As many as 300,000 horses each year were once slaughtered in the United States, a practice that ended in 2007 when Congress repealed USDA funding for horse meat inspections and the last of America's slaughterhouses closed. But let's be clear about this: the practice of killing America's horses for human consumption never stopped, and the numbers of those slaughtered didn't decrease. We just stopped killing on our soil -- sort of. Instead of being slaughtered in Texas or Illinois, horses endured longer journeys in cramped trucks over the border to Mexico and Canada, and the little known slaughter of equines by illegal slaughter farms, most notably in parts of Florida, continued to flourish.
Yet today, horse lovers are in a tizzy about the lifting of a ban on funding horse meat inspections, fearing that slaughterhouses could be up and running as early as January. If advocates like the American Quarter Horse Association, The American Veterinary Medical Association, and United Horsemen, with 14,000 fans on their "Work Together in Order to Get the Horse Slaughterhouses Re-Opened" Facebook Causes page, get their way, this may well be the case. Big money/big politics are behind the push.
But tell me this: why, exactly, are we so freaked out? For sure, horse slaughter is awful, but from where I sit, it's symptomatic of far knottier problems. If our goal is to help animals, we need to get our arms around those problems, too. We need more laws, more regulation, more sanctuaries. More than any of this, we need more compassion. Consider the following:
1. Unless we ban both the slaughter of horses in the U.S. and their transport across our borders, a slaughter ban is pointless. If after reading this you still can't abide the idea of horse slaughter, then urge your senators and congressmen to sign the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act (H.R. 2966/S. 1176), currently in committee. Click here to find out how to contact your representatives.
2. We need to take a hard look at what will happen to those who don't get slaughtered. Those who say that "excess horses are absorbed by the industry" or "are humanely euthanized" when slaughterhouses close (and argue that there's no need for slaughterhouses) have their heads in the sand. Passing a slaughter prevention act might feel like a victory, but it certainly wouldn't prevent suffering. It would simply substitute a nightmarish but quick death, for prolonged suffering (and often a nightmarish and slow death) for thousands of animals.
Keep in mind that:
a. Terrible suffering is routinely ignored by those responsible for preventing it.
I could drive you right now to nine situations involving hundreds of animals whose terrible suffering at the hands of breeders/hoarders is being ignored by police and SPCAs. In our experience, SPCAs and police officers, though charged with the "protection of animals," primarily serve household pets. Whether it's lack of funding, lack of training, lack of interest, lack of judicial support/political will, the end result is the same. Law enforcement stands back while horses, cows, chickens and other farm animals starve to death. It's a gruesome truth that domestic slaughterhouses prevent death by starvation for lots of animals.
b. Overbreeding and hoarding aren't being addressed.
Catskill Animal Sanctuary has been involved with dozens of hoarders and breeders. We've gone to properties where dead animals were thrown into massive piles, properties where 50 or more starving horses had no hay in the dead of winter, properties where dying animals were hidden in the back, away from public view.
Some things that would help: a) laws that limit breeding b) laws that limit the number of animals that can live on a property c) laws that delineate the care that animals must be given (anti-cruelty laws for farm animals are vague) d) laws making hoarding and/or conditions associated with it a felony e) recognition of hoarding as a psychological disorder and appropriate treatment for it.
c. There are too few places for needy animals to go. Even if law enforcement did its job, there would be way too few placement options for needy animals. As one of the largest horse and farm animal sanctuaries in New York state, CAS has over 200 animals on our waiting list. Most are from people impacted by the economy. So add all the animals whose families can no longer afford to care for them to those whose neglect is being ignored by law enforcement. I'd call the problem epidemic. If we ban US slaughter altogether, more animals will die from starvation. If I'm in the wretched position of having to choose one death over another, what's my choice?
3. The paradigm is the problem. How will the problem of unwanted horses and what to do with them ever end as long as the model is humans on top, horses on the bottom? Very few "horse people" have horses in their lives simply to share a loving relationship. Instead, we are breeders, show horse people, racers, trainers, rodeo riders, dude ranch or petting zoo operators, carriage horse drivers, and the like. Even if horses are our friends, they are also, and primarily, commodities to buy and sell. Is the problem the few who want to profit from "excess" horses, or is it the paradigm that views horses as ours to do with what we choose, including "get rid of them" by whatever means will put some coins in our pockets when they're not valuable to us anymore? Do your own research: the numbers of thoroughbreds and quarter horses who wind up being slaughtered simply because they aren't fast or flashy enough to win races or ribbons is staggering.
4. The paradigm is THE problem. A few days after the inspections ban that opened the way for horse slaughter was lifted, Americans consumed over forty million turkeys in one day. Let me say it again: to make one species happy on Thanksgiving day, 40 million beautifully sensitive, gentle members of another species are grown in misery and killed while fully conscious. I might connect more deeply with horses than I do with cows or turkeys, but should that love justify such contradictory behavior? Don't terror, pain and suffering feel the same regardless of species?
The effort to keep horse slaughter plants out of the U.S. seem misguided at best, since it does nothing to minimize suffering and arguably increases it. I urge folks to work locally to strengthen both anti-cruelty statutes and their enforcement, to support good sanctuaries, or to open their own. I also urge you to consider what really needs attention -- speciesism: the unquestioned assumption of human superiority and the incalculable suffering of all other species because of it. If we are to survive, our circle of compassion must include all living beings -- not just humans, not just horses.
Follow Kathy Stevens on Twitter: www.twitter.com/casanctuary
"The effort to keep slaughter plants out of the US seems misguided at best and does nothing to alleviate suffering." I don't know how going to slaughter would alleviate suffering, and considering that 92% of horses that get sent to slaughter are in good condition and able to live productive lives, it would therefore seem to indicate that sending them TO slaughter would CAUSE suffering, which is obviously the case.
The author needs to peruse the 900 photographs that Julie Caramante was finally in 2008 able to get the USDA to release that show significant injuries to horses, including conscious dismemberment, blinding, open fractures, battered faces, etc., all of which occurred under the "watchful" eyes of the USDA in the USA. Slaughter is inhumane no matter what country it is performed in, and the only paradigm of note is whether it can ever be made humane as long as those that want to perpetrate it keep an eye on the profit margin.
If only….
The number of horses facing slaughter has consistently remained the same since the closing of US slaughter houses. Of those horses slaughtered annually on our soil or foreign soil 92% were in good health. In California, where horse slaughter was banned in 1998, horse theft dropped 34% after the ban and closing of slaughter houses. Also there was no correlative rise in abuse or neglect. You will find these statistics to be relatively the same in other states. In addition in areas where slaughter houses are located property values will decrease. Despite the fact that we don't want horse slaughter at all, are horse theft and decreasing property values acceptable liabilities? Allowing horse slaughter in the US or allowing for the transport of our horses to foreign slaughter houses enables the AQHA, TWHBEA, TRA, and others to continue with their over breeding.
Another over looked fact is that our horses are not raised for human consumption. They are routinely given medications and de-wormers throughout their lives that make the meat unsafe for human consumption. The very countries that horse meat is being produced for are starting to realize this as well and a blow to the European horse market is expected to hit the US. (See link for confirmation)
http://www.youtube.com/user/GAIAforanimalrights#p/u/0/DyaF65cPqQU
There is however, evidence that slaughter increases hoarding/neglect and abandonment by owners frightened of horses going to slaughter. It also increases lottery-style breeding, because breeders see slaughter as a way to dump their culls.
The bottom line, which the author is missing, is that slaughter BEGETS slaughter. You ban slaughter and the hand of the market will eliminate the reckless breeding. It will also alleviate hoarding and abandonment.
(3) Slaughter is available, yet they choose not to use it. Face it, the US economy is the reason for the perceived increase in US horse starvation/abandonment cases, not a lack of slaughter because that is a manufactured lie with absolutely no basis.
You also totally fail to address the glaring fact that domestic horses are not raised to be slaughtered for human consumption. As such, most of them have been given drugs during their lifetimes that are banned in animals destined for human consumption. The list of drugs is so long all of them are not and cannot be tested for by the USDA or any other similar body. Surely you can’t be advocating feeding toxic horsemeat to people can you? It is so toxic and full of drugs it is not even used for dog food anymore, yet it is supposed to be used to feed Americans?
You also fail to mention the repeated serious environmental violations that existed around the plants that operated in the US prior to 2007, that still exist in Canada and Mexico now and will exist in the US again should plants reopen
You fail to mention the horrific abuse companion horses suffer in the slaughter pipeline. The most recent case exposed filmed in July 2011 over 2 days at the newly upgraded, state-of-the-art horse slaughter plant called Les Viandes de la Petite-Nation, Inc., in St. Andre-Avellin, Quebec, Canada. This plant is as good as it gets and was designed by the one and only Dr. Temple Grandin.
If you dare watch the undercover videos posted on the Canadian Horse Defence Coalition website, please note that beautiful belgian draft horse shown was hit ELEVEN times with the captive bolt over several excruciating minutes, ONE time is the number of hits considered "acceptable" and this, along with multiple other atrocities against many horses. This is the 4th undercover investigation by CHDC since 2007 and every one proves horses cannot be slaughtered humanely in a slaughterhouse environment.
You also fail to differentiate between the life of horses and turkeys and any other animal raised as “food,” if turkeys were raised as pets and companions as horses are, then sent to slaughter, there would be uproar too. If you truly believe that horses are the same as animals that are raised for slaughter, then surely you must feel the same about dogs and cats and must fully support loading them up for slaughter to feed the cultures that currently enjoy eating them. There is a market for their dead bodies too, do you support that?
(2) Do you honestly think that the poverty stricken people in the C-9 Basin in Florida that are also stealing electricity are going to buy “legal” horsemeat? If so, why are countless cows, pigs, chickens, turkeys, goats and sheep also being illegally slaughtered in this area? What is your reasoning for that also easily verifiable fact?
If you believe that “It's a gruesome truth that domestic slaughterhouses prevent death by starvation for lots of animals.” how do you explain the starvation of horses in Canada where horse slaughter has been legal all along? Horses in Canada are regularly found in abuse and starvation situations, yet, just like for Americans, slaughter is available to them, in fact, in Canada some can drive their horse there directly. However, like in the US, most can be sent to slaughter through the auction/kill buyer process any time but horses are still being found starved and abandoned. How do you explain that? In one recent case over 100 Arabians were found sick and staving on a farm located approximately 50 miles from a horse slaughter plant in Alberta.
The reality is that most people do not support slaughter and even though some are losing their homes and farms due to the economic downturn, they would rather give their horse to option to live or potentially find a new home as a stray rather than send them to slaughter.
(1) Your statement that horses are enduring longer trips to slaughter is incorrect. In fact, it is a shorter distance for many i.e.: the distance from New Holland Auction Barn in PA, the largest auction on the east coast, to either slaughterhouse in Quebec is shorter than the distance horses would have traveled to Cavel in Illinois. This information is easily confirmed with a simple search online.. That is but one of many examples I could give you regarding distance traveled.
Horse slaughter is now and has been an option for anyone in the US that wants it. Everyone has the option to take their horse to auction, or sell to a local kill buyer and that is manner by which most horses end up in slaughter. It is not like everyone had the option to take their horse to a local slaughter house prior to 2007, or anytime for that matter. This was the case before the plants in Texas and Illinois closed, nothing has changed and please stop making it sound like it did. The only thing that changed is for a small handful of people that live in Texas or Illinois that could have potentially driven their horses directly to slaughterhouses, otherwise, everyone went through auction and kill buyers, the same as now.
Apparently, YOU see YOUR horses as "commodities." Don't presume to speak for me.
I take in older horses- often they have nowhere else to go. I provide them that last loving home all horses deserve. I don't do it for tmoney-- I have yet to meet a horse with its own bank acount.
I give them a home because I love horses. I love everything about them. I love their strength- although it is often diminished by age, their beauty, although they often bear scars and blemishes, and lastly their honesty- they are what they are-- horses.
I have had horses most of my life. I have ridden, driven, shown & bred horses. Honestly, I have loved every one.
Tonight, I am grieving a 22-year-old Percheron mare Lou Lou, who came for a three day layover & stayed four years. She didn't do much work. She helped me harrow & plant grass, tasks easily done with my tractor. But Lou gave me companionship & a feeling of accomplishment with her willing help.
Some horses go quickly like Lou- suddenly, unexpectedly- in the blink of an eye. Others need the vet's help & someone to make the "hard" decision. All have made me wealthy, not in money, but richer for having known & shared life with them.
RIP, Lou. Until
AVMA guidelines on euthanasia have absolutely nothing to do with SLAUGHTER. These are two entirely different things. Euthanasia is a painless, fear free death. Slaughter doesn't even try to kill. The horses are stunned - sometimes - and then hung by one leg to "bleed out." The captive bolt that is usually used in slaughter plants is the regular captive bolt - not the penetrating captive bolt. The AVMA guidelines say ONLY the penetrating captive bolt can be used to euthanize horses. Although death is not the intention in a slaughter plant, the regular captive bolt is also incapable of adequately stunning a horse. Even if stunned, they often regain consciousness in 30 minutes, and are strung up and their throats slit while conscious. Prominent equine veterinarians have testified before Congress that this is happening to our horses.
The captive bolt is NOT providing a quick OR painless death. You should see the 900 pictures obtained via FOIA that the USDA took of violations at Beltex in Ft. Worth, TX, go to hypp://kaufmanzoning.net.
THAT is reality.