Thousands of Spain’s horses head for the slaughterhouse as economic crisis results in abandonment

By Agence France-Presse
Tuesday, March 12, 2013 2:34 EDT

In Spain’s boom years, they were a rich family’s status symbol. Now abandoned as a result of the economic crisis, horses are plodding in their tens of thousands to the slaughterhouse.

At the end of a bumpy country lane in southern Andalucia, Spain’s farming and horse-rearing heartland, Virginia Solera helps run a shelter for the luckier cast-offs — victims, along with millions of citizens, of Spain’s abrupt economic downturn.

“A few years ago we were rescuing horses in isolated cases, ones that were mistreated or abandoned. Now the problem is happening in all sectors,” from private owners to professional breeders, said Solera at her shelter in the village of Alhaurin el Grande.

“In Spain, having a horse is a sign of wealth,” said Solera, stroking one of the shelter’s 55 inhabitants: Alegria, a bay mare found starving a few months ago.

“A few years ago, before the crisis, a lot of people thought: I’ll buy a big car, a big house and why not a horse?” she added.

The boom years particularly marked Andalucia. Many people left the fields to work in the flourishing construction industry and were left washed up when the property bubble burst in 2008.

While people in the region struggle to get by, abandoned horses are perishing, “dying of hunger or going to the slaughterhouse”, said Solera.

The Spanish government says the number of horses slaughtered in abattoirs has doubled since 2008, with 60,000 killed in 2012.

Some, like Alegria (which means joy in English), arrive at the shelter with their teeth damaged from grubbing around in the ground for food.

FULL STORY: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/03/12/thousands-of-spains-horses-he...