Horses
Amber | Cinder | Doc | Dreamer | Duke | Hannah | Mama Tuki | Margarita | Mrs | Nick | Princess | Rosa | Vashti
Nick is seven years old. He came to Ching from the feedlot when he was about a year and a half. He has been adopted out once but returned due to financial reasons.
The purpose of a feedlot is to fatten animals up before they are slaughtered. The animals are well fed but that is about the only care they get. If an animal is sick, it is not given veterinary care. It would cost the people at the feedlot too much. A horse will only get care if it is injured to the point that it can't walk. This is because it is illegal to send a horse to slaughter if it is blind or can't walk onto the truck itself.
Slaughtering horses for meat is illegal in the U.S. What many people don't realize is that it is not illegal to ship a horse to Canada or Mexico to have it slaughtered for meat. If someone has a horse that they no longer want or is no longer useful to them they can sell the horse to a feedlot for a very low price. This way they make $50 or so instead of spending the money to have the animal humanely put down. To put down a horse humanely it takes one shot and only costs about $79. Unfortunately, many people would rather make a few bucks that spend the money to have an animal put down humanely like they would do for a dog or a cat.