Writing for the American Veterinary Medical Association’s Journal, MALINDA LARKIN points out that the slaughter of horses is down since the recent decade’s all time high of 140,911. However, with increases in horse slaughter production in Canada and Mexico, Larkin points out:
From 2001-2009, the mean number of horses slaughtered each year was 97,954. So while this past year’s total is below average, the number of horses slaughtered in Mexico and Canada is historically high, making up for the lack of production in the United States.
According to government reports, in 2009 approximately 52,000 American horses were exported to Canada for slaughter for human consumption, and 46,000 to Mexico, totaling around 98,000.
That puts paid to the arguments that there has been an increase in abused, neglected and abandoned horses or the bottom has fallen out of the horse market because American horses are no longer being slaughtered since the last plant operating on U.S. soil closed in 2007.
The article also takes a look at some of the legislative measures pending on the horse slaughter issue. It is not a comprehensive list.
Read the article in full at the AVMA’s website at http://www.avma.org/onlnews/javma/may10/100515o.asp
Tuesday's Horse 
Is the ONLY method of dealing with ‘excess’ American Horses to slaughter them? Because it seems to me that this is the only alternative being considered in those states wanting legislation to make it legal again.
I’ve read of no other recourse, no other viable options put forth except the barbarous, unskilled carnage wreaked by ‘processing’ these animals.
For example, could it be possible to demand that breeders, in their fervent efforts to create the perfect Horse, be permanently responsible for every Horse they put on the ground rather than enable them to breed without restraint?
Or facilities who utilize pregnant mares for pharmaceutical companies be responsible for the care, in perpetuity, of the foals produced by the need to maintain their ‘cash crop’?
Or are Horses, Wild or Domestic, so trivial that the logical conclusion to a life of service, slavery or captivity is to end up as an edible product because it’s simply easier than insistence of responsibility?
I don’t understand how the majority of those with wealth and power have become so insipid or ravening when it comes to issues of the Horse. No other creatures, save the wolf and the buffalo, seem to bring out the very worst in moronic politics & ludicrous legislation.
And I believe if this legislation is allowed to pass, we will see an entirely new realm in crime and criminal behavior. Witness the recent Florida incident where domestic Horses were being butchered and sold on the Black Market: Remains of some of the animals found were companion animals, stolen, slaughtered & dismembered, packaged up for sale as meat.
And the unwillingness of previous ‘legal’ slaughterhouses to comply with environmental pollution standards, simply allowing the waste to flow freely into water tables, the stench permeating the surrounding communities.
Some would have the Public believe this legislation is because they care for the Horse – that slaughter is somehow the antithesis of abuse or neglect. Which defies, at least in my puny little Horse-lover mind, logic.
Lastly, I would charge those seeking to bring slaughterhouses of this kind back into production: Take a week. Follow the chain. Not from the comfort and cleanliness of your office. Follow the route of the ‘excess’ or ‘unwanted’ Horse. From acquisition to transport to participation in the actual execution of the animals you seem to be trying so desperately to overlook. Show me the blood on your hands. Then tell me this is the only feasible method of dealing with ‘excess’ Horses.
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This is just sad….the majority of Canadians, just like the US, is against horse slaughter. I don’t know about Mexican philosophy but I do know that our country is fighting for a ban on it just as the US has done so successfully, even with people like the “Slaughterhouse Sues” petitioning for it. It is a long road but I feel that Canadian’s will get there as well…..it is only a matter of time. We are all for the same outcome so please don’t condemn us. We are behind but not without the same compassion as our US neighbours!!!
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