The Slaughter Issue in brief…
posted in Issues, Slaughter | Saturday, February 12th, 2011
The 2007 shutdown of the three U.S. horse slaughter facilities has not stopped slaughter.
It still goes on, only now the slaughter-bound horses are traveling farther, to facilities in other countries that do not offer any semblance of protection or regulation of the treatment of the horses. Economic impacts have embattled auction houses and horse dealers, while the oil companies are benefiting from all the extra fuel that is being burned. Who is suffering the most? The horses. They are suffering more than before from extended travel and brutal Mexican slaughter practices.
An AVMA study reported a 312% increase in exports to Mexico for slaughter from December, 2006 to December, 2007. That is an increase from 10,783 horses to 44,465. This statistic does not include the percentage increase in the number of horses exported to Mexico for other reasons, that are actually being exported for slaughter in another guise.
Many people still believe that slaughter of horses for human consumption has been outlawed in the United States. They might use the livestock auction as a quick way to get a little cash and re-home a horse they are finished with, unaware that dealers who ship horses for slaughter visit local livestock auctions every week, buying up as many horses as they can, including that faithful and puzzled old gelding who took the grandkids through years of 4-H.
The horse slaughter plants that existed in Texas and Illinois were closed without an existing federal ban on the sale and transport of horses for slaughter. This has clearly backfired on the horses. Industry professionals claim that a “slaughter ban” would also backfire on the horses, by causing more to be starved and abandoned because of the loss of the slaughter market.
If H.R. 503 and S. 727, the legislation in Congress outlawing sale and transport for slaughter completely, were to pass, one study estimated the number of horses abandoned in the U.S. as a whole would be around 90,000 per year. However, this estimate was based on the idea that abandonment is the only alternative to slaughter. Several states have begun introducing legislation that could potentially allow horse processing plants to re-open in the U.S. Opponents of slaughter are horrified, while proponents maintain that new plants in the U.S. would be closely regulated to ensure that slaughter would be “humane.”
Many other alternatives to slaughter do exist, such as finding another home, conscientious management of herds and breeding programs, taking advantage of reimbursement programs for gelding of stallions, donation to therapeutic riding programs, humane euthanasia, and surrender to sanctuaries and rescues, which depend on the public’s support.
Whether one is “for” or “against” slaughter as a “humane” or “cruel” method of “management,” it’s a fact that with or without it, horses will continue to suffer and die so long as people remain complacent. The time to decide what you believe, is now!
Your rescue facilities need your support. Please help them to help these animals.