By: Jo-Claire Corcoran ~ Director of Equine Welfare Alliance as published in in AGWeek
“The horses going to slaughter are not old, sick or infirmed horses…”
Phenylbutazone, a human carcinogen, is prevalent in U.S. horse meat, along with numerous other drugs banned by the FDA in food animals. (photo: Animal Rescue Unit)
JEFFERSONVILLE, Ind. — I read the recent cover story about the proposed horse slaughter plants in the U.S. (Agweek, Aug. 27) To say the plants are having problems getting opened is an understatement.
The New Mexico plant owners already have publicly stated they are no longer seeking to slaughter horses. Remember, this is a plant that was shut down in February for inhumane treatment of cattle and recently was fined more than $80,000 for environmental violations with the composting pile.
The plant in Rockville, Mo., has a miasma of legal problems that will have to be worked out and settled before anything can open there — horse, cattle or whatever. Fraud, liens and other issues are a part of a scheme by certain parties to bilk others out of funds.
The Oregon plant? Well, the local government is totally against a horse slaughter plant opening. The waterways there are protected. What everyone seems to forget is we don’t raise horses in the U.S. for food. The horses being sent to slaughter are obtained from sources such as auctions, Craigslist and others, some in illegal processes.
Horse meat is not safe for human consumption. As recently as July, a kill buyer was fined for falsifying the Equine Information Document form and knowingly sending a horse to slaughter which tested positive for bute and clenbuterol. Both are banned substances. There are no withdrawal times for banned substances. Additionally, before the defunding language was being placed in the bill, this country already was shipping horses to Canada and Mexico. No one seemed to be concerned about those horses then.
The horses going to slaughter are not old, sick or infirmed horses — they are sound, young, healthy horses per the U.S. Department of Agriculture records. Average ages are 5 to 9, with the majority being quarter horses. This stands to reason since the American Quarter Horse Association has been offering breeding incentives and trying to become the largest breed registry. Well, the AQHA succeeded, and the majority of the horses are going to slaughter. A Government Accountability Office report stated three options — one was make changes with USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service to lift the defunding language or completely ban the slaughter and transport of horses for slaughter.
A complete ban is the only way to have a positive effect on horse welfare.
Please explain to me how slaughtering a horse helps that horse. Slaughter doesn’t stop abuse and neglect. People who abuse and neglect horses do so no matter what options are available. Most people do not want to send their horses to slaughter. Abuse and neglect is directly related to the unemployment rate, and this holds true for all companion animals. (The U.S. Food and Drug Administration does classify horses as companion animals.) I have to question an ag publication that would promote the slaughter of animals not raised for food, knowing the medications we give our horses, and knowing those medications are known carcinogens.
Is our meat export industry worth the risk of people eating adulterated meat from an animal we did not raise for food? What happens to our beef exports or our pork exports then, when other countries determine U.S.-raised meat products are not safe to eat?
Next year, European Union regulations for exports of horse meat go into effect. By Aug. 1, the U.S. must have a “passport” program in place to track the medications and products used on our horses. This document must be assigned to the horse before it is 6 months old and must accompany the horse for life. Every medication and product must be administered by a veterinarian and documented. That means any de-wormer — if your horse starts to colic, you would not be able to administer banamine without a veterinarian. If the horse receives any medication from the banned list, that horse must be deemed unacceptable for slaughter for human consumption. Implementing a program like this would take more funding from our government, more personnel and, frankly, we can’t afford it.
Related articles
- Butchering Family Gives Up on Horse-Slaughter Plant in New Mexico (rtfitchauthor.com)
- Pro-Horse/Anti-Slaughter Super PACs Popping Up Like Petunias (rtfitchauthor.com)
- EWA President Clears Air with USDA on Horse Slaughter Issue (rtfitchauthor.com)
- New Complaints Filed Against Horse Slaughter Kill Buyer (rtfitchauthor.com)
- Hometown City Council Gives Thumbs Down to UH President’s Horse Slaughter Fantasy (rtfitchauthor.com)
- No Progress on Horse Slaughter Plant in Rockville, MO (rtfitchauthor.com)
- Pro-Horse/Anti-Slaughter Testimony – Texas Senate Committee (rtfitchauthor.com)
Categories: Horse News, Horse Slaughter
Straight from the Horse's Heart 
If the EU regulations are followed and the cheaters are prosecuted, then this should mean an end to horse slaughter. The amount of money required to put the regulations in place would be prohibitive for an animal not raised for food. But, that leaves all of the wild mustangs in holding pens sponsored by the BLM. Proabably most, if not all are drug free. I see this as a strong possibility to continue slaughtering an icon of America.
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True. The BLM may have to stop vaccinating and worming the mustangs they capture. We need to overturn the Burns Amendment. Why can’t we get someone to sneakily do it the same way Burns did?
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The way the horse passports work in the UK is, you can designate your horse as ‘not for slaughter’ and have no restrictions on giving your horse medications yourself or any restrictions on what medications can and can’t be given. Once designated as ‘not for slaughter’ it cannot be changed. Only those who wish to keep their horses eligible for slaughter have to have a vet keep medication records, and those horses could be sold and the new owner can change its designation to ‘not for slaughter’ – allowing banned medications. And at auction, the horse is announced whether it’s eligible for slaughter or not. Killers can’t bid on horses not eligible.
I’ve been ready to welcome this kind of “horse passport” for years, since they started using them in the UK, since we can’t get any US Congress do to the right thing and pass the federal bill to ban horse slaughter. At least with this we should finally have an option to keep our horses from being sold to slaughter. I’m assuming that our horse passports will be the same as the UK’s, why wouldn’t they be? Let’s check on those details.
Imagine going to an auction and none of the horses are eligible for slaughter and the killers can’t bid.
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Wouldn’t torture and mutilation of live horses increase on small farms without slaughter plants (which I am adamently opposed to)? Miami Dade county is in the news for this kind of live butchering, and DNR spokesmen see it as an on-going problem.
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Kathleen, those small illegal slaughter plants in FL, exists because certain people want their meat tortured prior to slaughter, they think it enhances the meat. Those slaughter plants slaughter not only horses, but goats, cattle, pig, etc. They existed prior to the plants being closed and just as neglect and abuse always existed, they will continue to be a problem until law enforcement and the judicial system starts to actually enforce the laws already in place and the judicial system enacts strict punishments with follow thru.
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Right. I recently found out that some of the gourmands in Paris only want horses that have been slaughtered in the small slaughter plants there that use the Puntilla knife because they believe the stress hormones make the meat tastier.
That make me so angry and sick I think I’m going to have to skip lunch. Hell is too good for these monsters.
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Mutilation of any animal: dead or alive, is TOO GROSS!!! Those who consume this meat, will suffer: not only here but in the “hereafter!!!” Unspeakable!!!
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Amen to that statement! I truly don’t believe our Creator created these magnificent horses, & gifted them to us, for us to kill them in any way, for any reason, especially not to torture & eat them!! When are these idiots going to finally realize that horses are not food animals? And, back to those monsterously evil, barbaric, & illegal slaughter farms, those people are disgusting, backward, & worse than what you flush down the toilet! If they’re caught, they deserve the worse possible punishments, & maybe kicked out of our country!
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Another huge health factor regarding horse slaughter is the amounts of cortisol and adreneline in their meat.
What the cattle industry doesn’t want the public to know is the #1 loss of money in the cattle market is cattle that test too high for these hormones and are taken out of the food chain.
Horses are flight animals and when they are being disesected alive the adrenelene and cortisol levels reaches unlawful limits used by the USDA for cattle.
Spread this info around please.
People wonder why they are suffering heart attacks and strokes should corrolate that eating tortured flesh and feeling that within the very cells of their body that read the signatures of their own cortisol and adreneline and thus that of the animals they consume.These stress hormones are well known to cause afflictions which are killing Americans by the millions daily.
President Clinton is now a vegan only because it is the last resort to saving his life.
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I know that cattle are tested for a number of substances. I have heard that beef is tested for the presence of stress hormones, but I have not seen any USDA data or reports that either explain what and how the meat is tested. According to reports I have read regarding FSIS, very few samples of carcasses are actually tested for much of anything in comparison with the number of animals that are actually slaughtered.
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I did not know that the USDA classifies Horses as Companion Animals. I was under the impression that they were considered Livestock. Now I’m really mad. I thought part of my fight was to get them relabeled as Companion Animals. To think that we would actually open slaughter houses for Companion Animals is even more obscene. Any time soon…Dogs and Cats. WTF.
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Those “gourmands” in Paris would be right at home in Korea where they torture & slaughter dogs & cats – because it makes the meat better? ??
What absolute morons. And these are supposedly civilized people – I dont think so.
On the other hand, just think about how many of our pets we throw away – kind of like the horses that are sent to slaughter – too many? Just send them down the road. The dogs & cats have been in that position for a long time. We (here) just dont eat them either.
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The only way you will stop the dog and cat problem is to pass state laws that fines anyone found with a non neutered dog or a non spayed cat. Licensed breeders would be the only way a non-spayed or neutered dog would be allowed in the state. But good luck passing a law like this.
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Nice article, Jo Claire. You called them on one of the questions that I find very troubling, and that is the fact that producers of species that we do raise as food in this country would support the slaughter of a species not raised for food. it seems very self-destructive.
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