Just before midnight, an old pickup towing a livestock trailer pulled into the parking lot of the Teamsters Local Union near the corner of Russell Avenue and Cass Street.

It was June 10, and residents nearby reported hearing a clattering, but they didn’t know what was happening. When the truck and trailer drove off, an unbroken stallion, dark bay in color, was left standing in the lot.

It was the sixth horse abandoned in the Fort Wayne area within a two-month span.

Many say hard economic times are to blame. It’s not cheap to feed a 1,000-pound animal, let alone cover its health care and boarding costs.

But another factor at play is a decline in the value of horses in the low-to-medium price range. Overbreeding and the end of U.S. horse slaughtering, as much as an ailing economy, are to blame.

“The stock is up, and the buyers are down,” said Cheri Russell, manager of Russell’s Rainbow Stables in Fort Wayne. “The high-dollar horses are still bringing in money. The lower-dollar horses are (sliding) through the cracks.”

A study released this month by the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that the demise of the U.S. horse slaughter industry cut 8 percent to 21 percent from the value of low- and mid-priced horses. More-expensive horses were not affected by the prohibitions on slaughter, the office reported.

But the GAO also estimates that prices for all horses have dipped 4 percent to 5 percent because of the slumping economy.

Limited options

In the absence of buyers who will give horses good homes, owners looking to unburden themselves of their steeds have few options.

One is euthanasia, which costs from $250 to $300, and that doesn’t include the cost of rendering, which adds another $100 to $150, according to an area veterinarian.

Another option is slaughter, effectively banned in the U.S. but permitted in Canada and Mexico, where some unwanted horses are now shipped.

That process starts in places such as Shipshewana, a town about 60 miles northwest of Fort Wayne, where Keith Lambright and his brother run a “loose horse” auction on Fridays. Lambright is quick to acknowledge that “loose horse” is a euphemism for an animal that’s headed for slaughter.

A horse at the auction will typically fetch $150 to $200, minus a $30 fee to put the animal on the block, Lambright said. On top of that, a seller has to account for the cost of fuel to haul the horse to the auction.

Before U.S. slaughterhouses shut down – the last three closed in 2007 after courts upheld state-level bans of the practice – horses at Shipshewana’s auction would sell for $400 to $500. But the cost of shipping them to Canada has been a drag on sale prices, Lambright said.

“There’s $120 freight on these horses on where they’re going now,” he said. “So now they have to take that out of the price of the horse.”

“When the horse slaughter ceased in the United States, it just created this overload of neglected and unwanted horses and no provisions on how to care for them,” said Brent Harnish, president of the Indiana Horse Council.

While comprehensive national statistics are not available, animal welfare groups and state and local governments have reported an increase in horse neglect investigations and abandonment since 2007, according to the GAO study.

In Colorado, horse neglect and abuse investigations jumped more than 60 percent, from 975 in 2005 to 1,588 in 2009. California, Texas and Florida have also seen more horses abandoned since 2007.

Overbreeding cited

Overbreeding in various spheres of the horse world is also cited as a reason for unwanted horses.

Tony Caldwell, who oversees Indiana Horse Rescue, gave the example of the horse racing industry, saying its breeding practices produce many animals that are eventually unwanted.

Joe Gorajec, executive director of Indiana’s horse racing commission, said Caldwell’s statement is fair, but added that the commission promotes quality over quantity when it comes to breeding, as a way to reduce abandonment and neglect.

“If we encourage quality racing and the breeding of quality horses, then we will have fewer low-class horses to dispose of,” he said.

Gorajec said the number of horses that are or were part of the racing industry is “really just a small sliver of the overall equine population in the state.”

“I don’t know of any empirical data that these racehorses are abused or abandoned more than any other type of horse,” he said.

The strays found in the Fort Wayne area were not racehorses but animals from the lower end of the market. For their owners and others who might be in a tight spot, Vaunetta Barnhill has other options.

Barnhill, who runs Chocolate Box Horse Rescue in Spencerville, said owners can talk with horse rescues about receiving assistance to feed and care for animals and, if necessary, put them up for adoption.

“You really don’t have to abandon them,” Barnhill said. “There are places for them to go, and people who will help you.”

aingersoll@jg.net