Horse slaughter ban and the law of unintended consequences

[bklyncowgirl]

As one of the resident horse lover's on DU, I've always been reluctant to support a ban on horse slaughter in the United States. Don't get me wrong, I hate the practice, consider it a betrayal of trust and believe that in the best of all possible worlds every horse's end would be like that of the late, great John Henry, euthanized in the company of friends both human and equine in a place he knows and buried near home.

Unfortunately we don't live in the best of all possible worlds. In the real world there are unwanted horses just as there are unwanted dogs and cats. In the real world there are people who can make money off of selling these unwanted horses to slaughter. I'm pretty sure that in the real world there'd be people who'd be selling unwanted dogs and cats to China if they could get away with it.

For me the most compelling reason to not ban horse slaughter in the U.S. was that I was pretty sure that, since there's money to be made, horses would simply be put on trucks and hauled across the border to Canada or Mexico where the dirty trade would continue without the somewhat mitigating effect of even the haphazardly enforced U.S. regulations.

In Mexico anything goes and what is happening to these animals is even worse than my worst imagination.

Warning, do not click on this link if you have a weak stomach. The article opens with a picture of a man standing above desperately struggling horses in a kill chute preparing to stab them in the spine with a knife in an effort to sever the animal's spinal column in order to paralyze it.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5175642.html

This method of killing which is used on older slaughter houses in Mexico, does not render the animal unconscious. It it fully aware as it is stabbed (often repeatedly because pushing a knife between a large struggling animal's vertebrae is not easily done), collapses to the ground and finally at last hung up and it's throat cut.

This is not about whether or not people should eat horses. This is not about whether horses deserve some special protection. This is not about eating meat. My contention is that no animal of whatever species, whatever it's former relationship to the human race should be treated like this.

This is about greed. The owner of the plant could have fixed his bolt guns but chose not to do so. Hell, he could have used a pistol to shoot the animals before slaughter, but I suppose bullets cost money.

So what to do. Have Congress ban export of slaughter bound horses to Mexico? Try enforcing that one! Put pressure on the Mexican government to have their slaughterhouses clean up their act? Might work if the European Union got in on the act and refused to buy Mexican horsemeat unless the Mexicans enforced humane standards. Reopen U.S. horse killing plants with stronger and more vigorously enforced regulations for humane care and a killing method that is actually designed for horses and not for cattle? Probably a non-starter politically speaking.

Well, folks, what next?

[Theres-a]

1. Unintended consequences

Absolutely agree. Like wild horses that are starving to death. I am in favor of humans going the assisted suicide route if they chose to end their painful treatments that aren't working,too. I guess I'm not prolife on any front.

I didn't click on the link,thanks for the warning.

[TwilightGardener]

2. We have not managed to treat livestock and poultry humanely--

I am for the horse slaughter ban, because unlike poultry, hogs, etc., this is an industry that we can control or shut down--there is not as much demand here. We can't control what goes on in other countries, but we shouldn't react to their practices (and violate our own ethics) by keeping the slaughter going here.

[bklyncowgirl]

4. Here's the problem. Horse's that would have been killed in the U.S. are now being killed in Mexico

These are American animals. They are former race horses, hack horses and people's back yard pets.

Instead of shipping them to the kill plants in Texas, killer buyers are simply transporting them across the border into a situation where there is no regulation whatsoever. It's sort of like banning a particular industrial process in the U.S. because of environmental reasons, and having the industry moving to a country that allows them to operate as they please. They're still polluting but it's out of sight out of mind for us. In this case the same animals are still being killed--the way in which they are killed has become much more horrific.

That is not a good thing.

[TwilightGardener]

5. Isn't there a way to stop the traffic of horses to Mexico?

[bklyncowgirl]

11. It's difficult--people sell horses across the border all the time.

Let's say a resident of Mexico City claims a horse at a California race track with the idea of racing him in Mexico? Should he not be allowed to bring this animal home? People in Mexico breed quarter horses. Shouldn't they be allowed to buy quarter horses bred in say, Texas? Shouldn't American horsemen be allowed to sell to legitimate buyers in other countries?

How can a border guard know whether a truckload of horses is bound for a ranch or for the killers? It's easy enough to say the animals are headed for a ranch, actually ship them there and then, because they are now Mexican horses and not subject to US regulation send them off to the kill plant.

Short of looking at the sale price (a $10,000 horse is NOT going to the killers) it's pretty hard to tell.

[flvegan]

3. S.311 and H.R. 503

http://www.hsus.org/legislation_laws/federal_legislation/companion_animals/2007_horse_slaughter.html

The fear of enforcement should be enough. It's not financially responsible to attempt smuggling when humane euthanasia might cost a couple hundred bucks.

[bklyncowgirl]

7. The penalties would have to be pretty high to stop the commercial haulers

Individuals generally don't send their horses to slaughter.

They sell them at auction or private sale to a middleman who sells them to a slaughterhouse. That person who tells you he'll give your horse a good home in another state could be a killer buyer. It happens all the time.

People also sell horses for legitimate purposes to other countries all the time. How do you sort out the guy who sold a herd of mares to a Mexican quarter horse breeder from the guy who's sold a herd of mares to a slaughter house operator in Cuidad Juarez? Horses bound for the killers often look perfectly healthy and travel with their papers.

[flvegan]

10. I wish I could say that licenses, receipts and regulation.

But I'd not be able to stop laughing at my own reply.

Like any other illegal animal exploitation activity, you have to shut them down one at a time. People will always break the law. Maybe we do have to say that there will be no exportation of horses to Mexico until your act is cleaned up. That's it.

[bklyncowgirl]

12. A ban on all horse export to Mexico would probably work but would hurt legitimate horsemen

I'd be for it if it could get through Congress, but I'm not in, say, the breeding business. If I regularly sold breeding stock to Mexican horsemen I'd have a very different opinion.

Publicizing the horrible conditions at these plants is a good start. I personally think the European Union approach would be the most likely to succeed in making conditions at these slaughterhouses a little more humane. Apparently they require humane slaughter. An E.U. boycott would probably make the Mexican kill plants invest in bolt guns pronto.

[IndianaJones]

6. You'll find very little concern here for horses, as they are exploited for entertainment...

mostly by wealthy white people in this country.

[bklyncowgirl]

8. Actually, it's the people who ride and compete with horses who care the most

Most horse people favor strong animal welfare regulations. They're in the business because they love the animals. They have nothing but contempt for people who mistreat animals.

The Thoroughbred and Standardbred industries for example are encouraging and supporting adoption programs. Could they do more, sure. There are people who shouldn't be allowed anywhere near live animals who compete in equine sports and yes, the various associations governing these sports should do more to police their membership and hand down harsh penalties for abuse. There are owners in all disciplines who have a cavalier attitude toward their animals. These should be treated as what they are.

Where most horse people part company with animal rights supporters is that we believe that animals can be used humanely and responsibly to bring some pleasure into people's lives.

[IndianaJones]

9. horses are exploited and discarded for the sake of sport and gambling. nt.

[bklyncowgirl]

14. Hey, whatever, I'm not going to change your mind and you're not going to change mine.

Can we agree, until that blessed day that we all become vegetarians, that any animal that is going to be killed to provide food for humans should be at the very least be killed in the most painless way possible and that laws and regulations should be put in place and enforced to insure it?

[CottonBear]

20. I'm a poor white girl who owns a horse and I'd never "exploit" her. n/t

[bklyncowgirl]

24. As am I. Real horse people hate the bad folks in the business.

Ask a horse person about some unsavory operator in their area and you'll get an earful.

[backscatter712]

13. The stories I hear from slaughterhouses

be the animals horse, cow or other, seem to come straight from Upton Sinclair's The Jungle. Absolutely disgusting and nasty! Of course, that's what happens when Bushco keeps our regulatory watchdog asleep at the switch for seven years...

[bklyncowgirl]

15. I completely support strong regulation of the meat industry.

This is for the sake of the animals as well for our own health. What has been allowed to go on in these places is criminal.

[nam78_two]

17. Very true.nt

[nam78_two]

16. I have been thinking about this since I saw that story too

It is very depressing. I was hopeful that the original legislation would help horses, whereas this result seems to have made the slaughtering process signifcantly worse.
Other than what flvegan suggests upthread, I can't think of anything :-/. But, something has to be done about this. For now I am giving some more $$ to groups likes the HSUS, who will probably come up with something.

[aikoaiko]

18. If people want to eat em and use them for products - I say let em.

Slaughter them in analogous fashion to other animals in America. Horse, cow, bird, dog, it really doesn't matter to me.

I don't understand why horses should get special consideration. I would imagine we've been eating horses as long as we have been riding them.

[CottonBear]

19. Horses are not raised for food and are given meds, vaccines and supplments labeled

"NOT FOR USE IN ANIMALS INTENDED FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION." I know because I have a horse companion.

Unlike cows, pigs and sheep, Horses, donkeys and mules are NOT raised for food. There is no USDA regulation because they are not food animals. The medicines, wormers, vaccines and supplements are dangerous to humans if they were to eat horsemeat. Equines are companion animals who served us loyally for eons in work and war. We now owe them a safe and healthy existence and a humane death and burial when they are at the end of their life. I had to have a critically ill horse put down. It was very sad for me but he was suffering from an inoperable illness.

[aikoaiko]

21. Harmful substance is a legitimate concern, but otherwise sentimentality doesn't seem sufficient

As long as the FDA regulates it, then I'm ok with it.

[CottonBear]

22. The FDA doesn't and has no plans to do so.

I say let the Europeans and Japanese eat their own horses if they are so inclined.

We should not eat ours. We don't eat our companion animals.

[bklyncowgirl]

23. It's a matter of our culture. Americans don't eat horses--or dogs for that matter

With the exception of certain native American tribes who ate unneeded horses to survive and dogs as a ritual practice, eating horses has been taboo in this country. Slaughtering unwanted horses for other purposes has not been taboo--in the past most unwanted horses went to the dogs--or to the glue factory--literally. It was seen as a necessity rather like animal shelters putting down unadoptable dogs and cats. It was usually done at local slaughterhouses. When I was growing up there was a place across the river in New Jersey that slaughtered horses.

In the 1980's and 90's the situation changed when foreign owners from countries that do eat horse meat opened kill plants in the U.S. specifically to process meat for human consumption overseas. Instead of buying up cripples and crazies for pennies on the pound, killer buyers were purchasing relatively young, healthy animals. Because they had to be transported at long distances--killer buyers did what was best for their bottom line not for the animals--conditions were and are horrendous. Prices got so high that horses were stolen out of their paddocks and sold to the butchers. At the same time, markets for off track race horses were drying up. Riding stables were going out of business due to rising insurance costs and the more elite show riders began buying expensive European imports. In the 60's no one batted an eye when the great race horse Kelso was retrained by his owner as a hunter. Ex racehorses were expected to go onto other careers if they were no good for stud. Now people are amazed that a horse like the Kentucky Derby winner Funny Cide is actually being kept by his trainer and put to work as a stable pony instead of being put out in a field.

I'm against abusing animals of any sort. Regulations with teeth in them and shutting down the shady operators seems to me the way to go instead of an outright ban. We've been able to shut down the worst lab animals operators that way. Others have decided to get out of the business because the bottom line isn't worth it.