The Montreal Gazette ran an article this past weekend regarding the extremely tough decisions horsepeople in the province are having to make due to the dire situation they currently face.
With money running thin, bills piling up and a very bleak future in sight, Quebec horsemen and breeders are faced with the tough proposition of going bankrupt or getting rid of stock for whatever they can get. Many horses have been sent to livestock auctions and face possible slaughter.
"I have 82 horses (down from a peak of 135), including babies. It's about $10 a day, per animal, just to feed them. The way things are, I can't afford to keep them all anymore. I've got to reduce or I'll go bankrupt," veteran horseman Yves Filion was quoted as saying. Filion has also given away horses and sold others.
"It's a catastrophic situation for breeders," said Michel St. Louis, ATAQ president. "They're all getting bankers' calls now. They're stuck. They have enormous expenses and no revenue. They're not trainers. They create the raw material. This generation (of racehorses) should be in trainers' hands by now, preparing to race in 2009. Instead, they're still in the fields, or headed for the abattoir."
To read the Montreal Gazette article, click here.
(With files from the Montreal Gazette)
the problem is been there
the problem is been there for years the answer is hard to find but the biggest problem is our own selves we woke up too late everybody``s been relying on the governement instead of promoting our own business
stop crying and start acting nobody hes going to help us
PS i lost my houses my livelyhood but i didnt give up yet this is still a great business...............
Que horsemen get the message
Que horsemen get the message now? Attractions Hippiques is leading you down the garden path to destruction....QUIT NOW we`ll deal with their successors
we need the governement to
we need the governement to move a bit faster on that sitation tody we have election hope that sombody will listen to us as fast as possible before the industrie is completedly finish at this point we are all crying poverty