This black market horse trade is hidden from most Americans, and the industry, realizing the close bond people have with horses, wants to keep it that way. Claude Bouvry, owner of a Canadian slaughterhouse said, "...people in the horse-meat industry don't like talking about slaughtering horses for food because of the horse's almost mythical place in western culture."
FRAUDULENTLY ACQUIRED HORSES
Judy Taylor of Kentucky sought help in caring for her two beloved Appaloosa horses, Poco and PJ, due to her own serious health problems. At the recommendation of a friend, she contacted Lisa and Jeff Burgess who agreed to provide that care, with the understanding that if they were unable to continue doing so, the horses were to be returned to Judy. Despite this agreement, within seven days of receiving the horses, the Burgesses sold them to a known “killer buyer” for $1,000. (Killer buyers act as middlemen for the slaughterhouses, indiscriminately buying horses without concern for the horses’ origin or condition.) Soon after Judy discovered what had happened, she frantically set off on a cross-country search for her fraudulently acquired horses.
Eventually she learned the horrifying truth – her horses had been slaughtered for their meat. Judy was successful in bringing charges against the Burgesses. The Kentucky Court of Appeals said "the Burgesses' conduct clearly rises to the level of being outrageous and intolerable in that it offends generally accepted standards of decency and morality, certainly a situation in which the recitation of the facts to an average member of the community would arouse his resentment against the actor, and lead him to exclaim, 'Outrageous!'"
Theft and fraudulent acquisition aren’t the only illegal activities used to supply the market
with horses for slaughter. Documents obtained from the Bureau of Land Management, the agency responsible for protecting America's wild horses, show that federally protected wild horses have been sent to slaughter for years despite a law against such abuse. In the early 1950's Velma Johnston, better known as “Wild Horse Annie,” began a campaign to protect wild horses from slaughter because of the cruelty she witnessed first hand. Her work culminated in the passage of The Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act in 1971 that stated in part, "It is the policy of Congress that wild free-roaming horses and burros shall be protected from capture, branding, harassment, or death.... "
Irresponsible owners seeking an easy and profitable means of getting rid of their animals provide the slaughter industry with additional horses. Still others are purchased at auction, where equines have been found for sale who are sick, sore, lame, disabled, blind, and pregnant. Many are accepted for sale without a "Coggins test," which screens for exposure to the deadly Equine Infectious Anemia, or a general health certificate. Killer buyers and slaughterhouse operators would like you to believe that all of the horses they slaughter are old and past recovery and have arrived there legally. In truth, many horses may be sick or injured because of neglect, but could recover with appropriate care and veterinary attention.
A BRUTAL END
Currently, three foreign-owned slaughterhouses in the United States are killing horses for human consumption. They are BelTex Corporation in Ft. Worth, Texas; Dallas Crown in Kaufman, Texas; and Cavel International in DeKalb, Illinois. According to the US Department of Agriculture, 55,776 horses were slaughtered in 2001, up from 47,134 killed the previous year. Presumably, the numbers are increasing as a result of the decrease in beef consumption abroad due to BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy), or "mad cow" disease, and the outbreak of foot and mouth disease.
In addition to the horses killed in the three US-based plants, thousands more are transported under deplorable conditions across our borders into Canada and Mexico to be slaughtered. Horses are often transported for more than 24 hours without rest, water, or food, while unprotected from weather extremes in thin metal-walled trailers. Sick and/or injured horses frequently are forced onto double-deck trailers that were designed for short-necked animals including cattle and sheep. Following years waiting the US government approved substandard regulations aimed at improving the conditions in which horses are transported to slaughter.
Once at the slaughterhouse, the suffering and abuse continue unabated. Often, horses are left on tightly packed double-deck trailers for long periods of time while a few are forcibly moved off. Callous workers, using long, thick fiberglass rods, poke and beat the horses' faces, necks, backs, and legs as they are shoved through the facility into the kill box. Due to extreme overcrowding, abuse, deafening sounds, and the smell of blood, the horses exhibit fear typical of "flight" behavior – pacing in prance-like movements with their ears pinned back against their heads and eyes wide open.
While Federal law requires that horses be rendered unconscious prior to having their throats slit, recent documentation shows that repeated blows with captive bolt pistols are often necessary, causing excruciating suffering. Horses writhe in the holding stall (known as the "kill box"), legs buckling under their weight after each traumatic, misguided and ineffective blows to their heads. Death is not swift for these terrified and noble animals.
YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE
Many of the horses sold into slaughter have been abused and neglected. Be sure to
report all instances of cruelty to your local animal control office.
Please report stolen horses to local and state authorities. The Internet also has numerous websites for posting or looking for stolen horses. These sites allow individuals around the country to share information and photos.
Do not sell your horse at an auction, a majority of the horses at auctions are bought by “killer-buyers.”
Please consider the following options:
- donating them to an equine rescue organization;
- making arrangements with a retirement farm;
- donating, selling or leasing your horse to a therapeutic or handicapped riding program;
- selling them privately to an individual with proper references and a detailed agreement that the horse will never be sold to slaughter for human consumption,
- or euthanizing them humanely.
Oppose the callous over-breeding of sport and pleasure horses so that older, injured, or surplus animals will no longer be viewed as expendable.
Please write the Secretary of Interior opposing the Bureau of Land Management's overzealous wild horse round-up policy. Federally protected wild horses are being slaughtered everyday because too many are being removed from their land.