From rumors of a horse slaughter plant reopening in Illinois in a few weeks to President Obama having signed a bill to resume horse slaughter in the United States or to Wyoming legislator Sue Wallis' claims of selling horsemeat to Wyoming school children, there have been so many conflicting stories, it seems to depend on just which side of this contentious issue one may stand. Instead of arguing back and forth, let's just deal with some facts:
- On November 18, President Obama signed the Continuing Appropriations Resolution to provide funding for the federal government. A few weeks prior, without anyone noticing Conference Committee Chair Sen. Herb Kohl (D-WI), Rep. Jack Kingston (R-MO), and Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO) rejected the de-funding of inspections for equines for slaughter for human consumption. Since 2006, the U.S. has prohibited taxpayer money to be spent to regulate and inspect horses being transported for domestic slaughter according to the 1996 law requiring inspections for any slaughter intended to produce meat for human consumption. Interestingly enough, the House version of the bill retained the de-funding language while the Senate version did not. The Conference Committee in charge of reconciling the two did not include the de-funding.
- Horse slaughter in the United States is not illegal, however commercial horse slaughter for human consumption in the United States is illegal. There is virtually no market for horse meat in America. Prior to 2006, three horse slaughter plants existed; Dallas Crown and Beltex Corp in Texas, and Cavel International in Illinois. All were foreign owned and paid little or no taxes. The Texas slaughterhouses raged long and expensive battles in their communities to continue horse slaughter based on complaints from government officials and citizens of no revenue from the plant owners, dismembered horse and foal body parts showing up in nearby communities, and the financial strain on municipalities water and sewerage systems. In the end a Texas 1949 state law against horse slaughter shuttered the plants down. Cavel International, despite continuing court battles shut their doors in the United States when de-funding passed in Congress and also as Illinois passed a bill to make horse slaughter illegal. Paula Bacon, the former mayor of Kaufman, Texas where the Dallas Crown horse slaughter house used to operate said the facility drove people away from Kaufman. She described the plant as overtaxing the city's resources, overtaxing enforcement costs, paying low wage jobs that few people wanted, while the owners of the slaughter plant contributed no tax revenues.
- Even though the slaughter ban has been lifted, Congress has not provided any appropriations to fund inspections. If Congress does fund inspections, Chris Heyde, deputy director of government affairs for Animal Welfare Institute states the cost of inspections will far exceed five million dollars. Heyde calls it a "hypocrisy" in a government that can't balance their budget. After all President Obama, in 2008 promised to support an end to equine slaughter.
- Polls have consistently shown that 70 percent of the American population are opposed to horse slaughter. There is no market for horse meat in America, and horses are not raised for human consumption. Horses are generally regarded as companion animals, and most horses sent to slaughter are young and healthy - despite the rumors that horse slaughter is a solution for the old and lame horses of America. To the contrary, the slaughter plants only want the young, fit, and healthy horses to process for their meat.
- The horse slaughter industry can not solve neglect and abandonment. Statistics have shown in the past that cruelty and neglect increased when horse slaughter was operating in the United States. "What is needed is for the horse industry to regulate themselves and stop indiscriminate breeding," states Christy Sheidy, co-founder of Another Chance 4 Horses, an all-breed horse rescue in Pennsylvania. The rescue operation has a secondary program to assist auction and slaughter bound horses which are placed in new homes, proving that these slaughter bound horses are wanted, useful and productive adding revenue to a stressed economy.
- During the last five-year-ban on horse slaughter in the United States, horses have continued to be sent to Canada and Mexico. In 2010, there were 140,000 American horses exported for slaughter.
- While horse slaughter operated in the United States, the brutal treatment of horses was no different than the proponents of horse slaughter contend still happens in Canada and Mexico. In an extensive report requested from the Freedom of Information Act,(FOIA) over 906 pages of egregious cruelty and inhumanity is described in vivid, heartwrenching, descriptive photographs- all derived from Dallas Crown during the year 2005. From the brutal treatment beginning with the transportation of horses to the inhumane use of stunning equipment not made for equines, the horses are frequently exsanguinated (fatal process of blood loss) while still fully conscious.
- The United States Government Accountability Office's report admits that "comprehensive national data" was lacking. Available data showed horse prices declined since 2007 and lower priced horses were more likely slaughtered. Still nearly the same amount of horses were sent to Canada and Mexico for slaughter in 2007. In reality however the country, since 2006 has been going through the worst recession since the Great Depression which has affected every industry in America. "My question is," stated Gretchen Van Mater, a horse owner in New Hampshire, " we have an overpopulation of cats and dogs. I know there's a big market to eat our pets in China and other countries, so do we now start sending our strays and abandoned dogs and cats over to these countries to control their populations? Why don't horse breeders follow the rules of controlled breeding instead of just killing horses for greed?"
- Since horses are not raised as slaughter animals, there are no regulations as to what drugs horses are administered during their lives. Most horses are routinely given wormers, phenulbutazone, "bute", steroids, antibiotics deemed not safe for use in animals intended for human consumption. In a food and toxicology report, Nicholas Dodman, Nicolas Blondea, and Ann Marini of Tufts University Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, Institute of Pharmacology in France, and the Department of Neurology in Bethesda, Maryland respectively published the results of serious public risks when consuming horse meat. Of 18 off track Thoroughbreds traced through their tattoo numbers, 16 of the horses had been given PBZ on race days. There are no safe levels of PBZ in animals intended for food which have been suspected of causing seizures, ulcers, organ damage and other serious health complications in humans. Recent EU reports on United States horses exported to Canada for slaughter have revealed banned drug residues and falsified drug affidavits.
The collapse of the horse market had little to do with the closing of the three U.S. slaughterhouses nor has it increased cases of neglect and starvation. Horse people who have lost their jobs were affected by the economy because living horses are what add revenue to the economy through the goods and services needed - whether it be for agricultural production, clothing, tack, horse shows, horse racing, and hundreds of other ancillary services needed to support a still extremely viable industry to a total impact of $112.1 billion of the United States gross domestic product. Dead horses don't help the economy.
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