[Coreene]

Because forever we've said "Oh, it is rendered."

But what exactly do they do with it?

[Coreene]

Because forever we've said "Oh, it is rendered."

But what exactly do they do with it?

[MAD]

yuck! I've always been told they use EVERYTHING. So I've never wanted to know.

[Coreene]

...because so often we have to tell the younger kids at the barn, and that way I can Package This In A Way That Won't Upset Them.

[Shiaway]

Can you have your horse cremated is what I would like to know?

[JulieMontgomery]

So yes, it can be done.

Still miss her........ [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_frown.gif[/img]

[RAyers]

What do you want to know specifically? The process of rendering? What products contain the body parts?

If you want to look at it from a VERY basic point of view, they boil the body down and separate the various collagenous components (the gooey stuff) for use in gelatins and the like. The bones will go into other animal feeds or plant fertilizers (if the death was chemically induced). Sometimes various tissues are used in drug manufacture. A company I work with uses rendered cattle bones in one case. I really don't think there is any easy way to put it. I guess the age of the child will dictate how you say things.

Reed

[pds]

Would never send one off "in the truck". Would bury on the farm. Even if I lived in an area that has laws against it, I would be out under the cover of night with a rented back hoe digging a proper gave for my beloved equine. If I were boarding and my horse passed on, then I would bury at a pet cemetery or cremated as suggested above.

"He who knows most knows best how little he knows."
Thomas Jefferson

[Britney]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by pds:
Would never send one off "in the truck". Would bury on the farm. Even if I lived in an area that has laws against it, I would be out under the cover of night with a rented back hoe digging a proper gave for my beloved equine. If I were boarding and my horse passed on, then I would bury at a pet cemetery.

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Ditto. I can't ever imagine sending my lifelong friend off to get disected and used to make products for the benefit of the public. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_confused.gif[/img] How very kind. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_rolleyes.gif[/img]

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Britney L. Pelletier
~*Rush Hour*~
*Children's Jumper Clique*Thoroughbred Clique*NH Clique*

[Coreene]

...and he comes and picks them up, or you have them cremated. Used to be you could pay extra and they'd be sent to a landfill in Simi Valley, but now that it full and they've built a park on top of it.

So if you're in the city in a public stable with 440 horses, you don't have much choice unfortunately.

[AAJumper]

I had my horse "buried" which I think means that they take them to the landfill. I used Roberta with Dignified Animal Disposal or something like that. She has one of those big trucks with the winch. I'm glad I haven't had to see her in a long time.

visit www.victorianfarms.com

[jumpergal]

I just couldn't bear to send her to the renders, and as I board at a stable, burying was not an option. The cremation was $1,500, and they came to pick her up (at the same time she was euthanized), and returned her ashes to me three days later in a beautiful wood box with a 5x7 picture frame on it.

"No matter where you go, there you are"

[nhwr]

I had to put down the very first horse I bred when she was 3 years old [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_frown.gif[/img]. Got to write your buddy John a check, Coreene. Is that guy "interesting" or what. She was post-mortumed by some young residents or whatever the right way to refer those fresh out of vet school.

I felt this wasn't a bad thing. Maybe she could help educate 'em so other horses won't suffer her fate. I didn't have to watch it, she was way beyond feeling it. I didn't have a problem with it. But then I will be a cadaver donor when I am done (unless they reject me [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img])

[Coreene]

I've always said to my parents to just donate my body for the same reason, although not to UCR's vet school, ha ha.

We had one who was euthanized a few weeks ago (the didn't know she had broken two bones in her ankle because she'd barely limped on it at all until the next day). I cried, I always cry. It was on a Friday night and I felt so bad that no one was with her, waiting for John. And I didn't even know the horse, but I did have a rather hard time leaving until she was picked up.

Losing your homebred must have been awful.

[RAyers]

Yes, this is a gruesome topic, but it is also part of how society functions. Every product we use that says "nontoxic" uses animal by-products rather than petroleum based products. In a way rendering is just an acceleration of the decomposition processes in burial and a return of the elements of the animal back into the world. You can actually say that rendering reduces the need for foreign oil (admittedly not by a LONG shot).


Reed

[Coreene]

About 18 months ago I had a tizzy on a topic about slaughter because horses were being used at the zoo. When I pulled my head out of my ass, I realized that it was a very good idea. After all, the horse was going to pass anyhow, so why not do the Circle Of Life thing?

But I can't see putting my own horse on the trailer and taking him to the San Diego Wild Animal Park to be put down on the premises.

[Just My Style]

I had to put down my beloved short stirrup pony my senior year of college. It was the coldest day of winter in January in Illinois. Not a good scene. We did not have the option to bury her (because of the tundra-like ground). Creamation was not an option for us either. I clipped a piece of her mane that I still have and I try not to think about what happened to her body (although I know her soul is in horsey heaven!).

[Chanda]

I had no idea about this until recently but I guess there is a horse cemetary in Santa Barbara. My friend just had her horse burried there.

Bowed tendon: Time to go back to work. Slowly!

[Kinsella]

I had my beloved mare cremated - I would have buried her if I had a farm. She currently lives in my closet [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img] .

Hey jumpergal - how big is that box??? April's current "stall" is a metal bucket (the kind that popcorn comes in) inside a box with the metal straps still on it. I haven't been able to bring myself to open it just yet.

But more on topic, while I personally would not send my horse to the rendering plant, I don't think there is anything wrong with that option. Look at it this way, all those great racehorses - the ones buried head, heart and hooves? Where did the rest of them go? Also donating them to a vet school is a great idea (I was going to do that but they would not let me have her remains cremated - they would just go to the rendering plant so no April for research!).

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"Every day is a great day for hockey." - Mario Lemieux

[RAyers]

When my last eventer died, because of the situation, I too had to have him rendered. Yes it is horrible, but as a previous poster mentioned, he had ceased being the horse I loved when he died (literally in my arms). I knew what was going to happen at the rendering plant so after I did the necropsy I took the mane to subsequently have it woven into a beautiful leather browband for my jumping bridle and into a lovely belt for me. This way, I always know that he is still running with me cross country or galloping across fields. It gives me great comfort to know he is still with me since his body was only a temporary vessel and that once deceased had no purpose; and that is what I told the kids that saw the rendering truck pull into the barn that day.

Reed