By VIVIAN GRANT

Paulo Prado of the Wall Street Journal penned an article entitled, “Leaner Pastures: As Horses Multiply, Neglect Cases Rise,” with a neatly tucked in subtitle, “Boomers Bought Them, But Can’t Afford Upkeep; The Slaughterhouse Factor.”

Although most of Prado’s treatment focuses on the horse rescue efforts of Florida women Holly Perea and Morgan Silver, he did introduce a somewhat different idea — horse market crash.

Has such an event really occurred?

Killer buyers employed by US horse slaughter plants contracted with Mexican and Canadian horse slaughter plants to send thousands of America’s horses across our borders to them as soon as they got a hint the plants were to be shuttered here. Canada itself at the time had three plants butchering horses. That number has doubled to six with the closure of the US plants.

Prado’s article also implies, albeit subtly, that the glut of unwanted horses is somehow related to the closure last year of America’s three remaining horse slaughter plants.

For Your Next Course, How about a Quarter Horse?

Prado states that baby boomers are to blame for increased horse ownership. Perhaps they are a contributing factor. However, if there are so many more horse owners, why were previously operating horse slaughter plants still killing thousands of horses a month? The answer is overbreeding.

The American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA), who are strongly opposed to a ban on horse slaughter, makes its living registering Quarter Horses, a multi-million dollar enterprise. There are more Quarter Horses bred in this country than any other type. Their high birthrate is fueled by the use of artificial insemination, a practice not condoned by the Thoroughbred industry.

Not coincidentally, slaughterhouse records indicate that 7 out of 10 horses slaughtered in the United States have been America’s Horse, the Quarter Horse. What a yummy thought for Quarter Horse owners who support the killing of horses for their meat every time they register a horse with the AQHA.

This is not a recent trend. Quarter Horses have regularly been the most commonly killed breed in horse slaughter plant history according to available written sources and also confirmed to me by horse slaughter plant managers. It is not surprising that the AQHA are not interested in removing a convenient dumping ground for excesses in Quarter Horse breeding that in turn supports its livelihood.

The AQHA are regularly aided and abetted in their efforts to see that horse slaughter continues by the shameless American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) who say that horse slaughter is humane euthanasia. These are the same people who saw nothing wrong when a chicken farmer destroyed live spent hens in a woodchipper in California.

By definition slaughter is the violent death of an individual. Slaughter is not and cannot be made humane. By no one’s standards can it ever be considered euthanasia, which is the peaceful ending of an individual’s life. If you are in any doubt, standing outside a horse abattoir listening to the screams of the horses will quickly inform you it is anything but placid.

Winter Time Blues and Abandonment

Insofar as there being more horses needing homes, this is an annual winter time occurrence. Ask any horse rescue, sanctuary or animal welfare officer. Droughts, when they occur, certainly make the going tougher. However, horse owners and caregivers have weathered these storms in the past, and will continue to do so.

Abandoned horses? Yes, sadly, horses are abandoned from time to time, just as there are kittens left in a dumpster or puppies on a Convent doorstep. These instances are the failings of humans, not the failings of animals. Subjecting horses to a brutal and terrifying death in a slaughterhouse so their meat can be eaten by foreign diners is not the answer to people shirking their responsibilities and looking for a convenient place to unload them.

Numbers Game

Pro slaughter camps such as the American Horse Council, state horse councils who are chiefly concerned with the interests of breeders, groups such as the so-called Unwanted Horse Coalition, AQHA, AVMA and those of similar ilk, have a proven track record of relying on the number of horses slaughtered for the number of horses unwanted or abandoned. The number of horses killed in slaughterhouses are the number that the plants’ production lines can accommodate. Horses are not bred for slaughter as traditional food animals are. They are supplied by killer buyers who attend auctions on behalf of the plants to buy stock for slaughter, hence the name. 1%-2% of horses butchered monthly, called “walk-ins,” are brought in directly by owners. Horse slaughter is a business, big business to those who own the plants, and not a service to the horse industry and owners as they would have you think.

How You Can Help

Please do what you can to help.

:: Call up your local horse rescue or sanctuary. Find out what they need. Perhaps you can donate a couple of bags of feed, grooming supplies, blankets, or cash to buy a bale or two of hay. Even buckets and sponges are welcome gifts and always needed around a barn. How about volunteering a couple of hours of your time sweeping and cleaning? You do not need experience with horses to do that, but will still get to be in their presence. It will make you feel like a million bucks, help our horses and those devoted to their welfare.

:: Call your U.S. Representative and two Senators in Washington DC. Ask them to quickly act to pass the amendment to the Horse Protection Act banning slaughter and export for slaughter, H.R. 503 (U.S. House) and S. 311 (U.S. Senate). Find who represents you here.

Related Reading

:: Read WSJ article by Paulo Prado.

:: Read Run for Your Lives by John Holland.