Heartland

I’m hooked on a Canadian-based tv series called Heartland. It’s based on a book called, you guessed it, Heartland. I absolutely love, love, love this tv series. Unfortunately the latest episodes are only broadcast in Canada so I have to not-so-patiently wait for the next series to be released to the states. I have season 1 and 2 and found season 3 (which will be ordered once the vet bills are paid for).

This series touches on horse rescue and slaughter. The fourth episode in season two really hit home about slaughter. I was impressed. I’ll not ruin the storyline but I was impressed that someone would be willing to show the ugly side of the horse industry.

The storyline has girls of Heartland rescuing six horses headed to slaughter but have to pay $2,000. The auction house outright said they want double for the horses. When I heard that amount, I thought it pretty steep price. But then I started doing the math.

If the price was actually $1,000, which is what the auction house is getting paid by the slaughter plant, and there are six horses. The math comes out to $166.67 per horse. Mike was trying to point out that they tried to make the auction guy look like a creep (and he was) but in reality the auction house still has to pay the slaughter plant but I couldn’t figure out the other part of the cost. It’s all business, it’s not emotional to these auction houses. I’ll have to ask Mike how he figures the double price is right. He was looking at it as a business venture and nothing more. But when you get right down to it, less than $200 a piece for a horse is actually the going rate.

I’m glad that they touched on hauling horses in double decker semi-trailers. I don’t know the rules and guidelines for Canada but it was rather impressive that a show would discuss the ugly side to slaughter.

I’m watching the second season again until I can buy the third season. I love watching this series. Anyone interested in a weekly/monthly Heartland Marathon?