Slaughtering horses is cruel
By Christopher J. Heyde
Published April 7, 2006
Unlike the mythical tale of the Trojan horse, horse slaughter in the
United States is a cold, brutal and senseless act played out daily in
the three foreign-owned slaughterhouses in Texas and Illinois.
The debate over whether horses should be slaughtered in this
country for human consumption abroad is one that deserves the
dissemination of accurate information, unlike what lobbyist Charlie
Stenholm recently put forth in the recent commentary "Meat plant ban a
Trojan Horse."
Mr. Stenholm would like the public to believe that horse slaughter
is a common option used by horse owners, when, in fact, less than 1
percent of all horses in this country end up at slaughterhouses. The
overwhelming majority of horses are brought in by middlemen known as
"killer buyers" working for the plants who do not reveal their true
business when buying horses from unsuspecting sellers.
An estimated 900,000 horses in this country die naturally or are
humanely euthanized and disposed of properly each year. It is illogical
to conclude that by ending horse slaughter, we would be overwhelmed
with bodies or even live horses. As one person noted, "it is a wild
assumption that every horse will die the same day, week, month or even
year."
Sadly, wild assumptions are what the pro-slaughter folks want the
public and legislators to base their decisions on, because they have no
evidence to support their position that horse slaughter in America is
necessary.
Thankfully, the overwhelming majority of American horse owners
realize that horse slaughter is not euthanasia by any definition. They
do what is right by having a veterinarian humanely euthanize their
horses when the time comes, an expense which is less than one month's
board for the average horse owner.
I can understand why Mr. Stenholm is so uninformed about the
mistreatment of horses, since he has only recently been hired by the
slaughterhouses. I suggest he read the various outstanding editorials
in The Washington Times exposing the cruelty of this unwanted industry.
There is also ample evidence from the Department of Agriculture that
slaughterhouse cruelty is an ongoing problem. Documents recently
obtained from the USDA through the Freedom of Information Act reveal
numerous citations of federal law pertaining to the treatment of horses
in these plants over an incredibly short period of time.
I am one of the few people who have witnessed horse slaughter
firsthand without being expressly brought in by the industry to show
how "wonderful" it is. I was accompanied by a licensed veterinarian who
sought out a USDA inspector when we were no longer able to tolerate the
abuse we witnessed. Unfortunately, she was unable to find the inspector
in the facility. In the mere 45 minutes we were there, we witnessed
several acts of cruelty. I can assure you from my own experience that
the video, photographs and USDA documents depicting slaughterhouse
cruelty are brutally accurate. (To learn more about horse slaughter and
to see a video of this cruel practice, please visit
www.saplonline.org/horses.htm
.)
The effort to ban horse slaughter in this country has brought
together one of the largest and most diverse coalitions ever assembled
to promote a single animal-protection cause -- more than 200 horse
industry, rescue and humane organizations have joined together in
solidarity (most of the pro-slaughter organizations are not even
horse-related).
Support has also been garnered from every living owner of a
Kentucky Derby winning horse, horse-industry leaders, Hall of Fame
trainers, veterinarians and horse-owning celebrities such as Willie
Nelson, Bo Derek and William Shatner. This unequalled collection of
horse enthusiasts and experts looked at the facts and came to one
unified opinion: Horse slaughter is cruel and must come to an end.
It is time to stop the rhetoric and ban horse slaughter once and
for all. Those working to end horse slaughter have had to divert
much-needed resources because a few individuals continue to
misrepresent the issue. If we could swiftly end slaughter, those
diverted resources currently being spent by the anti-slaughter movement
could be returned to the goal of helping horses in need.
Congress heard the facts, saw the documents and listened to the
American people when it overwhelmingly passed an amendment banning
horse slaughter for a year. It is now time for Congress to once again
respect the will of the public and swiftly enact the American Horse
Slaughter Prevention Act (H.R. 503/S. 1915).
Christopher J. Heyde, a former Republican Senate staffer and Army
veteran, is currently with the Society for Animal Protective
Legislation.
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