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.

Treacherous Trailers

The shipment of horses to Canada and Mexico for slaughter is the strongest argument for reopening slaughter plants in the United States.

After United States plants closed in 2007, the need to dispose of horses did not disappear. There were reasons that people sent horses to slaughter plants, and those people still needed to send horses to slaughter plants even after they were closed. In addition, U.S. plants were supplying horse meat for consumption in Europe and Asia, a demand which did not decline in 2007.

In order to continue to meet the need for both slaughter and horse meat, companies in Mexico and Canada began to take horses from and buy horses in the United States. However, in order to get these horses to slaughter plants, they need to be trailered across long distances to both countries. This is where the problems begin.

According to Malinda Osborne, in an article on the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association’s website posted on February 15, 2009, hundreds of thousands of horses have been shipped out of the country for slaughter since 2007. The conditions of these trailer rides are terrible. Trailers are packed with frightened horses, who are more often than not denied adequate food and water. In addition, transporters of theses horses rarely stop to check on their cargo and do not take proper medical care of the animals they are transporting.

Many horses are injured, often severely, and die on these trailer rides. Thoroughbred racing mare, Press Exclusive, was one of these horses bound for slaughter on an overcrowded trailer. She slipped and fell and was trampled by other horses on the trailer and was barely alive when she got to a medical checkpoint. Thankfully, she was saved by the vet checking the horses, and her whole story can be read here. However, not all horses who meet this fate are so lucky.

I don’t agree with most of what animal rights groups such as the Humane Society of the United States and the Animal Welfare Institute say regarding horse slaughter in the United States and its evils. However, I do agree that the trailer rides to slaughter houses in OTHER COUNTRIES and the treatment of horses in slaughter plants in OTHER COUNTRIES is inhumane and needs to stop.

These groups demand that horse slaughter should be made illegal in the United States, but I disagree. I believe that reopening slaughter plants in the United States and properly regulating them will solve the problem of inhumane treatments of American horses in other countries.

Horses wait in a feed lot to be loaded on to a trailer headed for slaughter. The amount of horses put on trailers bound for Canada and Mexico is unsafe. Photo used with permission from Lifesavers Wild Horse Rescue via flickr.

Let me explain…

No, there is too much. Let me sum up.

It may seem confusing to some of you that I am a horse person that supports horse slaughter. However, I have not held this belief my whole life.

I started taking horseback riding lessons when I was about 11 years old, back in the summer of 2006. Before this, I rode as many pony rides and carousels as possible and always loved horses. After about a year of taking lessons, I became more aware of issues about horses and horse slaughter that I saw in the news.

Most of the stories detailed the issue of horse slaughter in the United States. Before the closure of plants in 2007, there were many campaigns being run in magazines, newspapers, and on television that aimed to gain support for the closures. I received many pieces of mail asking me to go online and sign petitions or to vote for the closure of horse slaughter plants.

These advertisements and pleas for help all highlighted the fact that horse slaughter was unethical and inhumane. And, being about 12 years old, I believed them. I could not believe that people would kill innocent horses and then ship them somewhere else to be eaten! Naturally, after seeing these things I was against horse slaughter and thought it to be evil, but I never did my own research on it.

Until now. During the past few months, my interest in the details of the horse slaughter industry have been rekindled and I have been doing research on the topic. I have focused on investigating reasons why the plants were closed and what is going on in the horse slaughter industry now. I have also studied arguments and reasoning from pro-slaughter and anti-slaughter viewpoints. After doing this detailed research, I believe that horse slaughter plants should be reopened in the United States. There are three main reasons for my beliefs, and they will be detailed in the posts on this blog.

My horse and I, photography by my mom

This is Onyx, my 14 y/o Arabian- Paint gelding. I rescued him from an owner who neglected him and how he is living with me in Colorado. Photo taken by my mom

 

This horse is the best part of my life and I don’t know what I would do without him