Horse Slaughter Editorial

CA EQUINE COUNCIL EDITORIAL ON HORSE SLAUGHTER
Written in response to article published in the December 1999 issue of The Horse
Published with permission from Cathleen Doyle & the CA Equine Council.

On the EPN website are photographs & documentation disproving the statements made in The Horse by a researcher in a USDA funded study, regarding the acceptance of severely disabled horses at a PA horse auction.

 There is however a movement afoot initiated by the American Horse Council, a creature of and primarily funded by the racing industry and large breeders, to misinform and frighten horse owners. The American Horse Council has prepared a "fictional" article based on a "hypothetical" which is going to print unsubstantiated in horse magazines misinforming horse owners that prohibiting horse slaughter will change a horse's classification resulting in horrible economic hardships. All of this is absolutely false. The issue is horse slaughter not horse re-classification. In this country horses are not raised for food or eaten because they already are considered companion/recreational
animals..."non food animals."

      This coalition of livestock interests considers the horse a mere"commodity" which drives their "for profit" industry. They are frantically maneuvering to keep "the salvage return on their investment" (i.e. the couple hundred dollars realized from selling a horse to slaughter).

      The majority of horse owners considers horses to be "recreational/companion" animals, most certainly not "food animals." believe horses should be "humanely euthanized" whenever necessary
and never cruelly slaughtered.

      What is livestock?

      Any animal raised or kept for use and profit.

      What is a recreational/companion animal?

      Any domestic animal not raised for food, favored by and accompanies man, and generally given a name.

      What is a food animal?

      Any animal raised for the production of an edible product intended for consumption by humans.

      Conclusion:

Can the horse be livestock and a companion but not a food animal?
 

Yes.

Will protecting our horses against the cruelty of slaughter for the foreign markets remove the horse from the livestock category or out of the sphere of agriculture. NO. Horses are raised and kept for use and profit and are herbivores which graze (or some horses can remember mythical stories passed on from their ancestors about grazing).

A previous article circulating lies and scare tactics which again went unsubstantiated into a flurry of horse magazines claimed that because of the passage of Prop. 6, horses in California now had to be licensed. Thank God, RIDE and EQUUS Magazine decided to check the facts and consequently wrote, "Chicken Little is alive and well..." Equus May l999, wherein all of the allegations were proven false.

A heads up to horse owners when reading any of these articles. Please notice that their lawyers have combed the articles and carefully chosen deceptive phrases such as "may have", "may be", "might be", "could", "may change" so as to avoid making any statements of fact which could warrant substantiation.

These articles would have you believe (if one had the IQ of a low-watt bulb) that if we do not slaughter horses for human consumption abroad:

1) funding could cease for all equine research,

2) equine disease could run rampant throughout the country,
3) driving on the freeways might be impossible for all the abandoned horses,
4) limited liability bills might never pass,
5) horsefeed and grain may be taxed (it already is),
6) horse boarding facilities may be required to be licensed (they already are),
7) taxes will increase (No. It is either a profession or a hobby. You either made a profit or a loss.) and
8) manure management may change!

There is definitely a need for some manure management!

In all their hyperbole, however, about protecting the industry and protecting the economics of that industry, you will never see mention regarding the welfare or the cruelty involved to the horse. Horse lovers all, unless one can get a $500 return on one's investment. Then partnership, trust, loyalty, sentiment and nobility be damned? Let the horse take a 4-inch nail to the skull and have its throat slit while still alive. Let's be practical folks!

What is this all really about? This is a carefully orchestrated campaign by big breeders, horse trash, livestock interests and the foreign horse slaughter industry to move our horses into the food chain for foreign trade.

Free trade should be encouraged but not without political and cultural restraints. Our pet and recreational animals...our non food animals...should be protected against slaughter.

Remember slaughter is the economic underpinning for irresponsible horse ownership. Slaughter drives overbreeding, the extermination of the wild mustangs, PMU factory farming of horses and its by-product foal genocide.

In fact if horses lost their non food status and became commodities, horse owners would return to the old annual personal property tax which was rescinded because horses were pleasure animals not subject to personal property taxes.

All State sales taxes are lost on horses bought and exported across state lines for slaughter.

Also heads up for horse owners, since the inception of the Trail Movement, the Cattlemen and this coalition of "livestock" interests have opposed any and every trail, park and open space proposal.

This small anachronistic group loves to portray themselves with self aggrandizing descriptions such as "objective", "scientific" and "knowledgeable".

If however, you oppose the needless slaughtering of horses, one is EMOTIONAL. Emotions drive us all. The question is which emotions? Compassion and intelligence or greed and ignorance?

Is horse slaughter an emotional issue. No. Horse slaughter is a cultural issue, a cruelty issue and a free trade issue.

Remember the vast majority of horses did not find their way to the slaughter plant through their owners. Killer buyers, the agents for the foreign owned slaughter plants, aggressively comb all "for sale" outlets without any disclosure buying any horse they can get their hands on under a certain price. Young, healthy, old, pets, whatever. They just need to fill those trucks and make their quotas. Slaughter is not some benign "glue factory" for a few unwanted horses. Over four million American horses have been slaughtered for the foreign markets since l980. These horses are lost from the equine economy forever. Try finding an inexpensive entry level or children's horse today?

And in these articles, you will hear the horse slaughter advocates laud the pending Federal Regulations on Commercial Transportation of Equines to Slaughter.

These regulations allow the horse slaughter industry to continue unabated and with impunity.
Each and every horse cruelty concern has been regulated into permissibility. There were no compromises. The foreign owned horse slaughter industry and the killer buyers got Carte Blanche. The horses got nothing. Not even a drink of water or the ability to hold up their head on their final ride.

Responding to public outcry, these regulations were initially entitled, The "Safe and Humane" Regulations, but even the USDA has some shame and subsequently dropped "Safe and Humane".

Among other things these Federal Regulations:

Continue the use of substandard double decked cattle trucks for five more years. Another 500,000 horses will suffer. IF THE TRUCKS ARE CRUEL AND INHUMANE IN FIVE YEARS, THEY ARE UNFIT NOW.

Allow horses to be legally transported without water for 28-34 hours.

Exempt veterinary "fit to travel inspections" The "killer buyer" decides what is fit to travel.

Avoid criminal penalties and law enforcement oversight. In fact there will only be USDA enforcement for the first six months.

No self respecting horse person would support transporting horses on vehicles 5'7" - 5'9".Not when existing commercial standards are 6'6" -7'.

No self respecting horse person would support regulations establishing water standards for horses being shipped under the most stressful of circumstances at 28-34 hours. Not when all existing standards of equine husbandry recommend that horses should be watered every 4-6 hours but no less than 12 hours.

These regulations are opposed by all humane organizations and all humane horse organizations.

And their studies? A very famous researcher once said, "We can prove pigs fly. We just stop the study before the pig hits the ground."

A study is only as good as the people involved with them. Always look to see who paid for the studies (USDA).

And if enacted, it will be decades before these regulations can be amended or rescinded.

The upside is that "regulation" does not supersede "prohibition".

These people are clearly out of step with public opinion. Two independent polls, California in l997 and New York in l999 were conducted by Decision Research out of Washington D.C. The results are overwhelming and conclusive: 91% consider horses to be recreational/companion animals; 81% personally opposed to horse slaughter. California recently passed 2-1 a state-wide referendum making the slaughtering of California horses a felony; and a l995 national call-in television poll resulted in 93% of the 53,000 callers demanding that "killing of horses for their meat be banned."

The California Equine Council conducted a survey of the 455 California members of the American Association of Equine Practitioners. Based on a 21% return, the results were clear: California AAEP clientele is predominately comprised of pleasure/recreational/show owners (79%) who humanely euthanize their horses (93%) and have the carcass (a) rendered (72%) (b) landfill (14%) and (c) buried on property (13%).

According to Professor Bernard Rollins there is a litmus test for animal cruelty. Is there a justification? Is it necessary? Is there a humane alternative? When it affects a lot of people, you regulate. When it affects few people, you abolish. There is no justification for the slaughter of American horses. It is not necessary, there is a humane alternative in humane euthanasia, and it affects very few people.

The horse "industry" today has an emerging middle class. It is the recreational/pleasure/sport horse "community". It is not "for profit" but "for love". Your community can no longer be misrepresented by the Cattlemen, the breeders or the racing industry.

Natural Horsemanship asks for man and horse to join up, to establish a relationship based on mutual respect and trust. This relationship should not be betrayed for forty pieces of silver due to denial, lapses in responsibility or greed.

In l971 Congress enacted the Wild Horse and Burro Act stating that
wild horses were an integral part of our heritage and should be protected against cruel slaughter for human consumption. It is inconceivable to me that the American people and their elected representatives would have wanted anything less for our companion horses.

This is not a question of personal rights. It is not enough to merely protect one's own horse. All horses deserve protection.

Become a foundation member of a more responsible, compassionate horse community and stop the unnecessary, cruel slaughter of America's horses.