The Horse Forum - My essay on Horse Slaughter

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My essay on Horse Slaughter

Ok let me say this first: There are many varying opinions about horse slaughter and I respect that. In my college writing class we were asked to write an argument/persuasive paper on a topic of our choice. So what better than to choose horse slaughter as a topic! This is my opinion only, not posting it to shove it down anyone's throat. My opinion, as well as anyone else's is not wrong or right. Just making that clear as this is such a touchy topic (especially on a horse forum ha!)
Anyways, I just thought I’d share with my fellow horse enthusiasts. Please enjoy reading!

Quote:

Ask anyone in the equine industry today, and they would most likely all agree that there is a huge problem with horse over population in the United States. It has been an ongoing issue for the past few years. There are several factors as too why there are so many unwanted horses. There are also several solutions to fix the problem in the equine market. Breeders, trainers, horse brokers, owners, and basically anyone involved with horses want to solve the problem.
One of the factors due to the increase of unwanted horses is the poor economy. Horse ownership has turned into a luxury, because of the cost of maintenance. Horses can't be sustained on just grass from a field. They require hay, grain, vitamins, and possibly additional supplements on top of that. Hay and grain prices have risen, because of the high cost of diesel fuel used to harvest, and transport the product. Boarding a horse at a horse stable runs anywhere from three hundred and fifty dollars, to four hundred and fifty dollars per month, and up depending on quality of care. Since the cost of owning a horse has become so pricey, many people have decided to not own horses anymore. Simply selling a horse, or even giving it away isn't an easy thing to do. There is very little interest in any horse trading.
People are breeding more horses than there are homes for. Breeding horses has become a popular hobby for many people involved in the equine industry. Many breeding farms, or horse owners breed anywhere from five to twenty or more foals a year. Larger scale breeding farms may breed a hundred or more foals in a year. The American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA), is one of the biggest horse registries in the world. Nearly one hundred and fifty thousand new foals are registered each year in that registry alone. There are approximately three hundred equine registries in the United States. Each one of these registries has breeders who produce new foals each year. When you consider the amount of foals born under each registry, and as well as foals from unregistered horses there are nearly (if not more) a million new foals being born each year.
One of the most controversial solutions to stop the problem of over population is slaughter. In 2007, the remaining equine slaughter plants in the United States were shut down because of the lack of funding to pay USDA to inspect the meat. Many people involved with the dying horse market believe that by bringing funding back to bring slaughter back to the United States, the unwanted horses such as the old, sick, crippled, and dangerous can be easily disposed of, and make the horse market slowly revive. However, after the USDA quit inspecting the meat, thousands of American horses are being shipped to Canada and Mexico to be slaughtered.
Many believe that slaughtering horses is a humane way to relive the excess unwanted horse population quickly. Since it’s us who bred so many horses, it’s our responsibility to reduce the numbers while utilizing the meat for food, and bi-products for other uses. Anyways, what’s the difference of slaughtering pigs, cows, chickens, goats, and sheep? They are all livestock. Slaughtering horses is a cheaper option than euthanizing them, as it can cost two hundred or more dollars to euthanize and dispose of the body. Because the cost of euthanasia, unwanted horses may starve to death if the owner cannot find them a home or afford food. Slaughtering them would mean less suffering.
Many people like to believe that the only horses used for slaughter are the old, crippled, sick, dangerous, or miserable horses. While some are old, lame or sick, hundreds of horses killed are young, healthy, ride able and fit. USDA/APHIS studied and recorded 92% of American horses killed in American Slaughter Plants were in good health. Kill buyers sell horses to the Slaughter Plants by the pound; therefore they prefer a normal weight horse over a skinny horse. “Wild for Life’s” case study revealed that seventy percent of all registered Thoroughbred foals born are slaughtered each foal crop.
Unlike the old, crippled, sick and used up dairy cow you eat in your hamburger, the majority of horses slaughtered are rejects from breeding farms (rejects meaning that they weren't born a desired color, gender, size, or the right body type/conformation), untrained youngsters, broke saddle horses, show horses, breeding horses, race horses, pet horses, 4-h horses, wild horses, or PMU foals.
Meat buyers pack as many horses as they possibly can fit into trucks designed for hauling of livestock such as goats, sheep, pigs, and cattle. Often during transport , double decker trucks are used, which are outlawed in the United States as a way to transport horses for slaughter. These trailers are not designed to accommodate average sized horses. The horses spend long hour trips hunched over, packed tightly together through extreme climates such as excessive heat, and bitter cold. Horses on the bottom deck often get showered in manure and urine.
Death and injury is not uncommon during transport. Horses can become injured from kicks, falls, being slammed into walls, or hitting their head. Livestock trailers also have low set ventilation openings in which horses can get their hooves caught in resulting in broken legs. Some of these livestock trucks are roofless, exposing horses to the elements such as rain, snow, or beating sun. These types of trucks also endanger horses of breaking their necks, or decapitation from road signs, over passes, traffic, low branches, and more. Horse's do not receive food, or water in transport which sometimes can be over four hours at a time.
The slaughtering process is fairly similar to that of a cow. A captive bolt strikes the animal, to knock it unconscious. However, a study shown proves that the captive bolt is much more ineffective on a horse versus a cow as it is more difficult to get an accurate shot on a horse since they are not restrained like cattle are. This is because a horse has a longer neck, and has more ability to struggle and move. Also, horse's brains are set back further than a cow, which means the captive bolt, or gun must be positioned at the correct angle, and distance to accurately kill the animal. Most of the time, it takes several attempts before the animal is actually dead. Some slaughter plant's kill horses with a gunshot to the head, but this doesn't make for a fast or instantaneous death either. Several shots may need to be applied to the horse and often it is left conscious while it flounders on the ground until the horse bleeds to death.
Mexican Slaughter Plants have no standards or regulations. The horses are either killed by gunshot, captive bolt, or a hand held spike is repeatedly stabbed into the horses back or wither area to sever the spinal cord. The last method mentioned does not kill the horse, but instead immobilizes the conscious horse. The horse remains conscious through the bleeding out, and skinning process.
By looking in my horse's First Aid box I found many chemicals, and substances that have "Do not use on horses intended for human consumption" labels on them. Some of the toxic and deadly substances that remain in horse meat is fly spray (a toxic insecticide that is absorbed through the skin or be given to the horse orally), de-worming treatments, and prescription medications. Horses are not raised as food animals in the United States and removal of the horses treated with these banned substances is inadequate as there are no testing procedures to determine if the horse is “toxic”.
Humans who eat horse meat are at a high risk for being poisoned by one of the many FDA banned substances used on horses prior to being processed. One of the most common and serious drug used on horses is Phenylbutazone, known better as "bute". On horses it's used as a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug, developed for treating severe cases of arthritis, and for other reasons but it was found to cause serious and lethal idiosyncratic adverse effects in humans.
Many horses slaughtered were previously race horses, or riding horses, and the chances of them having been treated with something such as bute or any other veterinary chemicals or substances is quite likely. It can take anywhere up to sixty or more days for the toxic substances to wear off. Horses stand in kill pens for only a few short days before being processed, nowhere near long enough for the substances to wear off. Both Mexican and Canadian Slaughter Plants claim to test horses for the banned substances but upon several studies, F.V.O found several violations at the plants.
Isn't it better for the unwanted horses to be killed rather than starve to death in its pasture? The horse's owner should be responsible for the horse, and letting the horse starve to death because the owner cannot afford to feed it is irresponsible. While it is difficult in this tough economy, there is always something the owner can do. Some 501c horse rescues hold “low cost euthanasia clinics” to the public, where veterinarians are willing to euthanize the horse and dispose of the body for a reduced amount. In some states, some horse rescues also have “hay banks” which are food banks for horses. If horse owners are having difficulty feeding his or her’s horses, they can get free hay to help them feed the horses until they are financially stable and can afford their own.
Another option for horse owners is to make it public. While it is a very troubling economy, posting the horse on a free online classified service or even Facebook, may find the horse a home. There are a lot of online forums that network with each other. Horses that are danger of starving can be shared across the country to millions of people within seconds. More times than not, there is someone who will take the horse.
Won't re-opening slaughter bring more money to the U.S.? This is a yes and no answer. Yes, it will provide low skilled workers with jobs. However, the three Slaughter Plants previously in business (Dallas Crown in Kauffman, Texas and Beltax Corporation in Fort Worth, Texas and Cavel International in DeKalb, Illinois) were all owned by Belgian owners. Each year the United States exported more than forty-two million dollars of horse meat, and the majority of the profits would go to the foreign owners.
Horse slaughter is a cruel, and unnecessary solution to fixing the problem of unwanted horses in the United States. The only way to humanely reduce the number of horses is too stop breeding large amounts of new foals each year. Until horse breeders, and owners realize that breeding even just one less foal a year can affect the future, we will continue to have the ongoing problem of starving, homeless horses.

Great essay, I agree with a lot of it but you could definitely be using some commas instead of periods in some places. Sorry if you didn't want any kind of critique, I'm just an English nerd :)
Posted via Mobile Device

No problem, comas are my nightmare! I'm going to have a tutor edit it tommorrow.

It is not an essay but a biased rant written by someone with an agenda. Much of it is inaccurate and is taken directly from the biased agenda of the animal rights nuts. Their real agenda is to stop ALL livestock, horse and pet ownership.

Fraudulent organizations like PETA, HSUS and ALF, that also frequently contain animal terrorists, have worked to spread the lies and half-truths that you are repeating.

I suggest that if you really want to write a credible paper that YOU actually research and look to other sources than the animal rights nuts with an agenda. Check the AVMA and the AAEP websites. They are licensed Veterinarians with no agenda other than to help animals and relieve suffering.

I also suggest that you personally contact a dozen 'country Vets'. These are the Veterinarians that practice out of small clinics in rural areas where they doctor large and small animals. They are NOT the big equine centers that doctor high-dollar show and race horses.

I HAVE visited with many of them. They ALL say that their horse business dropped off from 75% to 90% after the slaughter plants closed and horses lost their value. They will all tell you that cheaper horses get little or no Vet care now because horses are so cheap people will just let them die and replace them.

Look up slaughter numbers and prices during the last recession. In the late 80s, 350,000 horses were sent to slaughter per year. Another result of the 'supply and demand' cycle that is happening now. The only thing different then is that a fat slaughter horse was worth $900.00 to $1000.00 so people kept them fat and well-cared for and did not starve any of them to death.

So, if you want to write a paper, try actually researching it and get both sides of the story. Your paper now is getting both sides of the story from one side -- the animal rights activists biased and untruthful side.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cherie (Post 1395438)

Yes, It is biased. We were required to slant it towards our opinion, and in our conclusion our thesis statement needed to clearly state our opinion (Perhaps I should have clarified that).

I never quoted or used information from PETA, HSUS, or ALF (I haven't even heard of ALF).

So why are you more interested in bias than truth?

Why would you not want to even know what statements in your paper are completely false and untrue? This alone tells me that you are not interested in the truth but just want to write a biased rant. There is a difference between bias and spreading untruthful rants put out by other biased people.

Everything you say as fact comes straight off of PETA and HSUS talking points and from their propaganda. So, where do you think it came from? What research did you do to come up with these conclusions? If you authoritatively quote 'facts', you should know where those 'facts' came from.

By the way, ALF ( stands for Animal Liberation Front). It is a terrorist animal rights group that has used fire (arson) to destroy laboratories that housed animals used for testing things like human drugs for safety. [They killed all of the animals, by the way.]

They are also suspected of torching the Cavel Horse Processing Plant in Illinois. It was definitely destroyed by arson.

Crimson88''
I see you done your work well.. Its not how you wrote your letter its how you have the FACTS''
Pro slaughter groups always call names like TreeHugger, Goodoers, Terrorist, Bleeding Hearts etc. They will do all they can to derail what really needs to be done. ABOLISH HORSE SLAUGHTER and Create ways to educate the uneducated or Jail Criminals that continue to break laws without reward payments for slaughter..

For example Leroy Baker of OHIO an Auctioneer that owns and operates SugarCreek owes over $162,000 in unpaid fines and continues to operate..

Why are criminals allowed to be protected well its because some consider horses livestock this removes any protection as a dog or cat have..

OH Cheri recommends credit to the AVMA and the AAEP well they do support the ban on double deckers which many horses have died on HWY in route to slaughter.

Im sure if Cheri's love ones were in a vehicle that collided with a legal operating driver in a double decker she would sing a different story..

FACT is I can bet she is in the Rodeo ties or breeding Association ties a puppet for an irresponsible organization that has NO HISTORY of promoting or donating to any horse rescue in the US.

According to a release (FOIA) from USDA which clearly shows the condition horses arrived at the plants. Very few were thin Most were young and healthy. Good horses so they lied to the public.

Oh did I mention they operated illegal in Texas for years and we tax payers paid these foreigners inspectors which total a cost of $5 Million a year.

Or did any one mention that even thou the same amount of horses go to slaughter now they still cry we need slaughter in the US. NOT fact is these irresponsible people know they can make more money thats the FACTS..

They do NOT care for the horses if they did you would see the AQHA, APHA, AVMA, AAEP,Race Industry,Breeders set a fee in place to assist horse rescues.

Want to see a growing economy STOP rewarding criminals and create fees for rescues coming from a live horse such as Horse trailer sells,Tack,Park Permits,Auction sells, Breeding, Racing,Showing etc. You name it but these people WONT.. Its show me the money only..

Pure Greed and irresponsible people..

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cherie (Post 1395497)

So why are you more interested in bias than truth?

Why would you not want to even know what statements in your paper are completely false and untrue?

Everything you say as fact comes straight off of PETA and HSUS talking points and their propaganda. So, where do you think it came from?

I assume that you are pro-slaughter. So say my essay was in favor of slaughter, and someone who is agaisnt it said my information was biased. It would still be biased because that would still be my opinion. It doesn't matter what side of the issue I take (or anyone else takes) because it's an opinion and people's opinions are biased.

Here are the citations for my essay:
Unwanted Horse Coalition
www.alphahorse.com/horse-slaughter.html
Horse Slaughterhouses May Reopen After Five Year Ban - ABC News
Horse slaughter - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Americans Don't Eat Horses

There are several factual errors in your paper. I didn't read the whole thing because it's not very well written and I couldn't bring myself to wade through it. Wild horses are freeze branded and are not allowed to be sold to slaughter. It's very well enforced.

Double decker trucks are NOT illegal for transporting horses and they have solid floors that don't allow feces and urine to fall down on the lower deck. A grown man can almost stand up straight in the lowest compartment. Horses wouldn't be able to lift thier head way up but they're not terribly uncomfortable.

The Canadian government studied the drug residue found in horses, cattle and pigs and the horses were 98% drug residue free, the highest of the three. There could very easily be withdrawl protocalls put in place by the Canadian or U.S. governments. The processors and feedlots are already using withdrawl protocalls.

Good luck with your paper. Hopefully your teacher won't know anything more about the issue than you do. You have every right to your opinion but you shouldn't lie to try to make your point or believe the lies of others. Think for yourself. You listed a series of sites that are absolutely biased, did you not think to check thier facts?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Airspace1 (Post 1395522)

Crimson88''

.....FACT is I can bet she is in the Rodeo ties or breeding Association ties a puppet for an irresponsible organization that has NO HISTORY of promoting or donating to any horse rescue in the US.

.....They do NOT care for the horses if they did you would see the AQHA, APHA, AVMA, AAEP,Race Industry,Breeders set a fee in place to assist horse rescues...

The AQHA has a program called "Full Circle" where AQHA horse owners and breeders can follow a horse they've sold and offer it a retirement home after its career is finished. This is even better than funding rescues, as it frees up the rescues for those whose original breeders/owners are not responsible.

To my knowledge, the US Humane Society does not provide financial support for horse rescues. They do follow-up on allegations of cruelty and work with animal control, but they do not provide money to actually take care of the animals. That's up to cities, not-for-profits, and animal lovers to fund, while the Humane Society uses funds for lobbying for laws to promote their agenda.