Governor Jon Corzine wants to close down the Department of Agriculture in New Jersey. He says that the farmers can get by just fine without the Department. Corzine admits that there are a few details which the Department of Agriculture does that still need to be taken care of, but he argues that the Department of Environmental Protection can assume these responsibilities.

Most New Jersey farmers were not able to make a decent living milking cows or growing asparagus and tomatoes, so they went out of business. Many farms were sold for housing developments and shopping malls, but some are still farms. The owners of these farms are not farmers, but they do have animals. They keep horses - 83,000 of them in New Jersey!

According to the Department of Agriculture website, the Garden State has only 7,000 pigs and 11,000 milking cows left on a total of 9,800 farms. 5,233 of those farms reported less than $2,500 per year in sales, so I suspect that these are horse farms.

In order to prove that he is not an animal hater, Governor Corzine donated $80 million of the tax payer's money for corporate welfare to race tracks and horse owners last year.

I got to wondering who owns all these horses. It's only a hunch, but I read in the April 2, 2008 edition of the Atlantic City Press that there are 66,443 registered lawyers in New Jersey. Most politicians are also lawyers. 

Perhaps someone reading this can bring clarity into the mystery.