30/09/2025
A compassionate, fact-based examination of the incredibly complex and extraordinarily divisive issue of too many horses, not enough homes.
‘Unwanted: The Causes and Effects of America's Horse Population Crisis’ by Christina Keim
Any horse, but for a change of circumstances, can become unwanted.
The US equine industry consistently produces more horses each year than the number of appropriate homes, leaving thousands of animals with nowhere to go. Recently, as many as 150,000 of these horses have shipped annually to equine slaughterhouses in Canada, Mexico, and abroad. Others are sold at auction, given away, starved, abused, and abandoned. Just over 1,000 rescues and municipal organizations across the country equipped to handle horses at risk report they are consistently close to or at capacity. Most are stretched to the breaking point when it comes to finances, material resources, and human power.
Unwanted asks all of us to examine our unconscious and deeply held beliefs about horses, while suggesting ways to better understand how that perspective shapes our opinion about how they—and other non-human animals—should be treated. For there to be hope for a restorative and harmonious solution to the unwanted horse crisis, Keim professes, we must be ready to come to the table well informed, open-minded, and prepared to work for the horse’s best interests, rather than our own.
https://www.quillerpublishing.com/product/unwanted
