Slaughter Ban - Saving America's Horses?

Nobody loves horses more than I do. Some certainly love them as much, but show it in a strange way by blocking horse slaughter in the U.S. which subjects unwanted horses to be taken to Mexico for slaughter.



The passing of the House Agriculture Appropriations bill, which will surely be approved by the Senate and signed by the President next week, includes verbiage eliminating the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) from conducting horse slaughter plant inspections in the U.S., at least through September 2015, will ensure that the route to Mexico stays as the only viable path for unwanted horses.

I have seen far too many over crowded trailers of horses heading to Mexico. The old, the sick, the unwanted and the young. In Mexico these horses are subjected to very a cruel death. Very cruel only if you consider being put through a squeeze chute and have some Mexican plant worker stab the horse in the neck by the withers until the horse is paralyzed or drops, then a hoisted by a chain around their rear legs to hang upside down, throat slashed and bled out.

I can't even begin to imagine the horses' screams. At least in the U.S. slaughter plants, tragic as it is, horses were put down in a humane manner.

It would be great if every horse in the U.S and the world could be born and be assured of living to a natural death, having enough feed and water in between, but that is hardly reasonable to hope for. I think if people in the U.S. really cared about horses, there would be a method to euthanize unwanted horses in a humane manner where the horse is treated with respect and dignity and is not being terrorized for hours and days before being put down.

Even though the European Union's (EU) decision to block horses slaughtered in Mexico from being exported into the EU, which goes into effect on January 15th, and the blocking of horse slaughter in the U.S., the slaughter of horses in Mexico will not stop as there is just too big of a world market for horse consumption.

I applaud and have monetarily supported horse rescues who give mistreated and unwanted horses a lifetime home. I know several of these rescues put their lives and entire income into providing care for these horses, many of which are not capable of being ridden. My wife and I have three horses, due to age and injuries, will not ever be ridden again but will die a natural death on our property no matter how long that takes. But to not have a humane means to dispose of horses and subject them to a terrible death in Mexico is unacceptable.