When I caught up with my calendar and realized that today was Blog the Change Day, it took me about two seconds to decide what cause I wanted to talk about.
I vehemently believe that horse slaughter is inhumane. In addition, over the course of their lives, horses are given a wide variety of drugs and veterinary treatments that makes their meat toxic for human consumption.
In November 2011, the US Congress lifted a 5 year ban on horse slaughter for human consumption. In March 2012, Wyoming based Unified Equine was planning a new horse slaughterhouse in Mountain Grove, Missouri, where they planned to slaughter between 200 - 400 horses per day. The meat would have primarily been shipped overseas, but some was intended for specialty stores here in the US. In addition, Unified Equine planned to raise horses specifically for slaughter. Mountain Grove, Missouri, residents declined and the facility was never built.
Two weeks ago the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) approved a horse slaughter plant in Sigourney, Iowa and let it be known they plan to allow plants in Missouri and New Mexico. Other new applications are pending for facilities in Tennessee and Oklahoma,
As I told you last Monday, this comes in spite of:
- the statement by Tom Vilsack, Secretary of Agriculture, opposing horse slaughter.
- the US senate Appropriations Committee passed a ban on domestic horse slaughter as part of the fiscal Year 2014 budget. That ban prohibits the USDA from using funds to inspect horsemeat intended for human consumption
- the US House Appropriations Committee's vote to deny funding for horse slaughter
- President Obama recommended the FY 2014 Appropriations bill not contain funds for horse slaughter.
In the United States, horses have never been raised for human consumption. However, there is foreign demand for horse meat for diners in Europe and Asia. Since the last horse slaughter facility closed here in 2007, thousands of US horses are shipped out of our country to slaughter houses in Mexico, Canada, and Europe.
The majority of horses that go to slaughter are purchased by "killer buyers" - middlemen who work on behalf of the foreign-owned horse slaughter industry.
Where do most of these horses come from? From the horse industry. Young, healthy horses that are a result of over-breeding by people trying to create the perfect horse are ideal candidates for slaughter.
According to the late John Hettinger, former owner of Fasig Tipton (the second largest Thoroughbred Auction House), past Chairman of the Grayson Jockey Club Foundation, previous member of the Board of Directors of The Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation and NY Racing Association Trustee:
"7,000 to 9,000 Thoroughbred racehorses are slaughtered every year. Killer buyers frequent horse races to purchase under-performing racehorses after the races end. Thoroughbred Deputy Broad raced at Mountaineer Race Track in Chester, West Virginia on July 11, 2011 and was needlessly slaughtered one week later, not because he was “unwanted,” but because he was disposable. The famous racehorse, Ferdinand who won the 1986 Kentucky Derby, the 1987 Breeders’ Cup Classic, the 1987 Eclipse Award Horse of the Year and became a highly sought-after stud horse in 1989, was sold to Japan where he was slaughtered in 2002."In addition, mares and foals that are by-products of the Premarin industry, wild horses, stolen horses, and those purchased by killers from owners who are unaware who they're selling to.
What happens after the killers purchase the horse(s)? They're transported. Riding in overcrowded conditions, often for more than 24 hours, deprived of food, water, and rest.
In a sworn statement in court in Cook County, Illinois, a former employee of Cavel International, a horse slaughter plant (now closed) testimony describes what is commonplace:
"...they were unloading one of the double-decker trucks. A horse got his leg caught in the side of the truck so the driver pulled the rig up and the horse’s leg popped off. The horse was still living, and it was shaking. [Another employee] popped it on the head and we hung it up and split it open. …
Sometimes we would kill near 390, 370 a day. Each double-decker might have up to 100 on it. We would pull off the dead ones with chains.
Ones that were down on the truck, we would drag them off with chains and maybe put them in a pen or we might drag them with an automatic chain to the knock box. Sometimes we would use an electric shocker to try to make them stand. To get them into the knock box, you have to shock them … sometimes run them up the [anus] with the shocker. …
When we killed a pregnant mare, we would take the guts out and I would take the bag out and open it and cut the cord and put it in the trash and sometimes the baby would still be living, and its heart would be beating, but we would put it in the trashcan.”If you think horse slaughter is humane euthanasia, think again. Once in the slaughterhouse equine hell continues. Horse slaughter is not humane euthanasia.
Animal Euthanasia - from the Greek, meaning 'good death' - the act of humanely putting an animal to death or allowing it to die as by withholding medical measures. [Wikipedia]Horses are intelligent animals. Highly sensitive and acutely aware of their environment, the flight or fight instinct is strong. According to the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS):
[Horses] react to the smell of blood, the sounds of other horses being slaughtered and react violently to death when they see the instrument or “stun gun” aimed at their heads, which drives a four-inch spike into their skulls.
They make desperate attempts to flee, exhibiting typical equine “fight or flight” behavior and extreme panic and fear. They prance back and forth with their ears pinned back and their eyes wide open.
That inevitably results in the instrument hitting the horse and wounding it and not rendering it unconscious, but rather resulting in repeated blows.
In addition, video evidence shows horses being beaten on their faces, necks, legs and backs; purposely blinded by bludgeoning their eyes out to get them under control, electric cattle prods inserted into their rectums to get them to move into the kill box, mares giving birth on the kill floors, and remaining alive and conscious when they were shackled and hoisted by a rear leg to have their throats cut.
The horses stand in line sensing the terror and electrocuted or speared into the kill box where they shake violently, falling and unable to stand from fear.
From 2007 to 2009, Animals' Angels USA conducted investigations of the horse slaughter system including the conditions and treatment slaughter horses undergo at auctions, feedlots, during transport and at the slaughter plants. They concluded:
“…horse slaughter encompasses public safety issues, public health concerns, environmental issues as well as the obvious and very significant concerns regarding cruelty and inhumane treatment. Our investigations during 2007 to the present made clear that at the instant a horse is designated a ‘kill horse,’ handling and treatment change radically from that normally given horses. A ‘kill horse’ is treated with cruelty, with indifference at best, but more typically with violence and aggression. Cruelty increases, while safety, health and welfare – its care and humane treatment are so diminished it is virtually nonexistent. These horses are “only passing through,” say the veterinarians as well as the ‘kill buyers.’
If the ‘kill horses’ had been normal horses under the care of a different type of owner, humane officers and police would have required, in keeping with state animal cruelty laws, proper veterinarian care and sufficient access to food, water and shelter. The ‘kill horse’ is outside the protection of cruelty laws.”
There are many humane alternatives to slaughter for horse owners unable or unwilling to care for their horses, including equine rescues, sanctuaries, retirement farms, equine therapy facilities, and many more. I believe that horses that are sick, elderly or dying should be humanely euthanized by a licensed veterinarian using lethal injection.
My horses are my friends, companions and working partners. I owe them a good life and a good death. My horses that have died, all died at home and are buried at home. I know that they all - living or waiting for me to cross over - join me in urging the ban of horse slaughter in the United States.
For more information about this issue, I recommend reviewing the positions of the ASPCA, HSUS, American's Against Horse Slaughter, Stop Horse Slaughter , Mary Nash's Horse Slaughter web site and many more. You can sign petitions here and here.
