Horses feel pain, Horses feel fear,
Horses feel loneliness, Horses also feel love...
Eating horses in America or killing them for human consumption is ethically and morally
unacceptable. Horses in America are considered pets and sport/leisure animals; not
food animals. The foreign-owned horse slaughter industry has slaughtered and
exported for human consumption over 3 million American horses in the last two
decades. This is intolerable and we should not allow this abominable practice to
continue in our country.
Slaughter Houses in U.S. and Canada
Since horses are not food animals, nor are they specifically bred for food or fiber, they are
medicated with potent drugs, such as de-wormers, painkillers, hormones, anti-
inflammatory, and pesticides for fly control. These antibiotics and vaccines become
resident in their flesh and are specifically labeled not for human use.
Since there is no export tariff on horsemeat, no profits from this deplorable business remain
in America. In addition, these foreign-owned companies pay no state taxes at all.
Therefore, all the profits from horse slaughter are siphoned directly to Belgium and France,
the home countries of these corporations. Economically, it is point proven that horses
are more valuable for the economy alive than dead. While the live horse industry
creates millions of dollars each year and provides jobs for thousands of people, the
horse slaughter industry only creates profit for these corporations. Horses are
taxed as a non-food and recreational animal (although classified as 'livestock'), and as
such are not exempt from state and local sales taxes, as are animals that are
traditionally raised for food. If horses become part of the 'food chain', each state will
lose millions of dollars annually in sales tax revenue alone.
Approved Livestock Auctions - most accept horses
Horses slaughtered by these foreign-owned industries in the United States have often been
hauled several thousand miles over several days, contrary to acceptable non-slaughter
standards for water, food, and rest. Horses sent to slaughter are often
shipped on crowded double-decker trucks designed for shorter necked species such as
pigs, cattle and sheep, and are forced to travel in a bent position which can result in
suffering, injury and death.
Callous and extremely inhumane treatment at the slaughterhouse results in prolonged
suffering. Horses endure repeated blows to the head with stunning equipment that often
does not render the animals unconscious and many horses remain conscious
during their own slaughter, including having their throats slit.
Horse slaughter is a barbaric and despicable business. A vast majority of Americans (over
85% according to recent polls) are opposed to it. They, together with the horse
industry's professionals and numerous equine welfare and other humanitarian
organizations, are currently working to get the American Horse Slaughter Prevention
Act, (whose House Version has already 205 Co-sponsors) enacted in order to ban it
entirely from this country.
Claims saying that a ban on horse slaughter will lead to an increase on abuse cases and
horses abandoned on streets and fields are false and ridiculous. Since California passed
legislation banning horse slaughter and its transport for slaughter 6 years ago, horse
abuse and starvation cases decreased. Also, during the last years the number of
horses slaughtered decreased dramatically (from over 300,000 in the 90's to less than
43,000 in 2003) and the extra number of horses that were not slaughtered each year
did not cause any increase on abuse or neglected cases.
Americans do not eat horses nor do we raise our horses for food. The only reason horse
slaughter exists is to satisfy the palates of foreigners who consider horseflesh a
delicacy along with the greed of the corporations which provide it. 'Killer buyers' who
travel from one auction to the next filling up their trucks provide the horses for this
industry. Others are stolen; even our federally protected wild horse population can end
up there. In addition, horse slaughter promotes horse theft. Since California banned
the slaughter of horses in 1998, horse theft has decreased over 34%, while the
welfare of horses has significantly improved. May I also point out that in Texas where
two of the three operating horse slaughterhouses remaining in the US, horse theft and
abuse is rampant?
In spite of contrary claims, the great majority of the horses slaughtered are not old, sick,
crippled or unwanted, but instead, are young, healthy, fat American horses, including
federally protected wild horses. Pregnant mares and mares with very young foals at
their side; purchased at auction where the slaughterhouses’ middlemen, dubbed 'killer
buyers', which outbid families and farmers looking for pets, riding and working horses.
Horses have played a significant role in the history and culture of the United States. As a
non-food and recreational animal, horses should be protected from slaughter. Again, I
urge you to support S.2352, The American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act.
We watch them running…tails held high...gentle manes floating weightlessly on air.
We marvel at the sight of freedom bringing us closer to their whispers.
In the book 'Slaughterhouse' by Gail A, Eisnitz, 1997 a worker quoted, “You move so fast,
you don't have time to wait till a horse bleeds out. You skin him as he bleeds.
Sometimes a horse's nose is down in the blood, blowing bubbles and he
suffocates." “One woman expressed her encounter as she was driving past Cavel “The
screams of terror coming from the horses; I have been a professional horse
woman for 30 years, and never have I heard such horrific sounds come from a
horses body in all my life as I had, just passing by Cavel one day last week while the
rear unloading door to the plant happened to be open,” sadly explained Gail Vacca,
American Horse Protection Coalition and a resident of DeKalb, Illinois.
"The fact that man knows right from wrong proves his intellectual superiority to other
creatures.
The fact that he does wrong to these creatures proves his moral inferiority". - Mark Twain
I am appalled by the violence of the world today, and political figures speak every day of
bringing peace to the world. Might it be just the right time to clean up our own
backyards?
Please know that I am not saying that no horse must die. A qualified medical expert
should, humanely euthanized animals that become crippled, sickly and incapable of living a
quality life. A marksman with one bullet can end agony for horse whose time has
come.
Slaughter is NEVER the answer, but death is sometimes the only option left for the brave
souls that need to be put out of their misery. Let death come with peace not
more agony.
So what can you do? What can anyone do? With thousands of horses being slaughtered
every year you may be saying, it is hopeless. There are too many. I can't do anything.
But you are doing something. You are here today. You are reading this story and that
brings hope!
If you genuinely want to know more about this, just ask me. :)
~taymie
