They slaughter horses, don't they?
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Submitted by creiter on Wed, 2008-03-19 09:07. |
Last year, all of the horse slaughterhouses in the United States were closed. The folks who think that slaughtering horses for food, to be shipped overseas, is barbaric and unnecessary had their way, and there is no slaughtering of horses in the United States.
Has that stopped horse slaughter? No. In the Journal of the American Veterinary Association an article pointed out that since the ban, horse slaughter in Mexico has jumped 312 percent.
Wow. That’s a huge increase. So those horses that a year ago would have gone to slaughter in a United States facility inspected by the United States Department of Agriculture are now being shipped to Mexico and being killed under who knows what circumstances.
And in the meantime, that ban on slaughter has affected the prices of horses in the United States. Go to a horse auction sometime, and watch yearling colts come through that don’t even draw a $10 bid.
It’s hit horse breeders hard, and it should. Maybe some of them were producing horses that shouldn’t have been born, and those breeders are now rethinking their breeding practices.
I don’t believe that banning horses slaughter in the United States is good for anyone. I myself would never eat horsemeat, but I would never eat quail either, and it doesn’t bother me to see it for sale in the grocery stores.
What has happened is that those old or unsound horses that used to go to slaughter are now just being kicked out somewhere and ignored. The amount of horse abuse has also gone up, and so has the price of feed, fuel and everything else associated with horses.
In a perfect world, all horses would be in grass up to their knees until they die a peaceful, dignified death. But that’s not reality, and I know it. I’ve seen what happens when horses are ignored, when a horse that should weigh 1,200 pounds has been starved down to half its weight. I’ve seen what happens when a horse can’t get up, and spends days frantically trying to right itself before it dies of thirst and hunger.
A ban on slaughter? It’s wrong, and I hope that the powers that be finally realize that and fix what’s wrong.
The slaughter of horses
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Submitted by calbabe55 on Tue, 2008-03-25 08:46.
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I find a problem with the fight for horse slaughter being an animal science major curently in college of course the subject of horse slaughter is brought up. the problem is where your thoughts lie are horses pets or are they farm animals? i believe them to be farm animals and should be slaughtered. By taking away the right to slaughter them the state has taken the right to dispose of old unsound animals its bad enought that the bleeding heart want to save the lame ones that will never be ok to ride or function. when you think of them as livestock you can think of eating them and letting them go for slaughter.
Syndicate
Horse Slaughter
Creiter, are you not aware that old and unsound horses are not the horses going to slaughter? According to the USDA, 96% are healthy, sound and fit horses. The meat men want horses with meat on their bones. They are buying them for meat. I don’t know where you are getting your information but the cases of abuse and neglect have NOT increased. Instead of reading the bogus articles pumped out by the pro hired PR firms, check your facts – investigate the claims. We have investigated the claims and with rare exception, they are fabricated. The only state that had an increase was AZ and they were always high. Do you know what the increase was? A grand total of three cases over the three year average – three years that the kill houses were open.