American Horses Need Your Help
Published June 14, 2011
Flickr User lovelychristy02
Most horse racing enthusiasts who personally didn’t attend the 142nd running of the Belmont Stakes this past Saturday afternoon were no doubt glued to their television sets, wondering if Animal Kingdom, the 2011 Kentucky Derby winner, would victoriously fly over the finish line to capture the prestigious win.
Out of the blue, however, Ruler on Ice, with jockey Jose Valdivia, Jr. on board, triumphantly pulled off the exciting win with odds of 24-1. And while 50 horses have won two legs of this arduous three race series, no horse has mastered the Triple Crown since Affirmed galloped to glory in 1978.
But after the celebratory fanfares are over, sadly what happens to many of these magnificent animals (despite their incredible courage, huge hearts and desire to win)is that they become burned out or injured. Eventually, they no longer are considered money makers, and, more often than not, become a financial drain on their owners.
Many of these formerly valuable, talented horses, along with others who once graciously served us, are often sold at auction and are bought by buyers only to be shipped to Mexican or Canadian horse slaughterhouses, where they ignominiously end up as delicacies on dining tables in Europe and other foreign countries.
However, a ray of sunshine has appeared once again to shine on our beloved American horses. On May 30th, the House Appropriations Committee approved an amendment proposed by Representative Jim Moran (D-VA) to the FY 2012 Agricultural Appropriations bill which would continue to prevent our tax dollars from being spent on paying for inspections of horse slaughterhouses.
The amendment would ensure commercial horse slaughter in the United States to be illegal. Since meat for human consumption cannot be sold without these inspections, the passing of this amendment is crucial. Since 2005 the bi-partisan language has been included in every Agricultural Appropriations bill. Without its passage, companies will once again be able to resume horse slaughter. This goes to vote by the full House of Representative on Wednesday, June 15, which will decide whether or not to spend our tax dollars on slaughterhouse Inspections.
And while getting this legislation passed is critical, horse lovers must ultimately arrive at plans which would prevent horses from being shipped “down the road” arriving at an unknown and often inhumane final destination. While this compelling Fox News video concerns race horses, all horses must be protected.
Animal lovers who want to help should call the Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-2131 or call your own U.S. representative. Find their contact information at: http://www.house.gov/representatives/
Ask your representative to vote against any amendments to remove Representative Moran's amendment to the 2012 Agricultural Appropriations bill. Ask them to support de-funding inspections of horses slaughtered for meat of human consumption. Every call is vital to protect our horses. Please take action!
What are your thoughts about slaughtering horses? Leave a comment and share.
Shortly after retiring as a social worker and psychotherapist, I discovered my "writer's voice"…
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Comments (12)
I don't see a date on this article - it should be revised. As of June 2011, U.S. slaughter plants have all been closed, although several states are trying to pass bills to open new "processing" plants.
Unfortunately, American horses are inhumanely trucked very long distances, standing the whole time, no food, water or rest, to Mexico or Canada to be slaughtered. Often injuries to legs, eyes, etc. occur during the panicked & exhausted horses horrific journey. Often foals are born on the packed truck's floor.
Grievous inhumane abuse of horses has been documented in Canada's plants.
Mexico is far worse, an absolute nightmare of unregulated barbaric sadism. The horses are forced through a chute into the kill box, where they are stabbed repeatedly in the shoulders until the spinal cord is hit & the horse collapses, paralyzed but not unconscious in the least.
The horse is then strung up by 1 hind leg, throat is slit & bled to death, fully conscious.
THIS IS WHAT AWAITS AMERICAN HORSES WHO ARE SOLD AT AUCTION & BOUGHT BY KILL BUYERS.
CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVES IN CONGRESS & DEMAND THE TRANSPORT OF HORSES TO SLAUGHTER & SLAUGHTER OF HORSES FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION BE BANNED, PERIOD!
Stop all slaughter of prize and non prize horses!!! its NOT right and just because a horse is hurt dosent mean it cant be healed the people could sell the horse and make more money than having it slaughtered and the horse could have a second chance at a new life! the word slaughter just makes me tremble!!! those poor horses!! the people who work for those horrible places and people should be punished 2
Stop all slaughter of horses in the world - it's inhumane, sinful, painful to say the least. the horse is a beautiful animal, let's take the people involved with killing horses and do the same to them over and over again and eliminate them from this earth. I have watched and cried at some ofthe videos from the Humane Society - it's horrible how the horses are kept and then pulled to be slaughtered. Please wake up people. this is senseless
No responsible owner would ever starve their horse! PERIOD! There are no fewer horses slaughtered since the plants have been gone from the U.S. so your reasons for bringing the plants back is moot. There are still plenty of kill buyers out there ready and willing to buy these horses that people claim they can no longer afford. The only way to keep the numbers of unwanted horses down, is to address the source of this problem,.. which happens to be over breeding. Slaughter never should've been an option in the U.S. in the first place. We don't eat horses in this country, and the Belgiums who'd owned the U.S. slaughter plants here, paid no taxes to operate them. Let them build their own slaughter facilities in their country, and slaughter their own horses, if they must. Here's a few dandy reasons not to slaughter horses.
Inhumane for the animal, demoralizing for the workers, bad for the local environment, tainted meat for the consumer, a break for the over breeders and a disgusting life's ending for a companion animal. The AVMA classifies horses as companion animals, not livestock!
One concern here is, once the horse cannot be humanely put down, they end up starved to death by people who no longer want to pay to feed them. Since the closing of the slaughterhouses here in Texas, hundreds of horses are left in pastures without adequate feed and water, and i nthe end your tax dollars get used anyway to try to rescue them through a municipality.Jmuhj has an excellent point - the only way to stop the end result is control the start of the cycle, breeding horses indescriminately for profit, and hoping it will make you money. It's all about money...isn't everything, no matter where your heart lies?
As one who has eaten horse meat before I must say I do not really see what the big fuss is. My self I rather Beef but to each there own. Providing the animal is kill humanly I have no problem with them being sold to a processing plant
Please read my post above & you'll see there's nothing humane about how horses are killed. In fact, don't take my word for it, search the web for facts & photos. If you have half a heart, you'll see it's mercilessly cruel.
Investigate the lives & deaths of food animals & you'll find they suffer immensely their whole lives & in death as well. There's no way to humanely kill an animal. Since you seem to be concerned w/ humane handling & slaughter, you should become veg since eating meat supports systematic abuse & atrocities against animals, & THERE IS NOTHING HUMANE ABOUT THE LIVES & BLOODY VIOLENT DEATHS OF "FARMED" ANIMALS OR THE SLAUGHTER OF HORSES.