This came in an email today,I have never heard of it.



I have started a nonprofit, and we are coming in to Nurse Mare Foal
season, it is not a happy season; 100's of foals are left each year
without a mother, Why? because they have been sent off to nurse a
high dollars sports mares foal. 7 to 10 days after giving birth, a
sport horse can be bred again, her foal can not go with her, because
of insurance reasons and danger to the high dollar foal, so the
sport industry hires a mare who has given birth, to nurse the sport
foal. She is taken away from her foal to feed another foal. The
nurse mare most of the time has been bred to a paint so the foal
will have markings desirable to a skinner. If the foal is well
marked it is sold to a skinner for its pelt, if the foal is not
marked it is left to starve or put down. We can not protest or they
will all be sent to death. With the anti slaughter bill being passed
we maybe seeing change in this field as well. But it does not save
the foals of the 2006-2007 year. The only way we can save these
foals is to buy them from their captures. Each foal cost anywhere
from 100 to 550 dollars, If you are interested in adopting a foal or
if you can not house one just giving to save one please contact:

Hmmm...I have never heard of this? If it is true, then it is incredibly sad. However, I have some questions about the legitimacy. First, those high dollar sport-horse mares aren't generally covered live...they are AI, so the vet comes to them - or they stay at a birthing facility until the mare is rebred. Second, just because the second mare has milk doesn't mean it will accept another baby, nor would the baby necessarily accept the other mare? Lot of risk there for the high priced baby.

More often, I have heard of embryo transfers for high priced mares.

Agree with Odhinn's mom... plus, I have NEVER heard of a mare who foaled not being allowed to keep the foal with her when rebred.
AND... sold for pelt? Yeah, right. Whatever.

To me, this is a SCAM

Jessi

Yep, I've heard of them, and this practice Just google 'Nurse Mare'. Here's one link- and I'm familiar with these people: Last Chance Corral

As far as the foals being sold for their coats? Not sure- I've just heard of most of them being sold cheap at sales- like PMU foals.

Karen

See now that is what I was thinking. I have always read how difficult it can be trying to get a mare to take a baby that isn't her own.

Yet another dissappointing aspect of the horse industry. I am saddened by the fact that some humans are so desperate to further their own ends that they would take away a baby from it's mamma just so they can put another baby with her and send that mamma off to be bred.

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AND... sold for pelt? Yeah, right. Whatever.

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Actually that does happen. There is even a lady on the forum who got here horse right before it went to the tanners. They like paints and appys.

While this practice is true on a small acale banning slaughter isn't going to change it the foals don't go to slaughter plants and the meat isn't used.

This is what I've heard of nurse mares. These are special mares, who will accept other foals. So when a valuable brood mare dies, or for whatever reason, can not nurse or care for the foal, a nurse mare is brought in. One of the requirements of having the nurse mare is that she must be bred to one of farm's stallions in order to be available to be a nurse mare next year. So the foals from a nurse mare can be quite valuable and are bottle raised and later sold on as sport horse prospects. So I doubt very much, a foal from a decent nurse mare by a top racing stallion or a good sport horse stallion would be marketed for meat or for its pelt. The nurse mare owners would get more money marketing it as a sport horse prospect.

Spotted Pony

Sadly this email is not a scam, for years breeders have been quietly selling off these foals to slaughter. I have met Victoria, who runs the Last Chance Corral, and even transported some nurse mare foals for her when I went to pick up Sunny. She does wonderful work with limited funds.

And yes, there is also an industry for horse pelts. My Sunny is likely the filly another poster was referring to. She was rescued from a kill pen, bound to be slaughtered for her paint coat.

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So I doubt very much, a foal from a decent nurse mare by a top racing stallion or a good sport horse stallion would be marketed for meat or for its pelt. The nurse mare owners would get more money marketing it as a sport horse prospect.

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I wish this were the case. But I fear most often the breeders find it easier to sell the foals off to slaughter as this is most cost effective. The milk replacer alone is extremely expensive, around $80 a container. Not to mention the diarreah most of the foals suffer from the food source switch... The care they require is 24-7.

Yes, there are actually nurse mare farms that have lactating mares at the ready. Ky horse park actually had a nurse mare foal there last year. It's not pretty, but it's a fact of the racing life.

Yep it was your girl I was thinking of, the beautiful Sunny

Aw, thanks