Information about horse slaughter including links to laws, slaughter statistics, news, and resources to you get involved to end the export of US horses for slaughter in Mexico, Canada, and Europe.
The Foundation to Protect New Mexico Wildlife today announced it has formalized an agreement with the Navajo Nation to develop a comprehensive and humane program to manage the thousands of free-roaming horses on the reservation. The ultimate goal of the agreement is to develop alternatives to transporting the horses to slaughter facilities.
LARKSPUR, Colo., December 16, 2013 – Front Range Equine Rescue (FRER), a national nonprofit working to end the abuse and neglect of horses through rescue and education, has taken measures to prevent the slaughter of horses for human consumption in both New Mexico and Missouri.
Being a professional marketer that has helped scores of business owners, I have a new business idea for poor Ricky. He needs to improve his public image; rebrand what he does as family fun! Perhaps, he could open “Ricky Santo’s World” — maybe his tag line could be, “forget the miracle of birth, come and witness the miracle of death!” So, hey, Ricky, why don’t you open your facility to the public for tours to raise a few bucks? You know, bring little school kids on field trips, invite all those whacky animal activists, and people who have to live near your facility so they can see up close that what they imagine goes on in slaughterhouse (what they can hear, see, and smell) really is not so horrific after all.
A mini-documentary exposing how the GAO produced a fraudulent report concerning the impact of the closing of domestic horse slaughter plants on horse welfare.
Laura Bell, of Starlight Sanctuary in Nevada, suspected a large number of privately owned reservation horses being held for sale at a Nevada auction are wild horses. Her photos and videos seem to support her concerns. She has launched a campaign to make the public aware, with a call to action to bring attention to this event. Although she was not arrested, police forced her to leave. The sale will take place August 17, 2013. As most horses may be required to be purchased in entire lots, most, if not all of these horses will be purchased by kill buyers and shipped to slaughter.
The term “horse broker” does not generate quite the hostile reaction as the term “kill buyer,” nor should it. However, some horse brokers (dealers) may also operate as kill buyers. A broker is someone who buys and sells horses for a living. A kill buyer also buys and sells horses for a living. The main difference between the two is to whom and what purposes purchased horses are resold.
Food Network and celebrity chef, Marc Murphy, claims there is nothing wrong with eating horse meat and that people object purely as a matter of cultural differences. He ate horse meat as a child, remembering it as being sweet and lean, and shows no concern over horse meat found in baby food. Still, the chef and restaurant owner says he will not add it to his menus because he could not sell it to Americans. Stating that people who want to eat horse meet should go to France.
When a horse goes to auction a number is glued to its hip. Charlie was hip #905. The horse slaughter industry is a predatory enterprise. It doesn’t “euthanize” old, sick horses — but precisely the opposite: young and healthy horses are purchased at auction, often by people misrepresenting their intentions. The USDA reports 92 percent of horses going to slaughter are in good condition and able to live healthy and productive lives. The existence of horse slaughter actually hinders rescue efforts, as rescuers are routinely outbid at auctions by kill buyers seeking healthy animals that bring the best price per pound.
The International Equine Business Association (IEBA) has officially applauded the approval of the first permit in the US for commercial horse slaughter. Who is this equine group? And why would they be doing cartwheels over the resumption of a horrific process that was originally banned in the US for good reason?
The IEBA is not a group of concerned horse folks at all; they are business folks concerned only with profiting from the death of horses.
I wish horses could talk. They would probably look at us with big, sad eyes, and just ask, “Why?” There is a vast difference between a horse in pain or so ill that euthanasia humanely would be a gift and a horse suffering only from the callousness of humans. Most auction horses have simply outlived a human purpose and when they stop making money become a liability and their owners were either unwilling, or unable to own up to the financial responsibilities of horse ownership. In most cases of OTTB (off track thoroughbreds) it is a case of unwilling.
March 1st is National Horse Protection Day. I ask only two things of you. If you have a horse, love them extra today and remember horses not as fortunate as yours. Remember those who won’t be getting a hug today, but will end up abandoned, abused, or purchased by a kill buyer. Don’t tune out to the problem, take a step forward by at least acknowledging there is a problem. But to be the best voice possible for horse you also need to be willing to listen.
Would you eat horse meat? Are you for or against horses for humans? Share your thoughts about whether you would eat horse meat, or if horses should be allowed to be slaughtered for human consumption.
My grandparents owned a beautiful 120 or so acre farm in Myersville, MD. The grew some crops, but mostly raised black angus cattle for meat. I petted the cows, talked to them, and scratched their soft fuzzy faces. I even enjoyed the feeling of their soft tongues licking the salt from my hands. I gazed into their docile eyes and told them I loved them, but because I was raised in a culture where it was okay to eat beef, I was able to push it out of my mind that the beautiful sweet creature I was petting would end up as someone’s hamburger.