I am VERY disappointed that horse lovers would take some of the positions I see on horse slaughter online. Please understand that education is key before stating a position on this topic. Putting out opinions here without factual basis is harmful to horses, rescue and the integrity of the work we do.
We understand everyone will never agree. Sure.
Let me clean up some myths and misunderstandings, as I know some people simply do not realize the errors they make in their statements.
#1. American horses are widely treated with Bute before going to Slaughter in Canada and Mexico. Bute is a carcinogen (causes Cancer), and it never leaves the body. Horses widely receive MANY other treatments routinely in the USA that ARE not safe for animals intended for food. Many of these treatments and medicines NEVER leave the body. THE MEAT IS NOT SAFE. It will never be safe, generally. People pushing for this meat to not be wasted need to understand they are pushing for the poisoning of human beings with that statement. It is like feeding euthanized cats and dogs to people from animal shelters here. It is NOT ethical. We have no business taking part in selling toxic meat over our borders or from within our borders.
#2. SLAUGHTER has never and will never be an answer to starving horses. It has no barring on the number of starving horses in the USA. Slaughter, when it operated in the USA, killed the same and sometimes FEWER numbers of horses than we see being shipped over the borders now. Since the numbers of horses being brutally slaughtered has risen and the numbers of neglected horses only rises, we KNOW through hard data, SLAUGHTER doesn’t improve Equine Welfare. Not by a long shot. It never will.
#3. Sick, skinny and old HORSES are NOT what slaughter buyers purchase. They purchase healthy, heavy/fat horses. Period. They are looking for and buying the HORSES in good shape. NOT the body score 1, 2, 3 horses. Their profit would be too reduced to even make it worth buying free and cheap Starving horses and putting the time and money into them to fatten them up. This is not just something we know through common sense, but we have purchased many a skinny horse from trader/kill type buyers because they are worthless to them. They will not bother hauling them to slaughter. The idea that slaughter gives a profitable, reasonable end to the old, skinny and/or sickly type horse is a Myth! A Myth. Nothing more. That isn’t the horse type they are buying. I’ve been going to auctions for nearly 30 years. I know a few things about the market.
#4. Slaughter is really simply about Money. Profit. That is all. BIG breeders and registry associations want To see the USA market opened back up because the price per LB is more for the massive, overbreeding culls than if they have to go over the border. Cull in this case means the horse is a healthy, perfectly acceptable horse for 95% of Horse owners, but it didn’t suit the Perfect model those Overbreeding has in mind. A paint without the perfect markings, a QH that didn’t rein as well as they hoped. . .Learn WHY slaughter happens and WHY some Horse people Push for it. It is about the Dollar. It isn’t about ethics or Equine welfare.
Please be fair to the work we do and not come to this page and push for something that boils down to those overbreeding making MORE money on the backs of misuse of horses. That is a slap in the face to those of us who work tirelessly for Equine Welfare constantly as volunteers.