Horse Slaughter

On March 12, Senators Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Representatives Patrick Meehan (R-Pa.) and Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) introduced the Safeguard American Food Exports Act, which would ban the slaughter of horses for human consumption in the United States and prohibit the transport, export or import of horses intended for slaughter or horsemeat.

On Nov. 18, President Obama signed into law an agriculture appropriations bill, which, among many other provisions, lifted a 5-year prohibition on funding for U.S. Department of Agriculture inspections at horse processing facilities.

What would have happened to the approximately 130,000 horses that were slaughtered in 2010 if slaughter hadn’t been an option? Would banning slaughter create a huge influx of unwanted horses? Would the horses potentially suffer even worse fates, starving to death or being let loose? The questions are even harder to answer since 2007, the first year without domestic slaughter, was also the year of a major economic downturn.

Once horses bound for slaughter reach the slaughterhouses, it's not clear whether they’re being humanely killed. Most slaughterhouses use captive bolt guns to drive a metal rod into the center of the horse’s head after the horses are herded through chutes into the “kill area.”

There are currently four Canadian slaughterhouses and three in Mexico. At either border, the horses are unloaded for processing and then re-loaded into a sealed trailer bound for their final stop. The conditions in which they ship and the distance they travel are just a few of the problems with the current slaughter pipeline.

For horse people, there are few topics more controversial than slaughter.

When a government report was released June 22, it didn’t tell anyone seriously involved on either side of the debate anything they didn’t already know. But the report did frame the situation perfectly by recommending either closing the channel of slaughter from the United States or re-opening domestic slaughterhouses.

Nebraska has joined the list of states making legislature changes on the issue of horse slaughter. A proposed bill introduced by Nebraska state senator Tyson Larson would require the state’s Department of Agriculture put a meat inspection program into effect by 2013.

Larson, whose family owns a ranch and raises roping horses in O’Neill, Nev., argued that the state’s 2007 closing of meat processing plants caused the equine surplus problem, which he links to abandonment and abuse.

Canada has proposed a bill that would end horse slaughter for human consumption in the country. Additionally, the bill would stop the import and export of horses for slaughter from other countries, including the United States.

Two coolers of meat found Wednesday in Miami-Dade County, Fla., have been confirmed to contain horsemeat.

Officers discovered the coolers in a van, parked in a Miami neighborhood known for the sale of black market horsemeat. The U.S. Department of Agriculture conducted tests on the meat and confirmed it to be horse. A bag containing horse legs was later found in the vehicle.

Florida Governor Charlie Crist signed the Florida Horse Protection Bill into law on Friday, May 14. This law prohibits the mutilation or killing of any horse and outlaws the transport, distribution, sale or purchase of horsemeat for human consumption. It goes into effect July 1, 2010, as Chapter 2010-87 of Florida Statutes.

Delinquents will face a felony minimum penalty of $3,500 and one year in prison.