where brand inspectors are given descriptions of stolen horses that are reported to the TSCRA. 

 

I also spoke with the mother of Jack Peavy, Dallas Crown's brand inspector.  According to Lois Peavy, Jack has worked at Dallas Crown for 2 years and has recovered 3 stolen horses.  But I had previously visited with Dallas Crown employee Rosa Foster who told me 3 stolen horses were recovered at Dallas Crown in early summer 2002 when a Dallas man came looking for his stolen horses.  I don't think the recovery had any connection with the $3 per horse Texas & Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association brand inspection program.