The Unintended Effect of Slaughter Ban
 

As Pais had said when the ban movement successfully closed 2 of the 3 U.S. slaughterhouses, unintended consequences have resulted. This NYT piece lays out the truth about less humane deaths and arduous transport to Canada and Mexico for kill pen victims.

In addition, the summer drought which has driven grain and hay prices to all time highs, is rendering 'livestock' horses worthless as it costs more to feed them than they can fetch at auction. As I mentioned Tuesday on ATR, the hay situation is creating a scenario where stretched rescue organizations and well-intended pleasure horse owners cannot afford to feed the horses they have. Abandonment is already starting to get reported, and we still have 100 days of winter weather yet to come.

If not a crisis yet, it will be.. As Einhorn writes in her piece, the assorted Equine Breed Foundations/Associations cannot even agree on the viability of euthanasia, so no coherent policy in this country is going to emerge any time soon. One thing is certain however, and that is that we are overbreeding horses in this country.

Death Across the Border Awaits Horses Spared in the U.S.
By CATRIN EINHORN
http://www.nytimes.com:80/2008/01/11...=5070&emc=eta1

A must-read for those interested/concerned about the welfare of horses...

What a mess....Another example of rightous indignation without thought to consequence. I keep thinking that one of these days they're going to figure out that you can't legislate morality...Hasn't happened yet..Bad enough that they were slaughtered near the kill pens, now they get to enjoy a thousand mile trip crammed into a double decked trailer with no feed or water to be even less humanely killed.. :rolleyes:

It seems at least from the thoroughbred perspective, that since each horse is registered with the Guild and tatooed, it wouldn't be too difficult to hold the registered owners of the animals accountable for the horse's demise. If you can't afford 140.00 to humanely euthanize and dispose of the carcass, or if that whole 350.00 bucks (minus auction fees and transport to the sale) you may fetch at a kill pen sale is worth the torture these animals endure, then you should be legally banned from owning them.

I wonder what % of these horses are thoroughbreds? At least there's a paper trail with them.

The whole thing just makes me cringe... I read an article awhile back in the Houston Chronicle that was written by a reporter that had gone down to one of the mexican slaughter houses and spoke of the horror of the poor horses that were be stabbed in the spine repeatedly until it eventually severed their spine. They were then lifted up by chains that were attached to their back legs (still alive mind you!!) and then had their throats slit.. About made me want to throw-up.. At least before all these activists stepped in and screwd up everything, they were at least....being treated somewhat humanely. Sure as hell beat what they are having to go thru now.

Is this the one that you are referring to?

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/mex...r.3496288.html

A good site of FACTS about slaughter is http://flyingfilly.com/horse_slaughter.htm

FlyingFilly.com isn't a slaughter site, but has a comprehensive section on the subjuct.

Very Sad....
 

but a reflection of the love of these animals that underlies the sport for everyone on Derby Traiil that this gets exposed. Does anyone know of the address of the folks who conributed to this situation that we could send this article and title it "Are You Happy Now...?

I/L

Whhhaaaaat ???????? I am shocked that anyone can not see the subtle biases in the aforementioned article, and even more shocked that blame and pro-slaughter sentiments surface as a result ... The war against horse slaughter in America is NOT over ... The bill is NOT yet passed and our borders are not yet closed ... There are casualties in all wars, but in fact, there is no slaughter in America, and the slaughterhouses in Mexico run by Beltex to process horses for human consumption must use the captive bolt, NOT the knife ... A small casually regulated Juarez plant does use the knife however ... Canada uses a gun ... Pro slaughter argues that it was better for the horses to be slaughtered here than elsewhere ... This is but a lame rationale for degrees of awfulness ... No mention in that article of irresponsible overbreeding and the individuals essentially responsible for slaughter------horse owners which choose to cash in by the pound rather than both breeding and owning responsibly ... I resent the anti slaughter faction being blamed for a bad situation they perceive as worsened ... In fact, less horses have been slaughtered , and the goal of 80 percent of the American public is that NONE of our horses make the trek from stable to table ... Indeed the bottom of the horse market has fallen out, and those which breed marginal animals which depended on slaughter values for a baseline will be and are hurt ... This is not a bad thing --but a slaughter price baseline obviously describes the breeder's product as beyond mediocre ... The ersatz luxury of breeding anything with viable reproductive parts in vast quantities needs to be controlled ... And the question which seems so unanswerable to those who ask what is to be done with all the excess horses is obvious ... Can you say euthanize ???? Horses are a luxury---if you can't afford the food and a responsible humane program of ownership, you should not own a horse---or any other animal ...

Agree 100%.

I will not put up the pictures they had in
the paper down here in San Antonio from the
slaughter barns in Mexico. This was about
a month ago and my wife almost lost her lunch.

Absolutey disgusting. It should have had a warning;
the pictures were kind of hard to see at first and then
all of the sudden it was obvious.

There was absolutely no thought to how painful
it might be, it was all about the cheapest way
to kill without damaging meat.

I will not elaborate except to say it had to be
pure torture.

This, sadly, is one of those cases where a loop hole almost seems worse than not having the law in place at all. I think the promising news is that this can be ended. As with anything legislative in nature, it will take some time. I think common ground can certainly be found on this subject, where exportation is outlawed and owners need to be held accountable for doing right by the animal.
No one likes to put their dog or cat down, but at some point, you do right by the animal and end it's suffering, in a humane, close to painless manner.

These kill pens, and attempting to subdue the horse by severing it's spine are just beyond comprehension in terms of disgust. Just like anything, voices need to be heard, I hope anyone concerned with this topic takes a few minutes to look up their House of Rep delegate and Senators and maybe drop a line to support measures to ban exportation...if you need help finding your reps, follow these links:

https://forms.house.gov/wyr/welcome.shtml

http://www.senate.gov/general/contac...nators_cfm.cfm

They close them down, then another state welcomes the business:
SOUTH DAKOTA INTRODUCES BILL TO FINANCE HORSE SLAUGHTER PLANT

Senate Bill No. 170 introduced in the South Dakota Legislature would authorize $1 million loan for the construction of "equine processing facility" within the state of South Dakota and is scheduled for hearing in the South Dakota Senate Agriculture Committee at 10 a.m. Tuesday, January 29, 2008. The bill was introduced by:

SD Senators - Kloucek, Garnos, Gary Hanson, Koetzle, Maher, Sutton

SD Representatives - DeVries, Elliott, Howie, Lucas, Betty Olson, Van Norman

It is important to note that South Dakota has been extremely pro slaughter. The possibilities for parent companies Velda - Zele, Belgium (Cavel-IL), Chevideco - Rekkem, Belgium (Dallas Crown - TX), Frontier Meats - Fort Worth, TX (Beltex), as well as outside interests, constructing facilities in a state that would not be problematic with anti-slaughter legislation is very high and financially advantageous.


What can you do? Animal Welfare Institute eAlert provides specific actions and contact information. Until the federal legislation is passed, there is nothing preventing this action in the state of South Dakota and it would not be expected that countering legislation could be attained in the state.

obviously the best case scenario would be no slaughter of horses. but until the overbreeding of horses is discontinued, the fact remains there will be more horses than willing owners.
so...then what? with the closing of any u.s. slaughterhouses, the result is that the horses are being shipped that much further, in the same rotten conditions, to out of country slaughter--without the watchful eye of our govt inspectors. i'm not so sure that is an improvement over what we had previously. obviously no horse lover would want horse slaughter in this country, but we can't pretend that the problem has been solved just because we no longer have it within our borders.

i'm absolutely not pro slaughter--but the current 'solution' to the slaughter issue is no solution at all.

No one has ever called the current situation a solution ... The work is not finished ... The closing of the US slaughterhouses was not intented as a " solution " in itself---the solution was the passage of the bill, the closing of borders, and the subsequent future fight to enlighten owners and breeders toward a goal of humanity and responsibility ... This is not a simple issue by any means, and it is in no way finished ...

Mrs. Rip Van Winkle has awoken from her nap. And nobody missed me either. But I'm going to give my 2 cents on a subject which I am passionate about.

There are horse breeders/owners/trainers who depend on the kill buyer stopping by their barns on a regular basis taking away their unwanted equines for $300 - $500/head.

No slaughter and no transport? No kill buyer! No kill buyer? A boatload of horse breeders, owners and trainers no longer breeding, owning, racing poorly bred horses on nothing more than 100% speculation. And, horse thievery would greatly diminish.

There will always be abuse, neglect and abandonment. But, it should not be blamed on the fact that slaughter ceases to exist in the USA.

The problem of overpopulation, overbreeding, over ownership, horse theft, horse slaughter didn't happen over night. Many years in the making - many decades even.

The problem is complex - many stages and it may take years to see a drastic improvement - perhaps a decade.

But, by first attacking the problem by legislating breeding and ownership is going to cause a backlash and accusations of government interference. We can't get legislators to get the slaughter bill into law. Do you really think they'll craft legislation to limit breeding and ownership?

Cutting off the profitability of horse slaughter will lead to "voluntary" and drastic cutbacks in breeding, owning and racing inferior equines.

It's the simple start to a complex problem and the bedrock on which the problem will eventually be solved - not 100%; maybe not even 80 or 90 percent. But, a 50 - 75% improvement over the next 10 years would be a God send.

The journey starts somewhere. Slaughter and transport for slaughter is the snake's head.