Lots of people are upset with this. Lots of people also don’t know what it means. There is finger pointing and boo hissing and lots of angry PETA members getting ready to go on a rampage. The thing is, horse slaughter has been happening. It’s just been happening in other countries, namely Mexico and Canada. In 2010 approximately 138,000 horses were exported for slaughter. An additional 30,000 shipped for “different purposes” AKA they were sent to feedlots to fatten up before being sent out. So what does this bill do, specifically? Well, basically it overturns a bill that was passed in 2006 that cut all funding for government inspections of equine slaughter houses in the US. The problem for the slaughter houses is that in 1996 a bill was passed REQUIRING government mandated inspections, or else they couldn’t be in operation. No inspections = No Slaughter Houses.
Now the Agriculture’s Department of Food Service and Inspection Service (FSIS) have their funding back to inspect the slaughter houses, which means they can reopen – although as of today there is not one operating equine slaughter plant in the US (of course with this new spending bill, that is expected to change).
I am a horse owner… and I support this bill. If horses have to go to slaughter (which, lets face it, THEY DO, unless you can think of something else to do with a surplus of 170,000 horses no one wants or can care for) I would much rather it occur in the United States where the plants will be required to uphold humane regulations than Mexico or Canada, where once the horses pass over the border their treatment is completely out of our hands.Some people now believe that because horse slaughtering plants will once again begin operating in the US than horse meat will begin popping up everywhere – in dog food, as mystery meat at the grocery store, and in restaurants. To be frank, this just isn’t true. Eating horse meat is just as unpopular with Americans today as it was on November 18th. One statistic I found said that nearly 90% of the meat is sent overseas for consumption, where eating horse isn’t such a big deal, and the rest is used in zoos.
Unfortunately when it comes to the slaughtering of horses, people are so horrified by the act that they don’t try to solve the problem. If there wasn’t a surplus of 170,000 horses no one wanted the equine slaughter industry would be pretty hard pressed to stay in business. So for me, humane slaughter IS a necessary evil – but the greater evil is over breeding. What do you think? Is this a good bill or not? How do you think this problem can be solved? As an aside, I know these pictures don’t have anything to do with equine slaughter but since it is a grim enough topic just to read about, I figured the cuteness factor of these ponies would make it a little easier to bear.
For a good article that doesn't seem to be biased and from where I was able to pull a lot of my facts, click here.
