Published: June 17, 2009 04:12 pm      

Overpopulation — 06/18/09

Horse council encouraging owners to castrate stallions

While legislators are meeting in special session to consider, among other things, a controversial proposal designed to “save” Kentucky’s signature industry — the breeding and racing of thoroughbreds — the Kentucky Horse Council has launched a campaign to discourage the overbreeding of other, less desirable types of horses in the state.

While the council’s campaign is about the responsible ownership of horses, the same arguments can be made about other types of domestic animals in the state, particularly dogs and cats.

The horse council’s campaign — copied from similar campaigns in California and North Carolina — urges owners of male horses to have them castrated as a way of reducing unwanted foals. But the council goes beyond mere words. It is offering to reimburse horses owners who can show financial need up to $100 to have a stallion gelded. That’s about half the cost of castration.

Animal welfare groups say horses with far less-impressive pedigrees than the Kentucky-born thoroughbreds are being bred in backyards and it is creating an overpopulation crisis.

The problem is not a new one. Too many times officials have discovered malnourished and neglected horses on farms in the state. Rescue and adoption programs have addressed the horse overpopulation problem for years, but lately the focus has shifted to castration, both through education campaigns and, where possible, financial help for horse owners who otherwise can’t afford the vet bill.

That’s the wisest approach. Instead of trying to find a home for an unwanted horse that is in need of medical attention, it is better to prevent the horses from being born.

“It’s a problem we’ve had with dogs and cats for decades, and now it’s starting to be a huge problem with horses,” said Susan Lurz, director of Stallion to Gelding Support, based in China Grove, N.C. “People are putting stallions and mares together in the same pasture, letting them be, and they’re just producing foals like crazy.”

That needs to stop. While Kentucky wants to be known throughout the world for its breeding of champion race horses, it does not need to be known for the breeding of horses no one really wants. The Kentucky Horse Council is taking the right steps to discourage irresponsible horse breeding.