Kill buyer busted in SC for transporting horses without Coggins

Justin White, 26, buys horses for slaughter but resells some. White has five animal cruelty charges pending in S. Carolina in addition to the Coggins violations. (Photo: Tonya Maxwell / tmaxwell@citizen-times.com)

The Citizen-Times story opens this way:

A Polk County man who prides himself on giving second chances to horses destined for slaughter is facing a possible suspension of his livestock dealer’s license after state officials said he failed to perform required disease tests on animals.

Basically this guy is buying horses across the country and transporting them without a Coggins.

North Carolina already has assessed $7,500 in fines against Justin Scott White. State Veterinarian Doug Meckes noted officials repeatedly warned the owner of Carolina Feedlots in Columbus that he had failed to produce required records on horses.

I suppose he feels paying for the paperwork is not necessary as he trades in horses for slaughter and even if caught wouldn’t be fined as most would see these horses as already dead. That’s one of the many cruel injustices horses face in the slaughter pipeline.

On his travels White says he picks out horses who are in good condition that he figures he can sell for a good price and takes them out of the slaughter pipeline.

Although this guy says he is not a horse rescue – let’s be grateful for that at least – he calls that saving horses from slaughter. That’s one way to spin it, and it’s a big spin.

White registered his Columbus-based business in March 2015, and through it buys horses at auction, it later transports the animals to Texas. From there, they are shipped for slaughter in Mexico.

On return trips from Texas, he usually buys equines, bringing a trailer load back to North Carolina, White told the Citizen-Times in June.

He sells some horses, mules and donkeys after posting them on his Carolina Feedlots Facebook page. Horses able to be ridden are generally priced in the $1,000 range.

This is a common story that goes hand and hand with horse slaughter and illustrates the predatory nature of it.

Horses are not bred for slaughter like other animals. Most horses bound for slaughter are brought to the slaughterhouses by contract buyers, also known as kill buyers, who drive around the country buying horses at auction. Yet that is not the only way they procure horses.

There are numerous scams that kill buyers use. So if someone is willing to take a horse off your hands who you can no longer afford for a couple hundred bucks or nothing at all – saying he can find a good home for him – this is more than likely where your horse is headed.

According to a study commissioned by USDA/APHIS when horses were still being slaughtered in the U.S., 92% of American horses being slaughtered at US plants studied were in good health. The study observed 100% of the horses in sixty-three trailer loads arriving at two slaughter plants in Texas during July and August of 1998. (Source)

Rarely are these horses sick and injured as horses like these cannot withstand the long, crowded transportation conditions to slaughter plants.

About 90% of the horsemeat is exported for human consumption overseas, where it sells for approximately the same price as veal. The rest goes to zoos. Horse meat was outlawed in pet food in the 1970s.

A lady called Deb left this link is comments to the article:
https://www.facebook.com/Carolina-feedlots-SCAM-Stories-1569629550013982/?fref=ts

Read full article here:
http://www.citizen-times.com/story/news/local/2016/08/02/horse-slaughter-dealer-faces-nc-fines/87945296/

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