Mounted search and rescue

[Una Smith <una.smith@att.net>]

This subject is a little off topic, except that for some of us it
relates slightly to our "other" volunteer service job as disaster
responders.

In New Mexico's more urban counties (ie, vicinity of Santa Fe and
Albuquerque) disposal of dead horses is a significant problem.  The
anti-slaughter publicity has had some effect on rendering plants
too.  Understand slaughter houses take only life animals and sell
meat;  rendering plants take only dead animals and sell so-called
byproducts such as grease, bone meal, and crude protein.

There are several rendering plants in the Albuquerque area, but at
present only one of them will accept horses.  And that is an on
again, off again deal.  I presume depending on how their business
is doing.  In Santa Fe county, a horse that has been euthanised by
lethal injection cannot be buried at the county landfill.

In Los Alamos county, the horse can be buried only at the county
transfer station (former landfill) but IIRC the cost to bury there
is $400.  That is in addition to any vet call charge and hauling
charge.  The transfer station does not accept dead livestock (horses,
cattle) for transfer.  So most horse owners end up hiring someone
to haul the dead horse to the rendering plant near Albuquerque,
100 miles away, or to a friend's property in another county where
regulations do not prohibit burial.

For mass kills (ie, disaster or epidemic outbreak control measure),
the preferred method of disposal is cremation.  New Mexico's state
Livestock Board has a crematorium trailer rig that it can haul to
where it is needed.  It was hauled to New Orleans after hurricane
Katrina, but as far it was reported in the state horse magazine the
crematorium was not used.

        Una Smith
        New Mexico