Exporting the suffering and slaughter of horses

This year 100,000 horses will be shipped from the USA to Mexico or Canada to be slaughtered for human consumption in parts of Asia and Europe. 

Warning! The video below has graphic content, viewer discretion is advised.

Horses are viewed in the U.S. as being more like pets and companions, consuming them is largely taboo. Banning American horse slaughter houses (abattoirs) in 2007 was largely fueled by pressure on local municipalities from their constituents. This action, which had the best of intentions, caused horse meat exporters to move their operations just across the border to Mexico and Canada. The horses are packed into metal shipping containers and transported thousands of miles in over-crowded conditions, abused and then slaughtered the same way cows are: stunned with a captive bolt gun then their neck is slit and they bleed to death. Of course, this is if things go according to plan and run smoothly. But, there are many cases where the horse is not stunned when its throat is cut and a recent report from PETA shows a horse so frightened it rears up and tries to escape before being tied up and killed.

Supply and demand
Most of the horses sent to slaughter are used up race horses. They are usually still full of vitality and are not injured or lame. However, they are not in their racing prime - so owners sell them at auctions, most of them end up in slaughter houses. It is reported that even Kentucky Derby winners such as Ferdinand were sold to slaughterhouses. A racehorse typically races for two years during its racing prime then is either used as a stud for a few years and then sent to a slaughterhouse after it has outlived its usefulness or is sent directly to slaughter at the tender age of five. With the horse racing industry being worth $115 billion and 125 horse tracks operating in the United States alone, there is a large supply of unwanted horses.


In parts of Europe and Asia, horse meat is considered a delicacy and fetches roughly $20 a pound in the market. The demand is high enough to warrant the slaughter of almost 5 million horses per year for human consumption in countries such as China, Italy, France and Japan. These animals are treated no differently to other animals raised for slaughter; they are housed in dirty crowded conditions with little space to move, abused by handlers and slaughterhouse workers, then eventually killed.


The right thing to do
It seems incredible that humans have developed the ability to communicate across the globe, cure innumerable diseases, and travel beyond the Earth, but have held on to archaic, barbaric practices. How can we continue to justify to ourselves that using animals for our entertainment and causing them intense anguish is okay or that we do it because we have the "power" over these creatures? Even if you want to make a Judeo-Christian religious argument for treatment of animals, on the grounds that God gave humans dominion over animals, it does not give permission to torture animals or slaughter them in massive numbers. It would seem to me the Christian God is a creator and any creation from such an entity should be respected.


We have within us the knowledge and virtue of justice, a uniquely human attribute. Our sense of justice and our consciousness endows us with the ability to see the consequences of our actions - for example, the unjust nature of slavery and torture of any creature - and rectify our behavior. To live our lives in perpetual ignorance and seek only what brings us pleasure, disregarding the pain and suffering of others, is base and ignores what it means to be human.


In the U.S., Contact your Representative or Senator and tell them to support legislation: S. 1176: American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act of 2011, now circulating in the Senate to ban the export of live horses to Mexico and Canada for slaughter. 


Withholding your monetary support for horse racing and signing petitions will also help to curb the supply of horses to the international horse meat industry.
Here is another petition
Petition in Australia
Petition in Ireland
Petition in EU

In the U.S., there are also multiple organizations that facilitate the rehabilitation and adoption of race horses here are a few:
http://www.horseadoption.com/
http://www.racehorsereclaim.com/
http://www.canterusa.org/
http://www.rerun.org/