US Capitol / Wikimedia Commons Image
Legislation to permanently ban horse slaughter in the United States has been introduced by a bipartisan group of U.S. senators. The proposed bill would also ban the transportation of horses for slaughter. Congress effectively ended all horse slaughter in the country about ten years ago, but the General Accounting Office (GAO) reported that horse welfare suffered as a result.
The new bill―Save America’s Forgotten Equines (SAFE)―is sponsored by U.S. Senators Susan Collins, R-Maine, Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, Robert Menendez, D-New Jersey, and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-Rhode Island. Senator Whitehouse, for one, is certainly knowledgeable about equine issues. His father, Charles, a former ambassador, served as Master of the Orange County Hounds (VA) after retiring from foreign service.
While the bill is crafted to save horses’ lives, the real question is will it solve the underlying problem of unwanted horses? Or will those horses’ lives become even more tragic because humane euthanasia is denied? Without funding as a part of this or any such bill, I’m afraid so.
“The gruesome practice of slaughtering horses for food has no place in the United States, and it’s well past time for Congress to say once and for all that horsemeat is not what’s for dinner,” said Senator Menendez. “Horses are routinely treated with drugs that are dangerous for human consumption and do not belong in our nation’s food supply. Our bipartisan legislation will help put an end to the cruel and inhumane slaughter of horses while protecting families from toxic horse meat and safeguarding the reputation of the U.S. food industry worldwide.”
Framing this legislation as an issue of horses used for human consumption is, pardon the expression, a red herring. It’s a distraction foisted on the public by clever animal rights media to graphically capture the attention of an American mass audience. Those cultures that routinely eat horse meat will continue to do so. Meat cannot be sold legally in this country without USDA inspection. The issue here is horse welfare, so let’s not get sidetracked, as did Senator Menendez.
SAFE is supported by leading animal welfare organizations as well as animal rights organizations. Why would these organizations support legislation that harms horse welfare? Because animal rights activists are willing to sacrifice horse welfare in the short term to achieve their ultimate goal of ending our ownership and dominion over all animals in the future.
Here’s what the respected American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP) and the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) which endorses AAEP’s position had to say back in 2018:
The AAEP advocates the humane treatment of all horses and believes the equine industry and horse owners have a responsibility to provide humane care throughout the life of the horse. However, a small percentage of horses are ultimately unwanted because they are no longer serviceable, are infirm, dangerous, or their owners are no longer able to care for them.
The AAEP recognizes that the processing of unwanted horses is currently a necessary aspect of the equine industry, and provides a humane alternative to allowing the horse to continue a life of discomfort and pain, and possibly inadequate care or abandonment. The AAEP encourages, fosters, and provides education regarding responsible ownership and management that will reduce the number of unwanted horses. In addition, the AAEP supports and commends the efforts of equine retirement facilities and adoption groups.
Regarding the care of horses destined for processing, the AAEP’s position is that these horses should be:
Treated humanely and with dignity;
Transported to the production facility according to the guidelines approved by the United States Department of Agriculture in 2002.
Euthanized in a humane manner in accordance with the guidelines established by the American Veterinary Medical Association.
In addition, the AAEP recognizes that human consumption of horse meat is a cultural and personal issue and does not fall within the purview of the association, whose mission is the care of the health and welfare of the horse throughout its life.
Although the last horse processing plant in the U.S. was shuttered by order of a federal judge in 2007, around 100,000 horses each year were being transported for slaughter to either Canada or Mexico in 2018 and beyond. That figure probably hasn’t changed substantially. The horses endure longer road trips and meet their ends in ways that are not under the control of the USDA, and, in many cases, hardly humane.
The decision by Congress to force the closure of horse processing plants was reviewed about six years ago by the highly respected General Accounting Office (GAO)—Congress’s own watchdog agency. The GAO reported that because of Congress’s actions that forced the closure of all horse processing plants in the U.S., unwanted horses had to travel further (to Mexico and Canada) and, in many cases, were slaughtered under worse conditions than before. As a result, the GAO emphatically told Congress that their ban on horse processing had actually harmed horse welfare. And now, today, an elite panel of senators wants to drive another nail into the same coffin.
Horse retirement facilities are certainly a more desirable option than euthanasia in many cases, but such facilities, affordable to all horse owners, in no way come even close to accommodating the number of unwanted horses, especially the failing, the unsound, the dangerous. Instead, their suffering increased with longer transport distances and more primitive treatment at the end of their roads.
The same question remains and will still be with us if this proposed legislation passes both houses: what is to be done with 100,000 unwanted horses in the U.S. each year with no legal transportation allowed and no humane slaughter facilities?
Funding Is the Key
Some owners step up and pay their vets to humanely euthanize their unwanted horses, but many do not. Or cannot afford to. Or cannot bring themselves to. Nor will they be willing or even able to continue to feed and care for their unwanted horses. Those horses will be abandoned or ignored as we have already learned through experience, and will suffer far crueler fates than humane slaughter would afford them.
This is a thorny problem of numbers for which no comprehensive solution has yet been proposed as far as I can see. The number of facilities for rehabbing, retraining, and/or re-purposing unwanted horses has never matched the numbers of unwanted horses that need such assistance and support.
The wish to protect horses is noble. Surely the creatures deserve our protection. The problem, however, requires more than a partial solution. It will cost money to help all the unwanted horses that will go neglected or abandoned. Some constituencies will have to pay for the infrastructure required to rescue and care for or euthanize and dispose of the remains of these unfortunate horses.
If the horse owners won’t pay―or can’t pay―to maintain their unwanted horses, who will pay? The racing industries? Breeders associations? Horse show and competitive associations? A horse owner’s tax? If the problem is worth solving, let’s be honest and tackle all of it.
Certainly, a portion of any funding should go to existing rescue organizations that are always short of money and are forever heroically trying to raise more funds so they can provide more facilities and services for neglected horses.
And while we’re talking about money, horses would definitely appreciate more local inspectors to investigate and prosecute those owners who fail to provide basic care for their animals. Local taxpayers have to step up for that.
In closing, here’s a little secret to which some of the most progressive people I speak to are now returning: appropriately supervised humane horse slaughter facilities and equally supervised transportation would be a good thing to have in the U.S.! The sad part is that we actually had exactly that only fifteen years ago, but Congress tore it down at the insistence of highly vocal animal rights activists speaking through willing but misguided celebrities.
We’ve come full circle in this story, so let’s conclude. If Congress is going to fix what they broke, let’s look at the entire problem as a whole and provide the necessary funds to make Congress’s plan work in a real-world with imperfect horse owners. Otherwise, let’s go back to a plan that was working in 2007: USDA licensed and supervised humane processing facilities and USDA licensed and supervised transportation. Either would be a plus for horse welfare.
Posted September 24, 2021