Abandonment increases

Since the closure of the United States horse slaughter plants in 2007, the amount of horses that get abandoned has increased.

There are many reasons that horses get sent to be slaughtered. Some slaughter companies buy horses at auctions. Some owners send horses to be slaughtered when they are old or ill beyond fixing. And, unfortunately, some send horses to slaughter because they can no longer afford them and or nobody will buy them. While these are all sad situations, they are still reasons that horses get sent to be slaughtered.

Without slaughter plants, where do these horses go?

Its true that some of these horses are the ones who end up on trailers to Canada and Mexico, but this is not always the case. When owners can no longer care for their horses, or pay to heal them, or the horses are old, some owners choose to abandon their horses. Horses are abandoned on federal and private lands, in reserves, on ranches, on Native American reservations, and so much more.

In the article written by D.P. Leadon, previously mentioned in the post “Fixing the flaws”, he also discusses the relationship between the recent recession in Europe and the abandonment of horses. He has discovered that the number of abandoned horses has increased since the recession in Europe, a connection that is repeated in the United States since the closure of slaughter plants. This increase in horse abandonment is a cry for the reopening of slaughter plants.

In another article, written by Joyce Jacobson, John Holland, and Darrell R. Charlton Jr. and published on June 18, 2008 through the Animal Law Coalition, the correlation between horse abuse and the closure of horse slaughter plants in the U.S. is investigated. These researchers found that after the closure of American plants, abuse and neglect of horses increased. They explain that this correlation  could also be related to the recession and rising hay prices, but it is difficult to pinpoint the cause. The fact that there has been an increase in abuse, neglect, and abandonment since the closure of United States horse slaughter plants cannot be ignored.

While this may not seem as that big of a deal, the abandonment of horses causes many issues. They degrade lands that don’t belong to them. They cause issues with ranchers, farmers, and hunters who claim that horses ruin their crops and forage. And it is downright unfair to the owners of the land that these horses are abandoned on. Not to mention the fact that a fair portion of these horses are used to being cared for by humans and most likely don’t know how to survive in the wild.

If horse slaughter plants in the United States were to be reopened, which they should, this would give people who cannot care for their horses somewhere to take them, instead of dumping them on someone else’s land.

Beautiful places are often the sight of horse abandonment. Photo of the Crazy Mountain Range near Sweet Grass, Montana taken by me.

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.