# Horse Slaughter Is Back In The U.S.



## equiniphile (Aug 16, 2009)

Oh boy, this one's bound to start some fireworks.

I'm glad it was legalized; it needed to be. Much, much better than having horses endure the cruel drive in double-deckers to Mexico. I don't have a problem with people eating horse meat. Hell, if given the chance I would proably try it myself.


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## mselizabeth (Oct 29, 2011)

Not this thread again...

Oh boy is right. haha

http://www.horseforum.com/horse-pro...e-slaughter-america-104402/page9/#post1247230


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## robohog (Nov 24, 2011)

Finally Humane Slaughter is back! It really sucks that a horse gets shipped to mexico and possibly is treated like crap before it is slaughtered. I hate the though of slaughtering any animal but i love my steaks and poor horses that are in pain or starved because of crappy owners, deserve the dignity of a HUMANE slaughter


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## Ladytrails (Jul 28, 2010)

Emily,
There aren't any slaughter houses open in the US yet for horse slaughter. The news articles say that there might be some opening up with in 30-90 days. 

All horse meat intended for human consumption (that I know of) is shipped outside of the country for because there isn't much of a market for horse meat in the US except for zoos and that type of thing. In fact, your state of Florida has a huge problem with black-market horsemeat for human consumption. Over the past couple of years there have been horrific news articles of valuable animals being stolen and butchered for black-market horsemeat in Florida. 

There are 4 states in the US that have state laws preventing slaughter of horses. Other states are considering opening up slaughter houses - Nebraska, Wyoming, and Missouri are some that were in the news. 

The sad truth is that horses are going to be slaughtered whether it is in the US or Canada or Mexico. I am STRONGLY in favor of having it legalized in the US for 3 important reasons: 1) there are greater odds that the slaughter will be humanely done, and the horses won't have to cross continents on their final journey, and that is very important to me; 2) the value of horses will go up which is good for the horse industry as well as individual horse owners; and 3) if my horse is stolen there is a greater chance that I will get her back if there are US slaughterhouses, vs the chance that she could be taken out of the country. 

Just my thoughts.....


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## Hoofprints in the Sand (Nov 23, 2008)

Although I'd never send my horse to slaughter and wouldn't be interested in consuming horse meat, this is a better alternative to the long trip outside the country into the slaughter plants in Canada and Mexico.

I'm just hoping they can regulate them better this time around.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## Joe4d (Sep 1, 2011)

I dont think the value is gonna go up or the abuse cases are gonna go down. The same number of horses are being exported as there were being slaughtered before the houses closed. Horse value plummeted because the economy tanked. Lots of supply low demand. Your other two reasons are pretty valid. A US slaughter industry with mandatory scanning would make microchipping worthwhile. The gov, media and citizen groups would at least have a chance to monitor the process and make it as humane as possible.


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## Hoofprints in the Sand (Nov 23, 2008)

Didn't even think about the scanning joe, that's a great point! it would be wonderful if they could mandate something like that.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## wyominggrandma (Nov 4, 2009)

Go down to "horse protection" you will find this discussion has been going on for days and days and pages and pages.


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## Hoofprints in the Sand (Nov 23, 2008)

Yes but so far this one's actually being productive ;-)
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## Saddlebag (Jan 17, 2011)

It is letters by the ton that change legislation. Have a campaign whereby there will be one big mail in day. State that you want a law enacted to make microchip scanning mandatory at auctions and slaughter plants. BTW, when valuable horses are stolen and then supposedly butchered for meat, there just might be a big insurance policy covering this horse and we don't know if it's career might have ended ie a theft of convenience. Happens all the time.


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## Joe4d (Sep 1, 2011)

You really wouldnt need a law passed. Any slaughter house that opens will need a business licenses. During the application process it is easy to "Ask" a business to do something as part of the aproval process. Usually businesses are happy to oblige something like that that is simple and cheap. When this process takes place horse owners will be way better served asking for mandatory scanning and owner notification, than screaming and crying about how bad it is to slaughter horses. 
Remember there is and never has been a US ban on raising and slaughtering horses for food. This is a myth that has been perpetuated by uninformed people.
There was a budget cut at the USDA, Since no one in the US was eating horse meat the argument was made why are US taxpayers paying for horse meat inspections ? The funding for the inspections simply stopped. The industry could have paid for inspectors and passed the costs on to consumers, but there simply wasnt a market. Slaughter houses went to mexico for the same reason Wirlpool, Hershey, and others went to mexico. NAFTA made it easy, and cheap labor, no oversight, and no environmental laws. I will be extremely surprised if a plant opens here. Why pay US wages, and deal with US laws when you can do it in mexico ? I guess time may prove me wrong, but I dont think much will change.


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## kevinshorses (Aug 15, 2009)

I don't think you're as correct in your asumptions as you could be Joe. The slaughter facilities offered to pay for the inspectors in full but the government still wouldn't allow it because of pressure from animal rights groups and well intentioned but ill informed citizens. 

With horse prices as low as they are I think there is going to be a scramble to see where the first plant can get started. They may not last a long time but I bet they pop up in several regions and stay open for at least a few years. There's too much money to be made. I think it will help the horse industry by setting a bottom price and offering an outlet for unusable horses. As far as the stolen horse issue, you are much better off to freeze brand your horse with a registered brand than to rely on someone finding a microchip that tends to migrate in unpredictable ways.


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## Joe4d (Sep 1, 2011)

While I agree on the freeze branding, at least you can see it from a distance. And the current system makes microchipping pretty worthless. The funding for inspectors was cut in 2006, yet the slaughter houses kept operating for at least another year. I think there is more to the issue. Like I said if a bunch of US houses open up I'll be proven wrong. I think the horse slaughter stands to make more money in Mexico, cheap labor, noone testing for Bute, little to no oversight or environmental laws, only time will tell.


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## Annnie31 (May 26, 2011)

I live in Ontario Canada and I am not aware of any slaughter houses open here although there may be that I am not aware of. I know that our local Supermarket tried to sell horse meat over the counter a couple of years ago because there are so many Europeons immigrating to Canada and while the people from the Netherlands loved that it was being sold the locals were so outraged they refused to shop there so long as it was being sold so they took it off the shelf.

Personally I believe slaughter does have its place and while I personally would love to see every horse have a wonderful home it just isnt realistic. I also believe so long as there are black market dealers stealing horses as has happened alot in US the horses that do have safe and secure homes are put at risk. Not a good thing. Allowing slaughter with guidelines, laws and inspection is the only way to ensure that things are done humanely and locally at least.
We dont live in a perfect world, there will always be people who bite off more than they chew when buying a horse, or any animal for that matter. So long as we have people in the world who fail to recognize how much time, energy, and money goes along with ownership, there will be horses slated for the sale barns, and yes the slaughter houses.
I personally would never eat horse meat..unless I was facing starvation. I personally admire and respect them too much to make a meal of them. Some day perhaps I will have no choice but for now no thanks.


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## xxEmilyxx (Sep 5, 2010)

Ohh thank you for the info LadyTrails. I am sorry if I have opened a new thread about this, I figured there had to be one but I scrolled through a few pages and couldn't find one. Hearing everyone's opinions, I guess having slaughterhouses in the US is better than a horrible trip to be killed in Mexico... :/


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## ponyboy (Jul 24, 2008)

Annnie31 said:


> I also believe so long as there are black market dealers stealing horses as has happened alot in US the horses that do have safe and secure homes are put at risk.


The stealing would only stop if some meat was sold in the U.S., which it wasn't before.


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## kevinshorses (Aug 15, 2009)

Does anyone have any statistics (which is not the plural of anecdote) on horse theft in the U.S.? I would bet it's very small and when it does happen the last thing those thieves want is a brand inspector looking at the animal which will happen %100 of the time at an auction or slaughterhouse. You're much more likely to find a stolen animal being sold in the classified ads of a newspaper than you are at an auction. Besides the horse market will have to improve a lot before thier worth enough to steal!


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## Joe4d (Sep 1, 2011)

I have wondered about that myself, With the advent of the internet and instant nation wide networks like this one. Just like most crime we hear about instantly and it gives the false impression that it is more widespread than it is. I have seen several cases though and many leave me scratching my head. I have seen some stolen horses that really are only worth about 500 on a good day. Nice loved animals but not gonna fetch a ton of money. Seems like a whole bunch of work to get a truck, trailer, stake out area, get horse loaded, take a couple states away, pay for the gas, all for a few hundred bucks. I just dont see it. Seems like horses good enough to fetch a bunch of money would be known enough to be identified.


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## Celeste (Jul 3, 2011)

If people are already stealing horses in Florida to illegally slaughter them now, would it not be logical to assume that they will steal them more often if there is a quick, easy place to take them such as a legal slaughter plant?


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## bubba13 (Jan 6, 2007)

It is a _felony_ crime to slaughter a horse in Florida. The horses being stolen were not for the overseas consumption, as those slaughtered legally in the US would be, but rather for black market cuisine for Cuban immigrants who missed the taste from home.


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## kevinshorses (Aug 15, 2009)

^^And who were too stupid or dishonest to buy a cheap horse and kill it humanely. Wanting to eat a traditional cultural meal is one thing but stealing to do so is another. In my area there are many polynesian people and apperantly they are also fond of horse meat but rather than steal a horse they respond to every free horse or pony ad the comes up. It's gotten to be a bit of a joke with the horse community if someone has a misbehaving or overfed pony.


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## kitten_Val (Apr 25, 2007)

kevinshorses said:


> Wanting to eat a traditional cultural meal is one thing but *stealing *to do so is another.


Kevin, but in this case it's FREE!


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## COWCHICK77 (Jun 21, 2010)

kevinshorses said:


> Does anyone have any statistics (which is not the plural of anecdote) on horse theft in the U.S.? I would bet it's very small and when it does happen the last thing those thieves want is a brand inspector looking at the animal which will happen %100 of the time at an auction or slaughterhouse. You're much more likely to find a stolen animal being sold in the classified ads of a newspaper than you are at an auction. Besides the horse market will have to improve a lot before thier worth enough to steal!


I believe your right, and also before you can unload at a kill plant you have to show brand inpection and health papers. I am not saying they can catch all stolen horses that way but it helps. Back when the horse market was good, horses that were sound and rideable didn't go to killers for the most part. They were being sold as saddle horses and traded around at auctions to make a buck because you could make fast money. You could always tell the difference between a trader and a killer buyer because the killwr buyer always bought the crippled ones at the sales and the traders bought the ones that were rideable or resellable. If horses were stolen they usually weren't shipped off to kill, they usually tried to sell the horse to make a buck because you will always make more money off of a saddle horses than what you get for him at kill.

Some people are treating the opening of kill plants as some deep dark ugly secret. But it is the easiest way to track and regulate it. I would rather my tax dollars go to brand inspections and regulations to have it done humanely than watch truck loads of horses driving the back roads to Mexico and watch them starve or live a miserable life crippled.

And it is not just the human consumption of meat, most of the plants in the US sold the meat for dog food glue and geletin I believe. There seems to be this misconception that we are a bunch of blood thirsty carnivores that want to eat horseflesh. I am thankful that we have an option for these horses and we able to use the meat for other things.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## loveduffy (Dec 22, 2011)

I would rather see horses slaughter here then ship all over ,down in Mexico there use the horse for slaughter for horses fighting both end up dead but after the beat each other to death, so open more slaughter horse here so the horse do not go thought that-- just respect the animal before and after


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