Tiadora Anderson

Do you eat chicken or beef? What about horse meat? Some people strongly oppose the eating of horse meat while others do not.

Horse meat is supposed to be tasty, low in fat and high in protein. It is healthier than beef. It is used in Austria, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, France, Canada and Japan. Each year over four million horses are slaughtered.

We do not slaughter horses in America. The last slaughter house was shut down in 2007. However, we ship horses to Canada and Mexico to be slaughtered. Last year 133,000 healthy horses were sent abroad to be slaughtered.

If it is wrong for us to kill horses in the United States, wouldn’t it be just as inhumane to ship them to another country to be slaughtered?

Or, is it all right as long as we don’t have blood on our hands?

Some might argue that the horses that we kill are old and dying.This, in fact, is not true. Ninety percent of the horses slaughtered are healthy young horses. The horses come from different backgrounds. No horse is safe from being slaughtered.

Horse thieves make a quick buck by stealing and selling the horses for their meat. A horse thief can make from $300 to $700 per animal. Unlike other thefts, there is no evidence left to tie them to their crime.

A second argument is that slaughtering horses is acceptable as they are no different from other farm animals that we eat such as cows, pigs, sheep and chickens.

Horses are expensive to feed and keep. It costs several thousand dollars a year to keep a horse, and on average they live for thirty plus years. Disposing of the dead horse’s body is expensive.

Most owners prefer to bury their horse in the pasture, but that practice is restricted and illegal in many states. Moreover, the horse owner must own, buy or rent a backhoe--an expensive item-- to dig the grave.
Then there is the option of pet cemeteries. Depending upon the services rendered, that can cost from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars.The horse’s body can be cremated after it has been transported to one of these facilities. Cremation can be especially expensive if the owner wants the ashes returned as the incinerator is used for one animal, instead of many animals. Most landfills will not accept horses.

For many owners, it is cheaper to sell the horse for its meat. No part of the horse is wasted. The meat is used by the butcher, the hoofs are used to make glue and the tail to make paint brushes.

Should we reopen our slaughter plants? Are animals are treated more humanely in U.S. facilities than those of other counties?

Do we treat our animals humanely in the United States? What does that mean?

A USDA document of 906 shows graphic photographs of horses with their legs severed or eyeballs detached.
Likewise, an exhausted investigation by Animals’ Angels found that horses suffer greatly on the way to and during the slaughter.

Some of these cruelties include horses left to die bleeding and submitted to freezing temperatures.

Several horses were eating hay that was left on top of decaying horse’s bodies. This practice “This contradicts biosecurity recommendations by the USDA and the National Agricultural Biosecurity Center Consortium who specify the necessity of keeping livestock and scavenging animals away from composting carcasses. They warn the tuberculosis and anthrax will survive the composting process and the pathogens in the compost can spread diseases in humans, animals, soil and plants.”

Investigators at a slaughtering plant pen found newborn foals and dead foals. Trucks carried dead horses and horses that couldn’t get up.The plant owner said that dead horses were too lazy to drink water.

Over the weekend I was at a horse show. I asked an owner how slaughtering a cow differed from slaughtering a horse. She said, ”Horses bond with their owners, like a dog does.”

Does that mean other farm animals don’t bond with their owners; therefore, it is okay to kill them?
What are your thoughts on this subject? Why?

These bills would prohibit the export of horses for slaughter to other countries.
The Prevention of Equine Act (H.R. 503) and the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act (H.R. 503/S. 727 Please ask your senators to support these bills.

http://www.hsus.org/farm/news/ournews/undercover_investigation.html
http://www.harnesslink.com/www/Article.cgi?ID=74451
http://www.stophorseslaughter.com/
http://www.kaufmanzoning.net/
http://www.harnesslink.com/www/Article.cgi?ID=74451
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horse_meat
http://www.igha.org/USDA.html
http://www.manesandtailsorganization.org/funerals.html
http://www.hsus.org/farm/news/ournews/obama_policy_downers_031409.html