Helping Hearts Equine Rescue

 “The term euthanasia is derived from the Greek terms eu meaning good and thanatos meaning death. A “good death” would be one that occurs with minimal pain and distress. In the context of these guidelines, euthanasia is the act of inducing humane death in an animal.”

  Animal Angels Expose - - Check out their website - - 

- - The Export of American Horses for Slaughter - http://www.animals-angels.com/index.php?pageID=563

~~Horse Slaughter: The Facts-www.animals-angels.com/index.php?pageID=493

 ~Three Years Investigation Shows Inherent Cruelty of the Horse Slaughter Industry:

 Is this a good death? ~~  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQZzmA3Q63k

In today's political climate, where people are arguing the merits FOR slaughter plants in our country and about the "necessity" of slaughter, let's review this remarkable White Paper written by Dr. Patricia Hogan in 2006.  She gave this Testimony before the House Energy and Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection July 25, 2006 in Support of the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act.   

It was relevant then, and it's extremely relevant now.

The full White Paper can be read at:   http://www.vetsforequinewelfare.org/pdf/Hogan.pdf

In Part Dr. Hogan testified:

 Additionally please read on the site of the Veterinarians for Equine Welfare::  

• Testimony of Dr. Nicholas Dodman DVM, Diplomate ACVA and ACVM before the House Judiciary Committee in support of H.R. 6598, the Prevention of Equine Cruelty Act on July 31, 2008.

Canadian Horse Defense Coalition-i www.defendhorsescanada.org

Graphic evidence of animal welfare violations was documented at Natural Valley Farms in April/May 2008. This footage was released to CHDC by undercover investigators, and the concerns were aired on CBC's No Country for Horses the following month: http://www.cbc.ca/national/blog/special_feature/no_country_for_horses/no_country_for_horses.html .

ON-LINE ARTICLES ~

On "Fugly Horse of the Day, February 17, 2009:   After a three year battle, the USDA was finally required to release pictures of horses who were injured or killed during double-decker rides to the slaughterhouse.     http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:Z5raPetzt-wJ:fuglyhorseoftheday.blogspot.com/2009/02/you-cant-afford-to-ignore-this-issue.html+sad+day+when+you+can+not+afford+your+horse&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

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  Putting the Horse First?, by Patricia Hogan ~
http://cs.bloodhorse.com/blogs/finalturn/archive/2009/03/10/Putting-the-Horse-First_3F00_.aspx

"It is the united opinion of VEW (Veterinarians for Equine Welfare) that horse slaughter is inhumane, and that it is an unacceptable way to end a horse’s life under any circumstance. One need only observe horse slaughter to see that it is a far cry from genuine humane euthanasia. From the transport of horses on inappropriate conveyances for long periods of time without food, water of rest to the very ugly slaughter process in which horses react with pain and fear, no evidence exists to support the claim that horse slaughter is a form of humane euthanasia. Rather, it is a brutal process that results in very tangible and easily observable equine suffering.

It is worth noting that the suffering of horses in slaughter is accentuated by the very fact that they are not raised for slaughter. Horses going to slaughter have largely been accustomed to close human contact whether through racing, ranch work, pleasure riding, rodeo or any of the other ways in which horses are used in this country. While some are purposely sold into slaughter by their owners most end up at the abattoir through pure bad luck: they were sold at auction and the winning bidder was a ‘killer-buyer’ working for one of the slaughter plants. To suddenly be treated as pure livestock must be disorienting and frightful, and can only compound their suffering as they proceed to slaughter.

We believe that it is an unethical and dangerous practice for the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) and American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP) to attempt to equate horse slaughter with humane euthanasia."

From "Horse Slaughter – Its Ethical Impact and Subsequent Response of the Veterinary Profession", by Veterinarians for Equine Welfare (2008)

Please check out the website for Veterinarians for Equine Welfare - -http://www.vetsforequinewelfare.org/index.php

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  The Realities of Horse Slaughter In America

Information compiled and essay written by Anne Irving, a tireless fighter against the horrors of Horse Slaughter in America.   Thank you for taking the time to read this . . .

Horse slaughter is an industry, not a charitable way for farmers to dispose of their old, sick, horses as believed by many in Congress and across the country.  It is an industry driven by demand of foreign diners in Europe and Japan who consider American horsemeat a delicacy, and enjoy the lean horsemeat, which sells for around $20.00 per pound – and costs about .39 to .49 cents per pound on the hoof at auction.  The owners of the recently closed American slaughterhouses are Belgian companies: Beltex, Cavel Intl., and Chevideco (Dallas Crown). 

Background:   In 2007, two slaughter plants in Texas and the remaining slaughter plant in Illinois were closed down due to the enactment and enforcement of state laws.  All remain closed, and horse slaughter for human consumption in Illinois and Texas remains illegal. All three slaughterhouses are foreign-owned, employed less than 200 people combined (many immigrants) and paid very few taxes.  It is also reported that they were not good corporate neighbors. Both the Cavel Plant and the Dallas Crown plants in Kaufman, Texas, had pollution problems and extensive waste-water violations which affected the municipalities and distressed the residents living near the plants.  Prior to it’s final closure, the Kaufman Board of Adjustments declared the Dallas Crown facility a nuisance, identifying public health and safety issues. It was reported that when stoppages occurred over the years, blood from the plant backed up into area residents' bathtubs. At public hearings in Kaufman, TX, citizens told of relentless odors, bones from slain horses carried around the neighborhood by dogs, blood and feces running through drainage areas and from trucks and the unsettling "noise" from horses as they were slaughtered throughout the night at Dallas Crown.  

A demand-driven business:  Kill buyers deliver the number of horses that they are asked to deliver. The majority of horses slaughtered come via kill buyers, to satisfy their contracts with the slaughter plants.  The kill buyer and slaughterhouse operation is not a service that simply disposes of excess horses.  Unlucky horses that find their way to slaughter include yearlings, very pregnant mares (their near-term foals cut out of their stomachs and discarded in a pile), Off-Track Thoroughbreds that didn’t run fast enough (many with very famous bloodlines), and Amish horses - beasts of burden their entire lives, sent to slaughter as their final reward. There are also PMU (Premarin) mares, and their offspring, stolen horses, and yes, the family horse that no longer fits “little Suzy” that is unwittingly sent to slaughter.  While some horses are knowingly sold into slaughter by their owners, many, many are not.  According to USDA, in 2006, 92% of horses they inspected were young and healthy.  The market for slaughter horses is set by the international demand for their meat in other countries, not by the number of supposedly unwanted horses.  This can be clearly seen in the fact that following the closing of the US based plants, exports to Canadian and Mexican plants increased to quickly bring the total slaughter back the same level as before the closings.

It is estimated there are approximately 9 million horses in the United States today.  The number of horses slaughtered increased over the past few years due to increased demand abroad for U.S. horsemeat.  In 2006, prior to the plant closures, 105,835 horses were slaughtered in Texas and Illinois.  The number of horses slaughtered fluctuates greatly, from a high of 348,400 in 1989, to a low of 42,312 in 2002. Horsemeat demand has been increased by the outbreak of disease, such as Mad Cow Disease, that affected the supply of other meat products from the United States. Ironically, while the EU readily imports US horsemeat, US beef is still banned. 

Horse slaughter engenders inhumane and illegal behavior.  Horses are crammed in double-decker trailers for cross-country journeys that stretch for hundreds of miles. Double-deckers are the preferred means of transportation for the slaughter business as they are more cost effective.  While horses can no longer legally ship in Double-decker trailers in the United States if they are heading to slaughter, the lack of enforcement of laws and loopholes makes it easy for shippers to circumvent this ban.  On October 1, 2008, Leroy H. Baker, Jr. (d.b.a. Sugarcreek Livestock Auction, Inc.) was assessed a civil penalty of $162,800.00 for failure to comply with the Commercial Transportation of Equines for Slaughter Act.  Baker’s violations were so serious and his culpability so great as to warrant the $5,000 maximum civil penalty per violation.  The violations occurred during commercial shipments of equines from Sugarcreek to Beltex and Dallas Crown between the years of 2003 and 2007.  Those violations included the movement of blind horses, horses unable to stand on four legs, and stallions un-segregated from the other horses, with numerous counts of horses dying en route and being kicked to death. 

In Oklahoma, a Boys Ranch took in horses as donations and then in turn sold them off for slaughter. In the spring of 2007, one of Seattle Slew’s granddaughter’s was found heavily pregnant and foundered in a feedlot awaiting shipment to Mexico.  An equine rescue was contacted by a concerned individual, and after extensive care, the mare and her filly now reside at the Oklahoma rescue.  Her former owners had no idea. In May of 2006, The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported on the convictions of two racetrack employees turned rustlers that stole two prized Thoroughbreds from Thistledown Racetrack and sold them to an auctioneer, who sold them to a slaughterhouse. In 1998, when California outlawed slaughter horse and the interstate transportation of horses for slaughter, horse theft went down 39.4% the first year.

While hauling 59 young horses, mainly Belgians, a double-decker truck found to be grossly overweight by the authorities crashed on October 20^th 2007, near Waukegon, Illinois. The horses were reportedly bound for slaughter.  42 survived, and were so packed in the truck it took the rescuers 5 hours to remove them all. Many had their slaughter tags glued on them, and many were believed to be PMU foals.  A similar accident occurred Sept. 2006 in Missouri, where 17 Cavel-bound horses in a double-decker died in a late night accident involving 42 horses.

Thirty-six months after making a Freedom of Information Request of the U.S.D.A. regarding violations of the “Commercial Transportation of Equines to Slaughter Act”, Julie Caramante, an investigator for non-profit Animal Angels, received the documents.  "I've been an equine cruelty investigator for a number of years," said Caramante, "and I've witnessed many horrific incidents of animal cruelty. But nothing could prepare me for the images contained in the FOIA. These pictures shocked me to the core. The pain and terror these horses endured is criminal. This just should not be, no excuses.” The large FOIA document contains hundreds of photographs that graphically depict horses with open fractures, legs missing, battered and bloody faces, eyeballs dangling and what appears to be horses left to bleed to death. The document provides unimpeachable evidence for the immediate ban on the slaughter of American horses.   The photographs included in the FOIA document were taken between January 17, 2005 and November 17, 2005 at Beltex, the Belgian-owned plant in Fort Worth, Texas.   After a 1949 Texas law banning horse slaughter was upheld, Beltex closed in 2007.  Beltex has since focused on its operations in Fresnillo, Mexico where it continues to slaughter American horses.  In addition, Beltex still runs the second largest slaughter horse feedlot in the United States.  Horses from all over the country are transported to the feedlot in Morton, TX before being sent to the Beltex slaughter plant in Mexico.

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Slaughter-bound horses are put through the auction, into kill pens grouped with many other horses and then shipped to slaughter over long distances in crammed conditions. The entire experience is alien to most horses, which have been well looked after their entire lives.  While this experience is exacerbated by the ban on domestic slaughter, even with domestic slaughter horses are drawn from such a large area that it would be commercially unviable to have enough slaughter plants to reduce the transport distances to humane levels. When horse slaughter was legal in Illinois, horses were still being shipped to Canada for slaughter from the New Holland kill auction. Due to geography, horses have always been shipped to Canada and Mexico for slaughter.  Exporting horses for slaughter is happening more so now with the elimination of domestic slaughter.

The process of slaughter in the United States involved use of a captive bolt gun that requires accuracy for effectiveness. It is not designed specifically for horses, which have longer necks than cattle and typically balk away from something they fear. Additionally, the horse’s brain is located further back in the skull than is the cow’s brain.  This makes the actual slaughter process less precise, and there are many examples documented of horses not being rendered senseless by the first hit by a captive bolt gun. While the veterinarian groups of AAEP and AVMA advocate that horse slaughter is humane, many veterinarians disagree.

The conditions that American horses encounter in Mexico are even worse than those at the US plants.  A 2007 investigation by The San Antonio News-Express revealed that the use of the puntilla knife on horses prior to slaughter is common practice in Mexican slaughter plants, such as a facility currently owned by Beltex in Mexico.   Footage obtained by the paper shows horses being stabbed repeatedly in the neck with these knives prior to slaughter. Such a barbaric practice simply paralyzes the animal. The horse is still fully conscious at the start of the slaughter process, during which he or she is hung by a hind leg, his or her throat slit and body butchered. Death, the final betrayal of these noble animals, is protracted and excruciating.  The U.S. Dept. Agriculture says more than 45,000 horses went to Mexico for slaughter last year in 2008, up from about 11,000 the year before.

Not bred/raised to be a safe part of the food chain. Horses are bred for sports, work and leisure and not for the food chain, and with a few exceptions horses are humanized and are taught to trust humans as they serve our needs.  Most slaughter-bound horses have received a variety of drugs, hormones, wormers, and steroids through their lifetime.  Phenylbutazone, or "bute" as it is commonly called, is used from racetracks to ranches and is a known carcinogen - as determined by the federal government's National Toxicology Program.  It is important to note that in the European Union beginning July 2009, horses that are slaughtered in Europe for human consumption must be accompanied by documentation that they are free of drugs that would not be fit for human consumption. No such assurance accompanies the substantial amount of horsemeat exported from North America and Mexico to Europe. There is also no system in place to track horses that are slaughtered and determine their source of origin in case of a tainted food scare

Horse slaughter foes in the US became more fervent after it was learned that Ferdinand, the 1986 Kentucky Derby winner, ended up in a slaughterhouse in Japan in 2002.  As a response, the Belgian-owned operators of the U.S. plants have retained people like Agricultural lobbyist and former congressman Charles Stenholm of Texas to lobby for the industry. They also employ public relations firms, which have used the media to great effect, seeding articles that have wrongly tied horse neglect and abandonment cases to an end to domestic slaughter.  In March 2007, an AP story by Jeffery McMurray was published in more than 200 news outlets. The claims made in the story about loose horses running around Kentucky were so egregious that the Governor of the State of Kentucky released a statement refuting the claims. These stories also serve to allow politicians to justify their position on a bill without researching the voracity of the claims made in the articles.

Supporters of horse slaughter, such as livestock producers, cite the “slippery slope” argument: first horses, then cattle and hogs. They also argue that it violates their property rights.  Prominent among the opposition is the Farm Bureau, The American Quarter Horse Association, and the American Veterinary Medical Association.  Responsible breeding is a large factor in this issue and is desperately needed.  This presents a problem to the AQHA and other breed registries whose budgets depend on registration fees for new foals.  Slaughter gives the breeders a convenient outlet for those horses they do not want to keep.  AVMA’s largest constituency consists of veterinarians who service the food animal industry, such as vets who work in slaughter plants, livestock auctions, feedlots, etc. They proclaim the captive bolt slaughter method as “humane euthanasia”.  To contrast the viewpoint of AAEP and AVMA, Veterinarians for Equine Welfare (VEW) has been established to speak out against the inhumanity of horse slaughter and rigorously condemn the AVMA’s position.  The Premarin Industry is also in support of horses going to slaughter.  Premarin® is a conjugated estrogen product extracted from pregnant mares' urine (PMU) manufactured by Wyeth-Ayerst Labs, Inc.  Reliable estimates indicate there are at least 50,000 production mares on PMU farms, accounting for the births of approximately 40,000 offspring annually.  Add in the number of breeding stallions, immature mares, replacement mares, and their foals, the total is considerably greater than 100,000 horses. 

Alternatives to Slaughter:  Many horses that are slaughter-bound are not unwanted. They are simply unlucky.  It is also very important to note that the majority of horses that die each year in the U.S. are humanely euthanized, not slaughtered.  The cost of humane euthanasia and disposal vary depending on geography.  Typically that cost is the equivalent of a couple of months of keep for a horse, or even less.  There are also over 400 equine rescues in the US that daily take in horses in need.  Horses are now routinely used for therapy for returning Iraq war vets, autistic children and adults and other physically and mentally challenged people. Horses are also now being used in prisoner rehabilitation across the country.  In addition, more equine retirement facilities and rescues are being opened.  In recent years the number of equines going to slaughter has been slightly more than 1% of the overall equine population.

Unwanted Horses:  There will always be unwanted horses, or unlucky horses, with or without horse slaughter. Horses will be abandoned and neglected; this happened even while slaughter was a legal alternative.  The number of horses that are abandoned and neglected is far smaller than the number of horses that are slaughtered. It is important to note that 345,700 horses were butchered in 1990, 107,029 in 1994, and 47,134 in 2000.  In the years where the slaughter numbers are down there was no upswing in abused, neglected or abandoned horses.  A more prominent factor in abandonment, abuse, and low horse prices in the market are the recent drought and economic conditions causing the increased cost of gas, hay, feed and loss of family farmland due to urban sprawl and corporate farming. 

New legislation, HR503, is aimed at stopping the export of horses for slaughter in Mexico and Canada.  This bill was introduced into the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee on Jan. 14. 2009.   HR 503, the Conyers-Burton Prevention of Equine Cruelty Act, prohibits the transport, sale, delivery, or export of horses for slaughter for human consumption. It also criminalizes the purchase, sale, delivery, or export of horsemeat intended for human consumption.  Violators would face fines and/or one year imprisonment for a first offense or those involving five or fewer horses, and fines and/or three years imprisonment for repeat offenses or those involving more than five horses.  This legislation does not prevent a horse owner from humanely euthanizing their horse and does not infringe on private property rights. 

Sources of information include the following:

http://www.manesandtailsorganization.org/stats.htm

http://alexbrownracing.com/wiki/index.php/Chapter_horse_slaughter

http://www.netposse.com/netposse_news.horse.thieves.found.guilty.htm

http://www.animals-angels.com/index.php?pageID=675&synlink:docID=i8386&synlink:linkID=48

http://www.kaufmanzoning.net/horsemeat/DCTaxForm1.jpg

http://www.hsus.org/horses_equines/issues/the_facts_about_premarin.html

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/5548755.html

http://www.kaufmanzoning.net/nov24/Baker081001_AQ_08-0074_dd.pdf

http://kaufmanzoning.net/stlouisdispatch092706.htm

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-horses_webjan05,0,2470954.story

http://kaufmanzoning.net/mcclatchynewspapers072506.htm

http://www.kaufmanzoning.net/horsemeat/WashintonTimes020706.htm

http://www.vetsforequinewelfare.org/avma_stop.php, 

http://vetsforequinewelfare.org/white_paper.php 

http://kaufmanzoning.net/image001.jpg, 

http://kaufmanzoning.net/image002.jpg

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/02/0208_060208_horse_meat.html

http://www.kaufmanherald.com/articles/2006/03/10/news/news01.txt

Supporters of anti-horse slaughter legislation:

http://www.awionline.org/legislation/horse_slaughter/supporters_of_ahspa.htm

http://www.paulickreport.com/blog/abercrombies-strong-pitch-to-end-slaughter