Archive for June 18, 2012

Slaughterhouses In U.S. No Help To Horses’ Plight

Posted: June 18, 2012 by R.T. Fitch in Horse Health, Horse News, Horse Slaughter
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Advocating horse slaughter as the answer to the “unwanted” horse problem is like closing the barn door after the horse has been gone for days!

Anti-Horse/Pro-Slaughter Mentality

Many horse slaughter supporters cite the GAO Horse Welfare Report in their quest for reopening horse slaughter plants in the United States. … The GAO failed to address the issue of food safety concerns raised by the consumption of American horses.

Horses in the United States are not raised or regulated as food animals and are given drugs and chemicals during their lifetime that are permanently banned substances in food animals.

In December 2010, the European Union released a report on how well slaughter plants were implementing the recommendations of a 2008 audit. They found several banned substances in U.S. horses – and they also discovered that the accompanying paperwork was falsified.

A major omission in the GAO report is a failure to mention the substantial costs to local communities from environmental devastation, potential loss of tourism, businesses choosing to relocate to other areas and the use of government and other resources with virtually no tax revenues from the plants. The GAO claimed that the U.S. economy lost $65 million as a result of the 2007 closures of slaughter plants when all revenue from overseas sales went to the foreign plant owners.

There is abundant, well-documented evidence that violations have occurred for decades as a result of transporting horses to slaughter, at auction houses, at feedlots and at slaughter plants when plants were open in the United States, and they are still occurring as horses are shipped over the borders to slaughter.

It is a convenient lapse of memory for horse slaughter proponents to claim that horses would be more humanely slaughtered in U.S. slaughter plants because they are better regulated. Horse slaughter is inhumane and laxly regulated no matter where it occurs.

As for Caren Cowan’s allegations that the closing of horse slaughter plants in the United States has resulted in many “unwanted” horses along the borders, one only has to look at the six-month investigation by Equine Welfare Alliance, which determined that the source of the 5,000 or more abandoned horses per year in the Southwest is the result of being rejected for slaughter at the Mexican border.

The abandoned horses along the border were rejected for slaughter because of health problems, advanced pregnancy and injuries and were left to die in the desert. The horse slaughter lobby had suggested that these horses were abandoned because individuals no longer had a slaughter option. In fact, just the opposite is true; they were abandoned because slaughter is still an option.

The GAO report did state that Congress may wish to consider a permanent ban on horse slaughter. This statement is largely ignored by horse slaughter proponents because it would mean they would have to take a proactive approach rather than just disposing of horses or expecting horse rescues to pick up their slack.

Advocating horse slaughter as the answer to the “unwanted” horse problem is like closing the barn door after the horse has been gone for days. The horse industry makes their money off live horses; maybe it is time for them to step up to the plate and start acting like they matter.

An analysis of the GAO report on horse welfare can be read at www.equinewelfarealliance.org.

Click (HERE) to visit ABQJournal.com and to Comment

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Ayache’s (Three Angels Farms) Horse Slaughter Trailer Involved in Accident, Again

Posted: June 18, 2012 by R.T. Fitch in Horse News, Horse Slaughter
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Press Release from the Equine Welfare Alliance

The 37 horses were being taken to the Texas-Mexico border for slaughter

photo courtesy of Nashville’s Channel 5

Chicago (EWA) – For the second time since January, a truck from Dorian Ayache’s Three Angels Farms was involved in a major accident on an interstate highway. The 53’ trailer broke in half on I24 just outside of Nashville less than an hour from Ayache’s property. The 37 horses were being taken to the Texas-Mexico border for slaughter.

The driver received several citations including driving a commercial vehicle without a commercial driver’s license. One horse was euthanized. The remaining traumatized horses, as with the wreck in January, were quickly cleared for travel by a veterinarian at the scene, loaded into another Ayache rig and on their way to Texas.

This incident is representative of the nature and economics of transport of horses to slaughter. These “bottom feeder” operations invest as little as possible which results in threats to public safety as well as inhumane treatment and care for horses. Transport violations in a USDA document contained hundreds of graphic photographs of horses whose injuries and conditions were violations of humane laws. The photographs were taken in 2005 while horse slaughter still operated at three plants in the U.S.

On the heels of accident last week, EWA received an anonymous undercover investigation trailing two of Ayache’s Three Angels Farms trailers to Texas. The investigation reveals the many illegalities and threats to public safety that are typical of transporting horses to slaughter. We are seeking information now regarding the fines and citations that were or will be issued to Ayache and his drivers.

Dorian Ayache is a well-known kill buyer with a record of disregard for public safety laws. Ayache has received 64 vehicular safety violations in a 24 month period. The DOT revoked his license in 2010 and he now operates with a DOT number under the name Edwin Ayache. Thus far, two major accidents have occurred under the name Edwin. It seems only a matter of time before human lives are lost.

Dorian Ayache is a well-known kill buyer with a record of disregard for public safety laws. Ayache has received 64 vehicular safety violations in a 24 month period. The DOT revoked his license in 2010 and he now operates with a DOT number under the name Edwin Ayache. Thus far, two major accidents have occurred under the name Edwin. It seems only a matter of time before human lives are lost.

Ayache’s Three Angels Farms drives multiple truckloads of slaughter bound horses to Presidio, Texas every week. During this investigation, Ayache was forced to take back 10-12 horses that were rejected by the Mexican slaughter plants. Mexico rejects thousands of horses each year and there is no documentation of what happens to the rejected horses. Investigations have revealed that many, if not all, are abandoned in the southwestern states. The pro slaughter rhetoric that horse slaughter offers a solution to the “abandoned horse problem” is disproved, and is in fact the cause.

EWA strongly urges immediate calls to the House Agriculture Appropriations committee to ensure horse inspections are defunded on June 19 and calls to legislators in both Houses to demand passage of the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act of 2011.

  •  Ending horse slaughter puts a stop to the literal crimes against American horses by a foreign meat business.
  •  Ending horse slaughter puts a stop to the flow of unsafe, drug-tainted meat from animals raised in violation of food safety laws.
Click (HERE) for contact information on House Appropriation Committee (Must be accomplished NOW)
Click (HERE) to read detailed investigation
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