Horse Slaughter
When it came time to write the text for this page of our web site, I researched the topic thoroughly, reading article after article on the subject, visiting numerous web sites that dealt specifically with the slaughter of horses in the United States and abroad. What I read chilled this hardened rescuer to the bone. I learned that, although the consumption of horse meat is illegal in this country, over 91,000 horses were slaughtered in the United States last year for human consumption overseas. Tens of thousands of horses were also sent abroad to be killed in foreign slaughterhouses throughout Europe and Asia where minimum standards and regulations often fall short or aren't enforced. Not that the process in this country deserves high marks when it comes to treating our horses humanely. Far from it.
The articles explained that all equines are at risk. Even a former Kentucky Derby winner! The great Ferdinand tragically ended his days in a slaughterhouse in Japan. Racehorses, Premarin mares, retired horses from riding academies, camps and schools, miniatures, pets and working horses, wild horses, mules and donkeys, if they are not humanely euthanised by a licensed veterinarian, they will all end their lives in a slaughterhouse. Often these animals are purchased at livestock auctions by middlemen called "kill buyers" then they are delivered to slaughterhouses often without the original sellers knowing that their horses are destined for overseas meat markets. Thousands will be sent to one of the three foreign-owned slaughterhouses in this country, one located in Illinois and two in Texas. I read first-hand accounts of how horses panic as they are beaten off the crowded trucks and prodded into the kill-shoot, all the while slipping on the blood of the horses who went before them. These gentle creatures are then "stunned" by bolt guns, fired point blank into the side of their heads. Not always effective, investigators have witnessed horses being repeatedly "stunned" by equipment improperly handled by inexperienced wranglers and testified that many horses are actually conscious through the next step of this horrific process, when they are hung up by their feet and their throats are cut. It is a barbaric display and one that many people in this country are desperate to stop.
And stopped it was, but only temporarily, when Congress barred the use of federal funds to inspect horses going to slaughter which is necessary under the law. But the USDA circumvented the temporary ban by allowing the slaughterhouses to pay for the inspections themselves. So the killing continues.
But then on September 7, 2006, a day that will live in the annals of animal welfare history, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 503, the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act. This incredible piece of legislation will end the slaughter of horses for human consumption and the domestic and international transport of live horses or horseflesh for human consumption. Passage of this bill is a great victory for animal welfare organizations, sympathetic legislators and horse lovers everywhere.
But now the Senate must now pass this same bill. So please join me in calling our Senators today and urging them to support S. 1915, the amendment to the Horse Protection Act prohibiting the shipping, transporting, moving, delivering, receiving, possessing, purchasing, selling, or the donation of horses and other equines to be slaughtered for consumption, and for other purposes.
And if this amendment passes in the Senate, then maybe this page of our site can soon be removed, unnecessary because of the valiant efforts of key legislators and all the animal welfare organizations and people who fought so hard on behalf of our horses, which historically speaking, could just be America's greatest companion animals.
Get the facts on the Premarin Horses by visiting the HSUS's site at
http://www.hsus.org/pets/issues_affecting_our_pets/equine_protection/
the_facts_about_premarin.html.
Then read about Ferdinand the Kentucky Derby winner's death in
Japan in the equine magazine Blood Sport by clicking
http://opinions.bloodhorse.com/viewstory.asp?id=17063
http://news.bloodhorse.com/viewstory.asp?id=17051
Please call your Senators today and urge them to support S. 1915, The American Horse Slaughter Protection Act (AHSPA).