Fixing the flaws

The best way to fix the issue of treacherous trailer rides to Canada and Mexico is to reopen horse slaughter plants in the United States.

Many animal welfare groups believe that horse slaughter must be outlawed completely. Despite the fact that they mean well, this feat would be extremely difficult to accomplish. Due to the fact that countries all over the world have different regulations regarding horse slaughter, it would be extremely difficult to completely outlaw every type of horse slaughter activity in the United States. However, by reopening and strongly regulating horse slaughter plants in the Untied States, the treatment of horses and the quality of the horse slaughter process could be tightly regulated.

If slaughter plants were to be reopened in the United States, it would decrease the need for horses to be shipped out of the country to be slaughtered. This would decrease the terrible treatment of horses on trailers and in foreign plants, which is the subject of many ridicules of the horse slaughter industry.

If horse slaughter was an industry regulated within the borders of the United States, we could place quality requirements and other restrictions on dangerous aspects of the industry. This has been successful in Europe.

D.P. Leadon, an Irish scientist who focuses on equine diseases and trailering studies, wrote an article about horse slaughter and trucking horses for the July 2012 issue of Animal Frontiers. In this article, Leadon discusses how the regulation of shipping conditions, including length, number of horses, and food and watering conditions, has been successful across Europe. He explains that rules have been put in place to regulate the shipment of all horses in order to ensure their safety. The success of this program is significant and shows that it is possible to implement such regulations.

By reopening horse slaughter plants in the United States and implementing strong regulations for the treatment of horses being sent to slaughter, the need for shipping horses out of the country to be slaughtered will disappear. This will ensure the humane treatment of horses in this country without needing to outlaw all horse slaughter.