Horses Spared in U.S. FaceDeath Across the Border

[douglas9]

SHIPSHEWANA, Ind. — At the weekly horse auction here, No. 274, a handsome chestnut-colored draft horse, looked at the surrounding men while being led into a small ring. Two of the men looked back, calculating how much meat the animal’s carcass would yield, and started bidding accordingly.

There is no pretense about what happens to the horses sold in this area of the auction, known as the kill pen. Just a few months ago, many of them would have met their end at a slaughterhouse in neighboring Illinois. Now almost all will be shipped to Canada and killed there.

Amid pressure from animal rights groups, horse slaughter virtually ended in the United States last year, as courts upheld state laws banning it in Texas and Illinois, home to the nation’s last three horse slaughterhouses.


http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/11/us/11horse.html?ei=5088&en=6e0837a5c08349df&ex=1357707600&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&pagewanted=print

[theoldman]

1. Here is a great case for not looking ahead.

It was much better for the horses to be slaughtered in the US. Now most are slaughtered in Mexico in gruesome conditions.