In the horse world there are few topics as controversial as horse slaughter. Mention horse slaughter to any group and you’ll get a varied response. Some are disgusted, some supportive, and others don’t even know that it exists. Fingers are pointed in all directions, at irresponsible owners, breeders, those who buy horses for meat, those who operate the plants, and everyone else even remotely connected to this industry. My purpose in this article is to shed some light on the issue and raise awareness about it because I truly believe that ignorance runs rampant when it comes to this issue.
I am one of very few people who have been on the front lines, as it were, of the rescue of horses bound for slaughter. My position on this issue is against horse slaughter but for those of you who will now turn away from this article and roll your eyes and call me an “activist”, hang in there as I would like the chance to explain my opinions clearly and I welcome feedback of all sorts.
I have spent several years volunteering at a local rescue group. I have personally owned several rescued horses, and have stood in a feedlot full of hundreds of horses awaiting slaughter. I’ve been to auctions and have seen first hand how most of the process works. What I haven’t seen first hand, I’ve spent a good deal of time researching and looking for facts; not just opinions, but solid statistics and facts. I try to keep my emotions on the outside of my judgment and have spent a good deal of time trying to sort out the pros and cons of horse slaughter to base my opinions on. I don’t like to jump to any conclusions without having done my due diligence in understanding the issue thoroughly from both sides.
I firmly believe that horse slaughter is unnecessary and in fact causes a great deal more problems than it has ever solved. I am also in the majority in this. Several polls have been taken including one sponsored by Blue Horse Charities and the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation, and conducted by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research Inc of Washington D.C. which found that in the State of Texas in 2003 that 81% of respondents agreed to the statement that “Horses are an important part of Texas culture, heritage and economy and add tremendous value as companions and recreational animals. They should be afforded a more humane end of life than slaughter for food.” Other findings from that study were:
- An overwhelming majority (89%) of Texas voters are unaware that horses are being slaughtered in the state for human consumption.
- A substantial majority of voters (72%) are opposed to the slaughter of horses for human consumption.
- A greater majority of voters (77%) are opposed to changing state law to permit the slaughter of horses for human consumption.
- In addition, the opposition to a change in law was intense, with 62% of voters stating that they were strongly opposed.
- By an 8-1 margin, Texas voters associate the value of horses with Texas state culture, heritage and economy rather than the horses’ value as a simple livestock commodity like cattle.
Now that addresses the mindset of those in Texas, but what about the rest of the United States?
One of the largest national magazines on equine health care, The Horse, conducted their own poll in 2003 by asking the question to their readers “Do you think horse slaughter should be outlawed in the United States?” The results were:
- Yes (2,025) 76.27%
- Not sure (72) 2.71%
- No (558) 21.02%
- Total Votes: (2,655) 100%
In 1999 - A poll conducted in New York State yielded the following results:
- 91% considered horses companions, recreational or sporting animals -
- 72% would never eat horse meat -
- 73% believed that the manner that horses are slaughtered is cruel and inhumane -
- 81% personally opposed the practice of horse slaughter.
These are only a few of many polls conducted with similar results that clearly show the majority of the American population is opposed to the slaughter of horses for human consumption.
Those that are pro-slaughter (those who believe that there’s nothing wrong with slaughtering horses for meat, and think that it is a form of humane euthanasia) base their beliefs on a few key points, and seem to think that they are in fact doing the horses a favor by allowing slaughter to continue.
They believe that without the slaughterhouses we would be inundated with unwanted horses which the public would not be able to care for, but let’s consider the numbers on this as well. In the United States approximately 700,000 horses die each year of all causes (natural death, accidents, euthanasia, & slaughter). The 3 slaughterhouses (2 in Texas and 1 in Illinois) process approximately 60,000 per year of that 700,000, with another 30,000 or so being shipped to Canada and Mexico for slaughter there. The pro-slaughter group believes that the horse owning public would not be able to manage 60,000 more horses despite the fact that the horse population in the USA is approximately 6.9 million.
They also fail to recognize that in the early 1990’s there were 14 slaughterhouses operating in the United States and 4 in Canada, and that they were killing over 350,000 horses per year, and that the number has been in steady decline ever since without any additional infrastructure in place to absorb the “unwanted” horses.
My question to those who believe that 60,000 or even 90,000 are “unwanted” and that there are no better alternatives for them than slaughter, is what has happened to the 200,000+ horses annually that used to end up in the slaughterhouses? There has been no significant increase of neglect or abuse cases, and people are not turning their horses loose in any greater numbers than they did even when there were more than a dozen slaughterhouses in operation. In fact, both the Hooved Animal Humane Society (HAHS) and the Illinois Department of Agriculture reported that following the burning of the only slaughter plant in the region, abuse cases quit rising and went down between 2002 and 2003. California banned horse slaughter in 1998, and since that time horse theft has dropped 34% and cruelty reports have not increased (Dr. Carolyn Stull). Texas, which had the only two slaughter plants in 2003, had among the nations highest rates of cruelty and theft. The conclusion is clear; slaughter contributes to abuse and theft.
This would tend to make one believe that in fact the “unwanted” horse theory is just another myth perpetuated by those who have the most to gain. It would make more sense that the number of horses being slaughtered each year has everything to do with the capacity of the facilities in which they are being killed, than of anything else. It becomes a question of simple supply and demand. If one were to eliminate the demand for horses to be slaughtered, then the supply would decrease accordingly.
Another belief held by those who support horse slaughter is that the method in which the horses are killed is humane because it is regulated by the US Department of Agriculture, and on the north side of the border, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. Let’s explore that a bit as well. The method itself is fairly straight forward. The captive bolt gun is the most commonly used method and is pretty much as one would imagine. It is a piece of machinery that is held over the animal’s head, directly to the forehead and shoots a high powered bolt into the skull and brain of the animal rendering them unconscious. It does not kill them outright but simply knocks them out so they are unaware of what happens next. They are then hoisted by a back leg into the air, and their throat is slit so that their blood can be drained. They die by bleeding to death. This is the same method used for cattle and this is exactly why I believe it is unsuitable for horses. For cattle it works pretty well. When you put a cow into a tight area like the kill box, the restriction to their movement actually calms them down, cattle also have short necks so they can’t move their head around a whole lot which makes it much easier to position the gun, and that means that the first blow is often enough to render them unconscious. The problem with using this method on horses is that when you put a horse in a confined area they will panic and thrash about. By instinct horses are designed to flee those things that frighten them and would never allow themselves to be trapped in a position that they feel is a threat to their personal safety. They also have long necks so in the process of thrashing around they move their head a lot which makes positioning of the gun extremely difficult. This results in a reduced efficiency of the captive bolt gun. It is not uncommon for a horse to be hit with the bolt 5 or more times before they are rendered unconscious, and it is also not uncommon for them to regain consciousness as their throat is being slit. What might be deemed acceptable for slaughtering cattle cannot be deemed humane for slaughtering horses. They are two very different animals.
When one thinks of humane euthanasia we think most often of our other companion animals like our dogs and cats. When the time comes to have them put to sleep, a veterinarian gives them a lethal dose of drugs which causes them to fall into a state of unconsciousness and then delivers another dose which stops their heart and breathing and they pass away. Humane euthanasia is not what horse slaughter is. I think most people would agree that when seen in this light, horse slaughter is brutal at best, and absolutely cruel in the worst cases.
Those who support slaughter also like to make an argument that people need a way to dispose of their sick, crippled and aged animals and that selling a horse for meat price (which runs between $0.50 - $0.65 per pound depending on the condition of the horse and the market at the time) is a way to recoup some of their costs and eliminates the problem of what do with the remains. That it is simply less wasteful and more environmentally friendly for the horse to be consumed as meat.
I see a couple of problems in this argument. Firstly, slaughterhouses don’t want sick, crippled or aged horses. It is illegal to transport any horse that is under 6 months of age, or a pregnant mare that may give birth during transport, it is also illegal to transport a horse that is blind in both eyes, or who cannot support their weight on all 4 legs. With that said, there is little to no enforcement of those laws and the meat buyers are the ones who determine which horses to buy and transport.
It is also illegal to slaughter horses for human consumption if they’ve been given certain medications prior to slaughter. By law the animal must have had a period of 14 days or longer in some areas, to allow the medications to move out of their system. This is again not properly enforced as there is no possible way for the meat buyer or anyone else involved in the sale of horses to know what drugs were given to them and when. The saying in the industry is that no horse in North America is any more than 4 days from “stable to table.” This presents another problem which is that the meat being sold is tainted with drugs which are not safe for human consumption and, as an example, may contain chemicals from certain commonly used dewormers that are carcinogenic, among other chemicals which are equally dangerous.
According to 2001 field studies conducted by Temple Grandin, 70% of all horses at the slaughter plant were in good, fat, or obese condition; 72% were considered to be "sound" of limb; 84% were of average age; and 96% had no behavioral issues. Old, sick and crippled horses do not bring nearly as much value to the slaughterhouses that healthy, young and sound horses do. Any horse owner knows that when a horse is sick or under stress they will lose weight. Slaughter plants aim to process primarily healthy horses because they carry more meat and are therefore worth more money.
As far as owners recouping some of their costs of owning a horse by selling it to the meat buyer goes, the $300-$700 they will receive from a meat buyer is hardly a drop in the bucket when it comes to horse ownership. Here in the Calgary area to board a horse per month will cost anywhere from $200 to upwards of $700, depending on the facilities. If you’re fortunate enough to have your own property you can still expect to pay a minimum of over $100 per month just to feed and provide the most basic of care (Based on $75/month for hay, $20 every 3 months for dewormer paste, $35 every 2 months for having their hooves trimmed by a farrier, and $20 per month for grain, would = $119.16). That does not include other costs such as tack (saddle, bridle, lead ropes, halters, brushes, other grooming supplies, vet supplies) or additional nutritional requirements such as mineral, salt licks, additional veterinary costs (such as annual vaccinations, dental care, emergency care in the case that the horse gets sick or injured), or other miscellaneous costs like having shoes put on the horse, training costs and lessons, etc. If you own your own property you will also need to invest money into fences, pasture management, shelters, waterers, etc as well. These are just the absolute basics of keeping a horse healthy and safe. In this part of the country one can expect to spend roughly $3000 per horse, per year just in the accumulated monthly costs. This is assuming one has to board a horse and is paying no more than $200/month. This does not include the purchase price for the horse which varies greatly depending on the age, condition, level of training, pedigree etc of the animal.
This a very conservative estimate as to the minimum costs of horse ownership, so to say that you would get back $300 or even $700 on your horse if you sold it to the meat buyer seems to be hardly worthwhile when every year you’re spending 10 times that amount to care for the animal. It would cost roughly $150 to have a horse euthanised by a veterinarian in Southern Alberta, which when you look at the costs of maintaining a horse is actually far less than what most people pay per month to keep it alive.
The other argument is what to do with the carcass once the animal has been euthanized. Horses are many times larger than the biggest dogs, and the issue of what to do with their remains is somewhat complex. There are a few solutions. If you own your own place you can arrange to have the horse buried. You hire someone to come and dig a pit that is at least 6 feet deep, when the day comes you lead the horse into it, and the vet administers the drugs that kill it, and it is buried on the spot. If you don’t have a place to bury your horse or cannot afford to have someone out to dig a proper pit, then you can have the horse euthanised and hauled away for rendering (which turns it into pet food, or meat for the zoo animals among other things) at a cost of roughly $50 and this is just as environmentally friendly as the horse being consumed by people in other countries but is many times more humane as the whole process of euthanising the animal can be done at home or in a familiar area to the horse, and they can be handled by familiar handlers who they trust. If you wish to have your horse cremated that can be an option as well depending upon your location, but generally horses are cremated at the rate of $1/pound. Another option is to have the remains sent to a landfill or to be composted.
The pro-slaughter groups also stress the point of what to do with the horses who don’t need to be euthanised but whom are simply unwanted. The single best alternative for those horses is rescue groups. They will accept donated horses and will find them new homes safe from slaughter. This is a good option for those situations where the owner doesn’t have the time it takes to find a new owner and sell the animal themselves.
The pro-slaughter group claims that the number of unwanted horses would flood the rescue centres and that there are not enough homes for them all. I hope that by now in this article you can see that it is simply not the case. The unwanted horse theory is just a myth and those unwanted horses are finding homes with and without rescue centres. They are being absorbed into the horse owning public without any additional resources required.
Another complaint I have with the slaughter industry is that horses destined for slaughter are transported for long distances without food or water and often times with no rest at all. It is not uncommon for horses to travel 30 hours or more without any rest, food or water. It is illegal to transport a horse in the United States for any more than 28hrs at a time before unloading them and allowing them access to food and water but this is entirely unenforceable and the transport drivers will travel literally for several days without allowing the horses any rest. This results in many horses dying en route or being sick and in a weakened state when they are unloaded at the slaughter plants.
Double deck transport trucks have also been made illegal for horse transport in several states but not in all. These trucks are not designed for livestock as tall as horses. This means that many horses cannot stand in a natural position resulting in many head, facial, and back injuries during transport. Transport trucks often carry more horses than they are designed for and the overcrowding can cause even more injuries. All sorts of horses cramped together in a tight place are bound to cause problems. They transport stallions, mares (some pregnant, some with foals on side), yearlings, foals, mules, etc without dividing up the group, and with no consideration of how the horses will react to each other. Many of the weakest horses are severely injured or killed before they even reach the plant.
To further prove the point that horse slaughter and transport to slaughter facilities is inhumane, Dr Peggy Larson, DVM, MS, JD who has been in practice for nearly 40 years, and who was appointed Vermont State Veterinarian and Acting Chief of Livestock and Meat Inspection in 1984, gave her sworn testimony in court on February 21, 2006 of her first hand experiences of horse slaughter and of those horses in transport for slaughter.
“As a veterinarian and a former USDA employee, I am familiar with the issue of slaughtering horses for human consumption and with horse welfare issues in general. As a large animal veterinarian I have observed horses first hand in small and large communities throughout the country.”
“ Based on my training and experience, is it my professional opinion that the process of transporting and slaughtering horses for human food is inhumane and an unacceptable method for dispatching unwanted horses.”
“Sometimes horses have to be hit several times with the captive bolt, causing tremendous suffering before they are effectively rendered unconscious. Subsequently, it is highly probably that some horses may not be rendered unconscious when hung and bled. Horses are also more likely to injure themselves trying to escape the runway in the slaughter plant. I also believe horses are more sensitive to odors, including the blood that necessarily exists in the slaughter facility, and that this exacerbates their stress and apprehension.”
To read more of her testimony please visit: http://www.hsus.org/web-files/PDF/Larson.pdf
The next point I would like to make is that the horses being sent to slaughter are not properly identified prior to processing. Some horses have brands and other identification (micro-chips, tattoos etc) and the slaughterhouses do not make any attempt to verify that the horses were sold by their legal owners and that they intended to send the animal to slaughter. Many people are unaware of the meat buyers at auctions and think that when they sell their horse at an auction that someone will give them a good home. A lot of people are surprised to hear that horse theft is also a serious problem in the horse industry and is directly related to slaughter. People will steal horses in order to sell them to the meat buyers and make a few hundred dollars. The horses that end up at the slaughterhouse can be stolen and sold to a meat buyer within days, the thief making off with the money, the horse left to face imminent slaughter and as a result many stolen horses are never recovered.
The single biggest reason why horses are ending up in feedlots is simply ignorance on the part of horse owners. The meat buyers, the transporters, and even the slaughterhouses would never exist if people knew what was going on, and if people simply said no to it. To them it is just about money and nothing else.
Speaking of money, all of the slaughterhouses in North America are foreign owned. All by companies based in Belgium. Horse slaughter is a multi-million dollar business and those profits are not being made by North American companies but by foreign businesses. The Dallas Crown plant in Texas paid only $5 in taxes for the 2004 season but made several million dollars in the same period. Our horses are being used to support foreign companies who continue to be a drain on the local economy. Horse meat is not eaten in North America and I can’t see any reason why we should be supplying it to other nations.
Other reasons why I oppose horse slaughter are more personal. Like I said at the beginning of this article, I have been involved in horse rescue, and have owned several horses who were pulled out of feedlots and auctions, just days or hours away from being slaughtered. I have spent hundreds of hours with my horses and with the horses at the rescue centre and as much as I don’t want to make this an emotional decision I do believe that all human judgment is based in emotion and this is no different.
I have seen 2 year old quarter horses who were papered and extremely well bred being sold to the meat men because of a deal gone bad between the breeder and a buyer. Seventy of them ended up standing in a feedlot that way, and the rescue group managed to save 19 but the rest ended up at the plant. One of the lucky ones became a personal horse belonging to my family, and we later found her full sister (1 year older but with identical breeding… out of the same dam and sire as our mare) listed for sale and she eventually sold at a ranch in Montana for $16,000 USD with coincidentally the nearly identical training that we had done with our mare. Our mare was intended to be slaughtered, but was one of the lucky ones and has found her forever home.
I have also bought horses out of a feedlot, 2 year olds, in good shape and found them new homes within a week where they are currently living productive lives. To say that all the horses destined for slaughter are unwanted is absolutely not true.
I've seen paint mares condemned simply because they hadn't produced the right color of foal. I saw one thoroughbred mare who was bred to a paint stud, and produced a solid colored baby. The owner was disappointed, so he sold her off with her foal on side. She had already been exposed to the same stud for the 2nd time. So effectively he was condemning 3 horses. The mare and foal were bought by the rescue centre (she was only 5 yrs old, and one of the sweetest mares I’d ever met), and the next spring gave birth to the loudest colored baby you've ever seen.
I've also seen a little old pony, that had lived his whole life with one family. He taught 2 generations to ride, was in 4H with them, did everything they ever asked and according to his owners, never did a thing wrong. Then when he got too old to be of any use (pushing 30 yrs) he was shipped off, despite the fact that he was still in reasonably good health. Some thanks for a lifetime of loyalty. He was also taken in by the rescue (although they aim not to take older horses, as there are so many youngsters who haven't even had a chance, and are easier to find homes for), and a nice little older couple came by one day to see what the centre was about, and the little old lady fell in love with him, and took him home as a pet to live out his days.
In 2002 the 1987 Kentucky Derby winner, Ferdinand, was slaughtered in an American slaughterhouse and his meat was shipped to Japan where it was marketed as “Eat an American Champion.” Americans were shocked to find out what had happened to this horse who was so loved and well respected. The truth is that he ended up facing the same fate as 90,000 other horses do each year. Where they come from makes no difference to the slaughterhouse, all they see is meat on hooves.
The thing that struck me the most when I stood in the feedlot is the age of the horses there. I saw approximately a thousand head standing in pens waiting to be shipped off. Of those, only 100 or so were adults (presumably because the adult horses don’t need to be fed up as much since they already weigh more than the younger stock). The rest were 3 years old, and younger. Predominantly yearlings and weanlings. This was in January, not even prime weanling sale time. Of the whole group, I saw perhaps only 50 horses that seemed to be visibly sick or injured. The rest of the horses appeared to be healthy. Standing in the midst of a couple hundred 2 year olds and being told that they will be shipped the very next day is hard on the heart. To stand there knowing that those who slaughter horses are perpetuating the idea that they’re doing the horses a favor by putting them out of their misery, and to see all the potential of those 2 year olds who never even had a chance to live, is one of the most profound experiences of my life. I've seen hundreds of horses rescued from slaughter and I can tell you for a fact that there are thousands of very nice horses who don’t deserve to be there and whose lives are put to an abrupt end. In light of the facts and of the alternatives available I don’t believe that any horse deserves to be there.
Horses are extremely intelligent animals. They are very sensitive, and are keenly aware of danger. Horses are prey animals and their very survival over millions of years has been reliant upon their ability to detect predators, and to avoid dangerous situations. Horses will ordinarily flee from whatever it is that frightens them, and they are not worried about being hurt, they are worried about being killed. This explains why a frightened horse will hurt itself when scared in order to escape. This is one thing that often baffles people because they don’t understand that it is not afraid of getting cut on barbed wire, or any other injury, it is afraid solely of becoming someone else’s dinner. This is why I believe that horses know when they’re loaded onto double deck transport trucks, and when they are unloaded at the slaughterhouse that death is near. They can feel it, they can smell it, they can hear it and they can sense it all around them. They can hear the horses ahead of them screaming, hear them thrashing, feel their panic and they know that they’re next.
Anyone who’s ever owned or ridden a horse knows just how aware they are of their surroundings. They can hear a rustling in the grass 10 yards away and bolt before you even know what happened. To think that horses don’t know what they’re in for when they can sense it in ever fiber of their being, as thousands of generations of survival tells them that they are in danger, is just not reasonable.
The human race would never have come this far if it were not for horses. Horses have carried us into battle, have been our most loyal companions, and have worked for us for centuries. They are the foundation upon which our entire civilization is built. Our horses now are used primarily for sport, pleasure, and some still find work on ranches and farms. We do not raise horses for meat as we do cattle, and the horses that are being killed by the thousands belonged to someone; someone brought them into this world, someone gave them a name, someone raised them, fed them, and sold them, and often for no fault of their own, the horse pays the ultimate price. There is a lack of owner responsibility in the horse world. People don’t consider the horse, they consider the prizes to be won, or they think of them simply as only a tool to get a job done, and when something goes wrong or the horse does not perform as they had hoped, they just dispose of it and buy a new one. It is a mindset that permeates North America; that all things and all life are replaceable. Horse meat isn’t eaten in North America and as such it makes no sense to be killing our horses to satisfy a foreign market. Other cultures also eat dogs and cats, but we don’t allow that here and we shouldn’t allow the slaughter of our horses for human consumption either.
Even observing the situation objectively, one can see that there are many alternatives for the less than 1% of the horse population that is at risk, and that the process of transporting and butchering horses without proper law enforcement, and without a more suitable method of slaughter, is unacceptable to the majority of the population in North America.
In the USA on September 7th, 2006 bill HR 503 was passed in Congress by a vote of 263 to 146 and is now to be sent to the Senate and if it passes the Senate it will make it illegal to not only slaughter horses for human consumption, but also to import, export, buy or sell horses intended for slaughter. It would effectively close the remaining slaughterhouses in the USA and hopefully the residual effect will cause the remaining slaughterhouses in Canada to close as well.
This is a complex issue but at the same time it’s very simple. Horses are slaughtered so that people can make money. The rest is just details. The slaughterhouses don’t care who owned the horse, what breed they are, or where they came from. They don’t check to see if the horse was stolen or not, because they just don’t care. There isn’t a horse in North America that isn’t at risk. All it takes is one careless owner, one sale where someone didn’t check up on references, or one bad turn of luck and even the most prized horses can end up staring death in the face. The last thing they will ever see is a man holding a bolt gun over their head. None of them are safe until we all say no, until the horse owning public decides that our companions, our horses deserve better.
For the animal shall not be measured by man.
In a world older and more complete than ours, They move finished and complete, gifted with the extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear.
They are not brethren, they are not underlings, they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and the travail of the earth...
Written by Henry Beston
(1888 -1968)
go to main page
