There are worse things than dying
“It’s not the way horses feel about us, it’s the way we feel about them.”
All living creatures will die. That is a universal fact of life. Most people would agree that a peacful death from nautural causes would be the preferred way to go, however, a prolonged demise from starvation is the end that a large population of American horses are facing today.
Equine industry professionals agree that the overpopulation of unwanted horses in the United States is an ongoing issue for the industry. The equine industry has over a $140 billion direct and indirect impact on the economy. The equine industry provides just under one million jobs, with one in 63 people involved in the equine industry, and brings in $1.9 billion in tax revenue, said Saundra Ten Broeck, University of Florida assistant professor and equine extension specialist.
“The Journal of Animal Science estimates that up to as many as 100,000 horses may go unwanted per year, though there is no definite number,” said Dagmar Caramello, the director of the Unwanted Horse Coalition.
The reasons a horse may become unwanted include loss of use due to health issues, injury and aging, as well as an owner no longer being able to financially care for the horse. Unmanageable or dangerous horses are also among the unwanted, Caramello said.
Rescue, re-homing and euthanasia are the current options for an unwanted horse. Unfortunately these options are exhausted; horses are not selling, rescues are full and disposing of a carcass after euthanasia is expensive.
“The Unwanted Horse Coalition’s 2009 Unwanted Horses Survey reported that 39 percent of rescue/adoption facilities were at maximum capacity,” Caramello said. “Rescue/adoption facilities reported that they were turning away an average of 38 percent of the horses brought to them.”
No realistic plan has been developed to address the overpopulation of unwanted horses. Due to the lack of options, reported cases of abandoned horses have increased. Many people have resorted to turning horses loose on federal or private land, said Cia Johnson, the assistant director of animal welfare for the American Veterinary Medical Association.
The cost of caring for a horse can range from $1,500 to $5,000 per year, Caramello said. It would take funding from the state or federal level to manage the unwanted horses in America. However, that is a low priority in comparison to the other political and economic issues currently faced in America, Johnson said.
“Right now we do not have a good option for these unwanted horses,” Johnson said. “That is why the American Veterinary Medical Association continues to keep a neutral position on horse slaughter as a whole.”
Slaughter of horses is not illegal in the United States, however, Congress has banned the United States Department of Agriculture from spending federal funds to inspect horse slaughter, and without inspection the meat cannot be sold. This resulted in the closing of all horse slaughterhouses in America, Johnson said.
“The ban is interpreted as we have legislation against horse slaughter, but that’s actually not what we have,” Johnson said. “We do not have clear guidance on where we are going with this issue as a country.”
Due to the unclear legislation on horse slaughter, thousands of American horses are being sent out to Mexico and Canada for slaughter. At this point the number of American horses being sent to slaughter is no less than when processing plants were open in the United States. The problem with this is the horses are making a longer haul and are no longer under the protection of United States legislation on humane slaughter, Johnson said.
"When it is outside of our control, we do not have any say on how these animals are being slaughtered,” Johnson said.
Horses are classified as livestock animals, and, physiologically, the slaughter of horses and the slaughter of other livestock animals is the same, Ten Broeck said. However, a negative connotation is still associated with horse slaughter in the United States.
“It’s not the way horses feel about us,” Ten Broeck said. “It’s the way we feel about them.”
The United States already has tight regulations when it comes to the humane transport and harvest of horses, Ten Broeck said. Training handlers to understand horse behavior is an important factor in the humane transportation and harvest of horses. Transportation from holding pens to the stun box is where the most care needs to be taken in insuring the welfare of the horse, Johnson said.
Once in the stun box, animals are rendered unconscious by means of captive bolt, which is an effective form of euthanasia for horses, Ten Broeck said.
“Captive bolt is one of the easiest and cleanest methods to euthanize an animal,” Johnson said.
If horse slaughterhouses were reopened in the United States, strict regulation and inspection on humane transport and handling would be necessary, Johnson said. The issue of drug residue would also have to be addressed to insure the safety of the meat. Canada has effective practices when it comes to dealing with drug residue, and these practices could be used in America, she said.
“Humane horse slaughter is possible,” Johnson said. “It requires proper management, oversight and auditing. It has to be a mindset of continuous improvement."
Ten Broeck also said that humane slaughter of horses is possible. Horse slaughter in the United states is not about raising horses for human consumption, but about the unwanted horse, she said.
“There are worse things than dying,” Ten Broeck said.
