# Plant ok'd to slaughter horses



## gigem88 (May 10, 2011)

Better than shipping them in horrid conditions to Mexico, where worse conditions lay in wait.


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## alexischristina (Jun 30, 2009)

I just don't understand how this is a move "that drew immediate opposition from animal rights group and will likely be opposed by the White House." Are the same 'animal rights groups' not fussed by the slaughter of other animals?


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## SouthernTrails (Dec 19, 2008)

.

I wonder if People Eating Tasty Animals (PETA) was involved?

.


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## alexischristina (Jun 30, 2009)

I read an article recently about one of PETA's massive kill shelters... of course the majority of us knew PETA was a bunch of hypocrites, but it looks like the general public and 'bleeding hearts' are starting to catch on and get lost in outrage...


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## AlexS (Aug 9, 2010)

I think it's wonderful news.


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## Cherie (Dec 16, 2010)

What has happened is that FSIS (Food Safety Inspection Service), as part of the USDA, has agreed to furnish inspectors. They have rejected all of the false claims made by the HSUS and other animal rights groups. Valley Meats in Roswell, NM will be the first processing plant to open. 

The biggest hurdle for horse processing is that some lawmakers (mainly Senator Mary Landriau of Louisiana) have tried adding an amendment to the Farm Bill that is stalled in Washington. They are trying to put it in the Farm Bill that will stop all processing in the US. 

All these dummies want to do is insure that unwanted horses will always have to endure a horrible trip to Mexico or Canada and die anyway at the end of it.


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## Airspace1 (Apr 5, 2010)

The Majority of Responsible Americans oppose horse slaughter. The other small present supports it because of a conflict of interests like Over Breeders and profits that's it.. Pro slaughter cry about HSUS but do NOT even see the bad lies that Farm Bureau and AG have created to fool some folks.. For example AG GAG bills to hide and protect their abusive and inhumane and unsafe handling.. NOT to mention the drugs in cattle that are now showing up in humans with Diabetes and cancer on the rise.. I don't see AG or Farm Bureau helping horses in abusive situations I don't see AQHA or other over breeder association helping horse rescues.. Even your so called AVMA and AAEP finally thru in the towel that Double Deckers are unsafe for horses and humans on HWYS.. Enough press and pressure from FACTS made them change their minds after years and years of accidents. SHAME ON THEM ALL...


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## Cherie (Dec 16, 2010)

You should look up the facts and not just regurgitate what the HSUS and animal right groups have made up.

The AAEP and AVMA have been and always were opposed to double deckers hauling horses. They endorsed the legislation that limited the time horses could spend on the road and endorsed NOT using double deck trucks. The Federal Government was the last to stop using these trucks. They routinely hired them to haul mustangs from Nevada to Oklahoma (non-stop) until the legislation passed, even after the mustang handlers near me at Pauls Valley petitioned them to put the mustangs on floor trucks.

The American people have always been against humane slaughter of horses. The problem is, they are mostly city people know nothing about it or about the unintended consequences of stopping slaughter in the US. They live in the world of butterflies and roses where every horse should be able to live out its life in nice green pastures with plenty to eat, good Vet and Farrier care and everything it could possibly need until it dies hppily of old age.

The reality is that there are hundred of thousands of unwanted horses in the US. They are not all the product of over-breeding or bad owners. They are the product of supply and demand that is constantly changing, the 'left-overs' that do not train well, have horrid conformation, bad dispositions, injuries and are not suitable for what they were raised for. They are old broodmares, unsound saddle horses and thousands of other that fell through the cracks. They are the products of a changing and worsening economy. 

All that aside, all I want everyone to do that is so against slaughter to tell me exactly what YOU WANT TO DO with the hundreds of thousands of unwanted horses that are out there TODAY. The have already been bred and raised, many are untrained and nobody wants them. When taken to an auction, no one will bid on them and they cannot be given away. [Most owners have tried unsuccessfully to give them away.] The owners cannot keep feeding them and there is no place for them to go where they would receive adequate feed and care. *What do you propose to do with them today?*

It is not greed that motivates most horse people to be 'pro slaughter'. It is that we live in the real world and see way too often how these unwanted horses are cared for and how they die. We think it would be FAR better to have regulated slaughter here in the US where it can be controlled and monitored than to ship these horses 1500 or more miles to an uncertain death or let them starve to death in some back pasture. *Do you want the next truckload that ships from our local auction to be shipped to your house? I'll bet it can be arranged! *I'll also bet that I have 'saved' or 'rescued' if you want to call it that [I don't] more horses than you have even owned. I own and am using several horses right now that I bought at the local auction and the only other bid beside mine was the killer buyer.

I am waiting for your answer -- not holding my breath -- but waiting. Until you have an actual better solution, you should work toward local slaughter facilities all across the US. It would be a lot better for the horses than trying to stop the only method there is to eliminate hundred of thousands of unwanted horses without starvation and neglect.


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## Roperchick (Feb 1, 2010)

Better NEW mejico than OLD mejico. at least NM is part of the US of A and has a better chance of being humane and logical about it.


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## Airspace1 (Apr 5, 2010)

You are singing the same ole story all pro slaughter say.. Your message is nothing new. Especially when you address me a single person WHAT AM I TO DO. When this is NOT ABOUT ME its about more exposure to the TRUTH about horse slaughter. IT is NOT Humane as the AVMA and the AAEP say is Euthanisia. Euthanisia means a Good Death Not a struggle of stress and where stallions gets their heads bashed in so they wont fight on trailers cramp full trailers. Either in Texas or Illinois before 2007 they were outlawed in Texas for operating illegal based on a 1949 law that MOST pro slaughter fail to mention. As for as over populated of horses NO its just a slow market for everything homes cars jobs etc.. This is a multi million dollar business and everyone that cares little for horses wants this PIE..


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## Airspace1 (Apr 5, 2010)

As for as NEW MEXICO being better well lets start by its representation to the plant owned by Santos..


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## bsms (Dec 31, 2010)

^^ What does the above have to do with slaughter houses?

And while YOU say this isn't about individuals, I own a horse that is ridden perhaps 6 times/year. How many horses do YOU own that you don't need, but you feed & have their feet trimmed and vet checked, etc?


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## Airspace1 (Apr 5, 2010)

Farm Bureau and AG are criminals and they are there own worse enemy.. They don't help rescues only use them to prove their lies.. They don't want others to know about other animal abuses in AG so they create AG GAG bills that hide and protect them.. 

Its only a matter of time until we have Canada bills passed thru parliament. What is most alarming is the Horsemeat Scandel's of meat mixing with beef and profiting and lying to the public.. When there is so much of a product and cheap in some areas its better for a criminal to mix it as beef to profit.. As I always say horse slaughter is merely a reward for criminals and irresponsible people. Oh by the way I raise a few horses and cattle and live in a population of 400 you think Im a city boy..


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## Airspace1 (Apr 5, 2010)

As I said BSMS I own several and choose the responsibility of all care needed and have for nearly 35 years... I don't see horses as a throw away Item as some people do..

These are the people that should NOT own a horse or any pet..


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## Roperchick (Feb 1, 2010)

so. much. hostility.


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## bsms (Dec 31, 2010)

Airspace1, what I think is that you hurdle accusations, but fail to back them up.


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## myhorsesonador (Jun 21, 2009)

Airspace1 said:


> As I said BSMS I own several and choose the responsibility of all care needed and have for nearly 35 years... I don't see horses as a throw away Item as some people do..
> 
> These are the people that should NOT own a horse or any pet..


I hope you own a lot of land and have a endless income, because your going to need is to save all those horses that can't be cared for due to BYB and the economy. 

I know I don't have the money or the land to do it.


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## FlyGap (Sep 25, 2011)

Slaughter houses are still being operated, will always operate, and hopefully soon will be operating here. The last thing I want is BYB and any other horse being sent an extra thousand more miles to end their unfortunate circumstances.

What I'm most worried about is our good stock population. Responsible breeders are cutting back. While this is all good now, just wait a few years when a decent horse might cost several more thousand dollars because there aren't many to be found. I'm already seeing it.

All I can find locally are unbroke mutts with terrible conformation or non pro green broke semi decent horses practically free because there isn't a big enough market to afford the finished training (which would be covered by meat costs if they couldn't place it). There isn't anywhere locally to take them. Auction houses here have quit selling them because there isn't a profitable enough meat market and all to often they get stuck with dumped skinny diseased horses due to the economy. If they were at least worth their meat people would keep them healthy enough to sell....
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## Cherie (Dec 16, 2010)

> Euthanisia means a Good Death Not a struggle of stress and where stallions gets their heads bashed in so they wont fight on trailers cramp full trailers.


Facts just don't play very well with you, do they? You are the most misinformed of any of the anti-slaughter people that have come here. Problem is, we have all forgotten more about horses and the horse industry that you have ever known or hope to know. 

I have not seen a killer buyer bid on a stallion for about 5 years. USDA outlawed trucking them with other horses several years ago. Most untrained junk studs go through the local auction and bring about $50.00, even it they weigh 1200# (most don't). One local man buys most of them, takes them home and cuts them, deworms them, turns them out on good grass or good hay for 30 days and grains them. He brings them back to the sale about a month later and they sell for about $300.00 or more each. Not my preferred way to make a living, but he does quite well with it. We have a free market system here in the US and it is his right to buy and sell what he wants to and no one can gripe about how he cares for them.

Here are the rules proposed in 2000, 7 years before slaughter ended in the US. There were all put into regulations. 13 years ago -- probably long before you got on your soap-box -- these were the proposed rules -- all which have been adopted.


> USDA funded research at Colorado State University on the physical conditions of horses arriving at slaughter plants, at Texas A&M University on the effects of water deprivation in equines, and at the University of California, Davis on stress in equines shipped to slaughter facilities. The recommendations and findings of the USDA, stakeholder, and research groups became part of the regulations in 2000. Under these regulations shippers must:
> 
> 
> Separate stallions and other aggressive horses from the rest of the shipment.
> ...


These are the actual rules that have been adopted and have been enforced. This same release from USDA goes on to document how many shippers have been fined almost $1,000,000 for breaking some of these rules.



> The regulations provide for complete domestic and international monitoring of the movement of U.S.-origin horses to slaughter through the use of owner /shipper certificates and corresponding backtags. The SHTP owner/shipper certificate is documentation that the shipper is in compliance with the regulations.
> 
> The regulations prohibit the transportation of a horse that is
> a. unable to bear weight on four limbs,
> ...


So, these are already part of the rules and regulations. No one has ever 'saved' a foal from slaughter because they cannot be shipped to slaughter.

I have not seen a double deck truck hauling horses for many years except for the mustangs coming in to Pauls Valley. The reason given for them being hauled in double deck trucks is that the shipping had to go to the lowest bidder and that always seemed to be the shippers using double deck trucks. The managers of the BLM grazing units were some of the people actually proposing the rules against double deck trucks so they would not have to use them.

If you should be interested in facts, here is the USDA website that explains the actual rules and regulations that govern hauling of slaughter horses -- not that you would actually be interested in facts. Most of them seem to have escaped you thus far. USDA - APHIS - Animal Health - Horses
And, as usual, you have not answered any of my questions. Try to go back and actually answer them. We are all waiting. All we have gotten from you so far is venomous hate and bitter lies. Try facts and answering the big question --* What do you propose to do with all of the unwanted horses NOW if there is no slaughter option? In less than 10 years, they will number more than a million. *


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## SEAmom (Jan 8, 2011)

I am pro slaughter because it is a necessary evil. I don't ever plan on sending any horse I own, and I hope it will never have to come to that. I do recognize the need for slaughter here in the US. It is a necessity. There is not enough space for all the unwanted horses to live in My Little Pony land where the sun shines all day and nobody is ever sad. I know for a fact that I am only able to afford one horse and have to board it. If I had 500 acres, sure I'd be happy to help other horses, but since I'm pro-slaughter I'll let all the tree huggers take over that one. I'm sure they all have hundreds of acres available and unlimited income so they can save the multitude of horses who would otherwise go to slaughter.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## Zexious (Aug 2, 2013)

Man, people sure do get worked up over this topic... xD

Honestly, I can't take a stance on slaughter because I'm not well versed enough in the logistics. While I would never wish death on any horse, like many of you have said, it's impossible to ignore how many unwanted animals there are, for a whole variety of reasons.


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## Saddlebag (Jan 17, 2011)

I had tho't the big issue was raising horses for meat that so many were against. We still need a place to process horses. At one time all the canned dog food was horse meat but in those days it was usually the cripples or aged that were processed.


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## Cherie (Dec 16, 2010)

No one has or will ever raise horses for meat. They are poor feed converters and would have to sell for 3 or 4 times what fat cattle sell for in order to make money. Instead, they sell for less than half of what beef sells for per pound. Their selling price is only their 'salvage value' when they are not good enough or wanted for any other purpose. 

Even a fat easy keeping horse is worth less than $.25 on the dollar of what it would cost to breed and raise it. People who think they will be raised for meat are, again, just plain uninformed. You can feed 3 cows for what you can feed 2 easy keeping broodmares. Most broodmares will cost double what a cow does to feed. Cows have a calf in 9 months while horses take 11. When put on feed, yearling cattle convert feed at 2x or 3x what horses do (or even better) and do not founder in the process. They can eat low fiber finishing diets where horses die on that kind of feed. So, all in all, horses are not suitable to raise for slaughter. 

When a fat horse is sold for $500.00 to the killer buyer, you can bet there is 4 to 6 times that much money tied up in the horse without training or any other additional expenses. 

Horse meat is still used for zoo meat and for greyhound trainers, but it is not used in dog food any more.


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## stevenson (Sep 12, 2011)

airspace.. I have 11 horses. All were throw away horses. I spend anywhere from 6- 12 grand a year on Feed alone. Now Add water cost, land cost (taxes ) , farrier, Vets. I dont send my horses to slaughter or to auction. I have sold a few in the past. to Euth a horse its 350 plus a 250 fee to dispose of the carcass . So far i have been able to afford my horses but with Obama nomics, the day is coming that I will have to get rid of most of them. 
Now I will blow out my credit cards and have as many euthanized as possible, But some people do not do this. There needs to be the option for the horses no one wants . If it is done as humanely as possible (which sure as heck wont happen in Mexico) then I dont have to big of an issue . double decker trucks have been outlawed for a long time. If you are so concerned about the meat supply then dont eat meat. Raise your own meat and have it slaughtered . Ifyou are soo against this, then you need to do something other than whine about it. Go to the auctions and buy up all the slaughter bound horses, as it has Never stopped.


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