I keep getting stuff in the mail sometimes about horses that are being slaughtered here in the United States. Some of the photos are disturbing too. Is it true?
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Hi Horse Addict
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Yes, I believe this is true. It's not just the US though, it happens in many countries around the world.
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Kind regards,
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Gen
Good morning horseaddict,
From the research I have done, there are only a few left in the USA and here in Canada they only have one left.
It is miserable what they do to these dear creatures. And the thing that gets me is the meat is shipped out to other countries, some feel it is a delicasy.
Another thing is irresponsible horse breeders, overbreeding and not enough people to buy.
End result, get rid of the unlikely to succeed or the overflow.
Hard truth for horse lovers to accept.
We have friends who told may daughter and I that a farmer was giving away over 20 head of horses, these were of all ages and in great shape. There was no way I can take on more right now but both of our hearts were breaking.
His answer to his "problem" sell them to the slaughter house in Quebec. They get so much per pound.
When will this ever stop I don't know. We'er fighting it and helping them to see the sencelessness of it, but red tape take a long time.
Ronda
Horse slaughter is a very controversial subject and is not easily understood. On the surface it would only seem right to band the slaughter of horses for food, after all they are not raised for food but for pleasure. And because Americans love their leisure time there are now more horses in the USA than at any other time in history. People are breeding their horses like there is no tomorrow with very little understanding of genetics or even the breed that they are working with. Back yard breeders are not the only ones that don't know what they are doing. Professional breed farms in many cases experiment with breeding to produce the "best of breed" horse. In the mean time they produce a lot of mediocre horses.
Many of the breed associations are now getting behind making horse slaughter a legal and very regulated business. We now have hundreds of horse sanctuaries and rescue organizations and they are overwhelmed by the number of horses they have to care for.
It is difficult at best to decide what is the most humane solution for horses, because we cannot sustain the number of horses that we now have and so many are starving to death because the owner cannot or will not take proper care of their horses but cannot send them to slaughter because their state may have closed all the slaughter houses.
There are only two or three slaughter houses for cattle because people thought that they didn't need to have these businesses in their community. I believe that is one of the reasons that their are so many cases of bad beef hitting the supermarkets.
So on the surface I am not in favor of slaughtering horses, but I also recognize that without slaughter houses for horses we will be suffering a greater tragedy as more and more horse die a cruel death from starvation. Our government thins the mustang herds by about 30,000 head a year and those mustangs that cannot be adopted are kept in holding pens for the rest of their lives. The holding pens are not unlike the ones use for cattle waiting to be 'processed' for the consumer.
Cheers
Hi guys, That's unfortunate. :( I never could imagine a horse for food! I think they did the same thing with the dolphins in Japan. They would slaughter them and the Japanese people were not even aware that they were eating dolphin meat!