The Race Back to Slaughter
There is an ugly urgency with which proponents from various
agriculture and even a few "humane" sectors are working to bring horse
slaughter back to the United States.
Last month slaughter proponents in Congress tacked a provision onto a larger government spending bill that lifted a five-year ban
on funding U.S. Department of Agriculture inspections at horse
slaughterhouses, which had shut down the last two operating in Texas and
Illinois. But now individual states, mostly out west, are jumping at
the chance to reopen slaughter plants.
Why
the rush to turn Mr. Ed into Mr. Dead? It seems there are a variety of
excuses but no real reasons other than greed and convenience. Several
factors contribute to the "horse problem," but they originate with human
deeds and culminate with butchered steeds.
Yes, the economy (and
in some places, drought) is making it difficult for some people to
properly care for their horses. The fact that horses live much longer
than cats and dogs means that these large companion animals require an
even longer commitment of care. Existing sanctuaries are filling up, and
not enough individuals or agencies are stepping forward to provide
additional care, even if it's temporary. (Anybody got Ted Turner's
number?)
Yes, the horse industry has a long history of relying on
foreign meat markets to take tens of thousands of surplus or used-up
horses off their hands each year (of course getting paid for the
privilege). And by horse industry I mean anyone who makes use of horses
for one purpose or another, personal or commercial, and then wants to
discard those animals when they become sick, unprofitable or
inconvenient. Which they do, because there's always a fresh supply.
The
racing industry, for example, has been criticized for overbreeding
horses for the sake of birthing the next Triple Crown winner; the only
trouble is, the racing life of a horse is very short, and although much
is made of big winners going out to stud, the losers (or the ones who
never even make it to the track) often go out the back door to the horse
auction with a one-way ticket to an overseas freezer. The International
Fund for Horses estimates that a third of all slaughtered horses come from the racing industry.
An excellent analysis by Milt Toby, an attorney and horse enthusiast, notes that figures cited in a recent GAO report
on the effect of closing U.S. horse slaughter plants has not resulted
in an overpopulation of horses (as slaughter defenders predicted); in
fact, more (not fewer) are being slaughtered in Canada and Mexico.
There's
also the carriage horse and show horse industries as well as horses
used by outfitters, summer camps, rodeos, farmers and the "pet" trade.
Anyone who breeds horses and uses them for any reason should be held
accountable for their lifelong care and their end-of-life care,
including humane euthanasia and burial or cremation. If funding is an
issue, put the burden on the breeders, the racetracks and other
commercial interests to help fund more sanctuaries and other provisions
for humane care.
Slaughter advocates note that as a society we
allow people to discard unwanted cats and dogs at shelters where they
are killed by the millions, and that's a similar ethical issue. But
because horses are used for profit in ways that cats and dogs are not,
there's an additional moral imperative to repay that involuntary "service" with something other than a cruel, premature death.
Which
brings up the argument made by some (including PETA) that banning horse
slaughter in the U.S. doesn't spare these horses from suffering, it
just takes that suffering across our borders into countries where we
have no oversight. They have a point, to a point -- I've read
descriptions of Mexican horse slaughter, and it's horrifying. But U.S.
horse slaughter (and transport) was never considered humane either. Does
anyone who knows anything about how brutally cows, pigs, chickens and
other
"livestock" are killed in this country really think that a
resumption of horse slaughter is going to be magically merciful? Yeah,
me neither.
So the logical conclusion to all of this isn't to
bring slaughter back to the U.S., it's to stop allowing our horses from
being slaughtered commercially anywhere, which is where the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act
currently in Congress comes in. This pending legislation would get the
United States out of the horse slaughter business for good, and help
make our policies toward horses more humane and ethically consistent.
The key will be whether humane groups and the public put a stop to this
race back to slaughter before the first starting gun goes off.
People bet on horses all the time. We owe all horses better odds.
Jill Howard Church, 12-26-11
Published by admin on 12/26/2011 12:51:44
