American horses are held in export pens in Texas and New Mexico before transported to slaughter in Mexico. This type of double-decker trailer is now banned by the USDA for transporting horses. | Photo courtesy of The Humane Society of the United States
Front Range Equine Rescue and The Humane Society of the United States filed a legal petition with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to prevent former companion, working, competition and wild horses from being used as human food. The petition alleges that the drugs given to these horses throughout their lives are banned by FDA and/or potentially dangerous to humans, and that using these horses for human consumption creates an unacceptable and illegal public health threat under the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act.
Current FDA rules do not require sufficient testing or documentation to ensure that former companion and other non-livestock horses slaughtered for human food do not contain or have not been administered prohibited substances. The “killer-buyers” who acquire these horses typically have no concern or knowledge about the horses’ prior history before shipping them off to inhumane deaths in slaughter facilities.
Unlike cattle, pigs, poultry, and other livestock, which are raised on the farm, horses are swept up by a predatory industry from a variety of sources—former race horses, carriage horses, family ponies, and others which are routinely given drugs and medications not fit for human consumption.
“The slaughter of American horses for meat is an unnecessary and tragic end for these icons of our nation’s history,” said Hilary Wood, president of FRER. “Horses are treated with many different drugs throughout their lives because horse owners don’t expect they could end up as meat. Horses often have many uses during their lives, from show rings to trail riding to therapy programs. Their lives should not end with an arduous journey to a terrifying death to be turned into an expensive and potentially toxic dinner.”
The petition requests that FDA certify all horses and horse meat from American horses as “unqualified” for human consumption. This action is especially timely because in November 2011, Congress authorized the inspection of horses for slaughter in America, something that had been prohibited since 2006.
Businesses looking to start up American horse slaughterhouses have been actively promoting horse meat, even though the animals were never intended to be food. These businesses and their misguided investors are proceeding despite their awareness that virtually every U.S. horse who ends up at slaughter has been exposed to a plethora of dangerous drugs, many of which are specifically outlawed for animals intended for food.
The FDA does not adequately regulate this flow of potentially toxic meat, despite the human health and animal welfare risks associated with it. The petition documents more than 110 examples of drugs and other substances which are or should be prohibited in food-producing horses, describes the horrible way in which horses die at slaughterhouses, and outlines the environmental devastation caused by horse slaughter plants in local communities.
Facts
• More than 100,000 American horses are sent to slaughter each year, mainly for consumption in Europe and Asia.
• The slaughter pipeline is horribly cruel, with many of the horses suffering immensely during transport and the misguided and often repeated attempts to render them unconscious. USDA documented the abuse and misery horses suffered at slaughterhouses in the U.S.
• Virtually all the horses used for meat spend most of their lives as work, competition or sport horses, companion animals, or wild horses.
• During their lives, horses who end up at slaughter are given a constant regimen of drugs and other substances which are either illegal for food animals, or are potentially dangerous to people who eat them.
• Under the current rules and regulations, there is no safeguard in place that can protect against the consumption of unsafe toxins in horse meat.
• Consumers do not know of the inherent dangers because there is no control over the drug residues.
I agree with this tactic to stop horse slaughter but I want it extended to include all horses. Too many owners of horses discard them when the horse no longer “has a job” to earn their keep. My horse probably had a job in her younger days as a show horse and breeding machine. She would have been sent along the pipeline if I hadn’t been lucky enough to get her first. And you know what? She doesn’t need a job.I’m supposed to take care of her.
Owners need to buck up and be responsible for their animals and stop trying to make a buck off of them as they send them to a cruel, unworthy death. Spend the cash, call a veterinarian and humanely euthanize your animals. What?You might face objections from your veterinarian because your horse is healthy? Too bad. Owners just need to grin and bear it until they can place their animals in a new home. Does re-homing take time? You betcha.I’ve been doing it for years for all kinds of animals that often uncaring owners won’t take responsibility for.. It takes time, patience and, oh,yeah, you have to care for the animals while you are waiting for the forever owner to come along.
Slaughter is just the visible symptom of a very insidious disease:overbreeding.There are more:greed, abuse, callous and uncaring owners who treat horses as if they are like other unnamed livestock.They aren’t. They are as intertwined with humans as dogs or cat.The industry that depends on horses needs to be more cognizant of animal welfare.Stop breeding for quantity and breed for quality. That will of itself eliminate some horses from the breeding pool and make the horses that are bred increase in value as most things do when there is a limited quantity.
I live in Kentucky-the Horse Capital of the World. We’re born with horses in our blood. Unfortunately, all the sins of bad owners are multiplied many times over because there are so many horses due to overbreeding.This is not a problem easily fixed because people can be greedy, irresponsible and selfish..However, if overbreeding is dealt with by each breed association then there would be no need for slaughter to be the end result. Proactive steps by the industry would be better than the reactive responses society and animal welfare organizations must make because the industry that needs the horse won’t reform itself.