| Basic Facts about Horse Slaughter |
The majority of horses sent to slaughter are young, healthy and sound horses; not old, abandoned or permanently lame.
Horse slaughter does NOT stop abuse, neglect or abandonment of equines
Slaughter is an irresponsible disposal method of horses that have been over bred.
People that starve their horses, or neglect and abuse them, escape criminal animal cruelty charges by selling them to kill auctions
Sending horses to slaughter creates negative economic and environmental impact.
Americans do NOT support human consumption of horsemeat.
U.S. horses are administered many toxic substances that can cause lethal affects when ingested by humans.
Equine owners and breeders must take responsibility for the life of each equine in their charge.
If horses aren’t slaughtered, where will all the unwanted horses go?
In consideration of the 9 million horses that exist in the U.S., an average of about 125k per year are sent to slaughter. This tiny fraction of the horse population can easily be reabsorbed back into the equine community just as it has in the past when the market for horsemeat dropped.
The “surplus horse population” is a myth. The annual number of horses slaughtered in... the US dropped from over 300,000 in the 1990s to less than 50,000 in 2003, with no special infrastructure needed to absorb the thousands of “unwanted” horses that were not slaughtered. Horses are being kept longer, sold to others, humanely euthanized, or donated to retirement and rescue facilities.
Horse slaughter is driven by a demand for horse meat. Typically, kill buyers buy horses at auction for slaughter. The kill buyers are not looking for the unwanted or abused or neglected horses. They are looking for healthy horses that can be slaughtered for horsemeat, a delicacy in parts of Europe and Asia. The USDA has said over 92% of American horses slaughtered are healthy. The "need for slaughter to curb the number of abused, neglected and abandoned horses" is also a myth..
Horse slaughter perpetuates abuse, neglect and abandonment rather than stopping it as proponents claim. People who abuse their horses are getting paid when they dump their neglected horses for slaughter.
What about the claims that horse slaughter is humane?
Horse slaughter is NOT euthanasia. It is one of the most insidious and barbaric cruelties inflicted on animals by humans there is. Slaughter methods are inhumane and cannot be made humane. The entire process from the moment they arrive at auction and are sent to the kill pens is inhumane. They are whipped and beaten during the transportation process, the trailers are overcrowded, they arrive at the feedlots injured, their injuries are ignored… everything up to and including their death is inhumane. The horses at the slaughter plant are packed into kill pens and line where they can see the horses in front of them being slaughtered, they can smell the blood, the surfaces are slippery, and they are terrified and often slip and fall repeatedly as they are illegally stunned with electric cattle prongs to move them forward. They shake violently, falling, unable to stand from fear once in the "kill box", then they are bludgeoned with the "captive dead-bolt" gun which is meant to drive a bolt into their skull to render the horse not dead but unconscious, however contrary to the humane slaughter act they are repeatedly bludgeoned over and over because the unskilled workers do not hit the target on the first blow, which leaves the horses alive and oftentimes still conscious. Instead of stopping the line according to humane guidelines, the plants pressure the workers to keep the lines going and no violations are recorded or enforced. The horse is then shackled, hoisted, their throat slit, they are bled out and dismembered while fully alive and aware of what’s happening to them.
There is an overwhelming amount of evidence that clearly shows the torturous suffering our American horses were forced to endure here in the U.S. before congress defunded the USDA inspections. The system is corrupt and replete with egregious violations that the USDA ignored for years and years... that's why the USDA lost its funding.. But in the absence of a federal law that bans slaughter our horses continue to be shipped across federal borders where they are slaughtered just as inhumanely to this very day.
Horses, if not sent to slaughter, can be absorbed back into the equine industry. According to the American Horse Council, horses have a total impact on the US Gross Domestic Product of $112.1 BILLION, including $25.3 Billion direct and 86.8 Billion indirect.
