by Angelika Dietrich
WallowaValleyOnline
In March of 2008, I published a column that discusses the issue of horse slaughter. I decided to update the column after reading a report in the Baker City Harald on Two foals dumped by highway. According to the report, a pair of month-old Appaloosa fillies was dumped along Highway 7 near the top of Huckleberry Mountain between Sumpter and Whitney over the weekend, and Sheriff Mitch Southwick is determined to find out who’s responsible. What does that have to do with horse slaughter? A lot!
Horse slaughter has been in the news and at many discussion tables for quiet some time now. Much has been discussed in regards to what the government must do to eliminate such slaughter. Much has been said in favor and against the practice to slaughter horses after serving society in one capacity or another.
Very little has been discussed in regards to the reality and future of the equine business that includes equine slaughter for unwanted animals, partially since few people have are truly educated idea of what really happens inside an equine slaughterhouse.
I have been in the equine business since 1974, have been in non-horse slaughterhouses with my father. I have seen videos of horse slaughter. To say the least, there is a huge difference in how non-equine animals are normally slaughtered in comparison to equines. Words cannot describe these procedures, and the videos are very graphic.
Christopher Heyde, Deputy Legislative Director for the Animal Welfare Institute, told the House Energy and Commerce Committee back on July 25, 2006, of his personal experience when visiting a horse slaughterhouse: “Horses are allowed to be hauled for up to 28 hours without food, water or rest.” Heyde said. “Callous workers beat the horses on the nose, forehead, neck, back or hindquarters to get them to move until they entered the kill chute.”
He also testified, “Ample USDA inspection reports show cruelty and improper handling is a serious problem,” but when trying to report the incident, “We were unable to locate a U.S. Department of Agriculture inspector in the facility.”
The U.S. government’s own statistics show that more than 90 percent of equines hauled to slaughterhouses are not old, sick or crippled - they are either unwanted or stolen.
According to Hyde’s statement, they include retired or injured racehorses, riding school horses, former show horses, federally “protected” wild horses, foals born as a by-product of the Premarin industry, or stolen horses.
Many have been asking where the actual problem lies. My own opinion has upset many in the equine business in the past, because I believe that the problem arises to a great extent from within the equine industry.
The problem of “unwanted horses” and horse slaughter is an issue that Washington cannot resolve by just passing a law to end horse slaughter.
The question has also arisen, “What do we do with all those horses - an estimated 90,000 per year - after the bill has passed?" At this point and time, there are no more open horse slaughter houses in the United States. According to report from Aginfo.net, an effort is being made to open another horse slaughter house in Montana or North Dakota. The rational behind it: animals left to their own can die of starvation or end up being shipped to processing plants outside the U.S.
And that is why the recent report from the Baker City Harald on two abandoned foals has everything to do with horse slaughter.
It is an issue that can be avoided, to great extent, through more responsible equine management in the industry and by individual equine owners. Today, this issue has become an out-of-control problem that the equine industry, breeders and owners must tackle immediately to assure the decline of horses in need of homes without slaughter or other forms of inhumane death.
We can start by recognizing and mitigating the factors that lead to the problem. These include:
• Breeding backyard equine partners, because one has a good-looking colt. A breeding stallion is not a saddle horse for most people and only the highest quality need be kept for reproduction.
• Stud farms that offer free breeding to help sell a mare or to sweeten the deal on the sale of a first breeding. This practice adds to breeding more equines than necessary due to our built-in desire to “get more for your money.”
•Equine purchases by individuals that have little or no idea how to care for large animals like equines. Owner ignorance is a matter of life and death for equines.
•Equine owners who have only a monetary interest in their ownership.
The answer is not that hard to figure out. Start now:
• Quit breeding just because you can.
• Sellers should educate first time and uneducated equine owners about the huge responsibilities connected with owning an equine partner.
• Sellers should say “no” to buyers who seem unable to take care of the animal.
• Geld your colts. Geldings are wonderful equine companions and the world does not have to consist of stallions alone.
• Practice responsible breeding for quality and not quantity.
• Budget your expenses to include a fund for both regular vet expenses and euthanasia.
• Own only as many equines as you can actually support.
• Seek help before it’s too late. Use rescue groups, friends, and other support systems, instead of slaughterhouses.
Last, but not least, get in touch with your conscience, before you decide to send that equine partner of yours that you keep for work, pleasure, or pure enjoyment to a brutal death we would not wish on any other animal in the livestock industry, just because he has become an inconvenience.
Even though there are no horse slaughter plants in the United States today, horse slaughter will be a problem for some time to come. Horses are now being exported to Canada and Mexico where horse slaughter is legal and deaths are just as brutal. Countries such as France, Italy and Eastern European Countries comsume horse meat at large quantaties and are more than willing to import it from other countries without any consideration on how these animals meet their fate.
On a personal note: While I am very much against the slaughter of horses in brutal ways as seen in very graphic videos, I am not against slaughter in ways that cattle and other slaughter animals receive. Healthy unwanted horses should never end up on death row becuase of irresponsible equine management.
Facts are, the matter of horse slaughter is a very emotional and personal one in the United States. Yes, it is true, that horse slaughter is not a part of the American way in regards to meat consumption, but also consider that meat consumers have no problems picking up a steak, bacon or chicken at the store without lobbing to stop the slaughter of these animals. (That would be the United States Humane Society and that is a completely different and another insane story).
In an article of the New York Times, the author describes a case when she was 14 and her horse broke her leg when she slipped and fell in a patch of mud. The horse sent to a foxhunting kennel, euthanized by electrocution (hot wire on the head, steel shoe on the foot), butchered, and fed to the foxhounds. Even at 14, she says, she thought she was distraught because she loved and missed the horse, but recognized that there was justice and rightness about this solution to the problem of the disposal of the horse. She could not walk, she could not be healed, her death was as merciful as we could make it, and her recycling fed hounds that would otherwise eat some other animal. I agree with that solution.
At the end, we not only have the responsibility to maintain that horse slaughter should never be an answer for unwanted healthy horses and irresponsible equine management, but also demand that horses will be slaughtered in a human fashion that cattle and other slaughter animals already receive.
Sources:
Two foals dumped by Hwy, Baker City Harald.
Why Horse Slaughter is necessary, NY Times
AgInfo.net Montana Horse Slaughter
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