Rural Living - Your Here on Highway 6

Welcome to this nations only live full hour radio talk show about living the rural lifestyle.  Highway 6 - Your Road to the Country is heard each Sunday morning at 8 on 98.3 WOW-FM (983wowfm).  If you don't live in Central Iowa you can pick us up using your computer.  Just head to this link and listen live!

And, if you missed the show, check back later today and download it to listen when you want!

On the show today we'll be talking a lot about horses.  For example, are horses livestock?  We've got an update out of the State of Washington that says...no.

And on the heels of that story, also from Washington, we'll tell you about the huge issue of unwanted horses.  If you've been a listener for some time you know where we are on this.  It's a huge issue about slaughter in the United States that nobody seems ready to do anything about.  We contend that horse slaughter should be allowed in the US but much better regulated.

Is Monster.com about to be slayed?  Here is a story about how major US companies are starting their own non-profit job sites.  Job Central is the new site. Makes sense to us.

Last week we told you about how San Francisco and MyFarm was turning back yards into gardens.  Well, add to the list Cincinnati and what they call the Cincinnati Farm Program.  Great idea and one that is catching on all across the country.  Community Supported Agriculture is going urban.

And, our special guest this morning is Jim Orman of the Orman Horse Company.  He'll be here talking about training tips, buying and selling horses and give us his insight on the horse market.

All that and  so much more on Highway 6 - Your Road to the Country proudly brought to you by:

Comments

[vicki]

Livestock are food animals so the report you received from Washington is correct. Horses are not livestock. We do not eat our horses. The issue with unwanted horses is not a lack of slaughter or you wouldn't be writing about abandoned horses. It is still available to anyone wishing to send their horse to slaughter. The issue is irresponsible breeding and owners not taking responsibility for their horses. Slaughter will not prevent or eliminate either and will only perpetuate the problem. As long as slaughter is available, the breed and dump cycle will continue. Horses were being abused, abandoned and neglected when the foreign owned domestic slaughter houses were open. If anything, slaughter hides abuse because the abused horse can be dumped and no one is the wiser.

[Michael Libbie]

Vicki - Thanks for your comment. However, we disagree. Allowing supervised and regular slaughter in the US, we believe, will cut down on the number of horses being turned loose. You are correct about irresponsible breeders. But what is going on today...that was not happening ten years ago is the large number of city folks moving to their acreage, buying horses and then realizing they can't care for them correctly. Anyway...thanks for the comment and for reading. We're grateful you came by. Michael