Horse Slaughter Houses: Sausage over Saddle

Horse Slaughter Houses: Sausage Over Saddle

When presenting the equine industry the question about the number of horses in the United States, majority agree with the mass population of horses. It has been a continuing issue for the past few years. There are several factors as to why there are so many unwanted horses in this country, nevertheless, there are also several solutions to fix the problem in the equine market.

What is horse slaughter you may ask? Why is it useful to the US? “Horse slaughter is the process of killing horses with the specific intent of using their meat for human consumption,” (Biscontini 1). According to a 2006 survey, there are approximately 9,500,000 horses in the United States. Some are wild, some are well taken care of and loved, while others are abused and left to die. In 2007, the remaining equine slaughter plants in the United States were shut down due to the lack of funding to pay USDA to inspect the meat. Many people believe that if the funding were to return, it would bring the horse slaughterhouses back. Since they have been unable to revive their funding by USDA, many of these healthy American Horses are being shipped to Canada and Mexico to be slaughtered.

Furthermore, since the Americans were the ones to breed a plethora of these horses in the first place, it’s their responsibility to prevent waisting the products made by these horses such as bi-products and meat. Everyday, thousands of sheep, goats, pigs, cattle, and chickens are slaughtered. These animals are known as livestock, and when talking to farmers or ranchers, their horses are also known as livestock. Slaughtering an animal is by far cheaper than using drugs. One common drug used to euthanize a horse is called Barbiturates. Barbiturates shuts the brain down before stopping other functions of the body. Two other drugs for euthanasia include T61 and Succinylcholine. These drugs create paralysis, heart attack, and suffocation. T61 and Succinylcholine are meant to be used on the horses after they has been put under anesthesia. Using these drugs ensures gruesome and very painful deaths that nobody wants their horses to go through. A more humane solution is a quick and painless shot to the head with a gun. Although it may sound morbid, it’s a quick and simple process.

However, owning a horse is now known as a rich person phenomenon but sometimes the money runs out and people can’t afford to pay for their horses or their expenses. They choose to have them euthanized by a veterinarian, sent to a sanctuary if there is even one available, or they humanely put them down with a bullet to the head. “A vet will charge about $150 for the euthanization of the animal plus a fee for disposing of the carcass which can be valued at around $250 or more” (Harkinson 4).

Sanctuary’s are rarely accepting horses because of the fact that they are just too full. With the prices being so high for euthanization by a vet, people turn to a quick one shot one kill. As gruesome as that may sound it is actually one of the quickest and most painless methods there is. It is almost exactly like the captive bolt gun, by the means that it automatically goes to the brain’s stem and is an automatic stop for everything.

People like to believe that the only horses used for slaughter are old, sick, crippled, dangerous, or miserable horses. Some of these nonetheless are like that, but many of the horses slaughtered daily outside of the U.S. are young healthy normal horses. Kill buyers sell horses to the slaughter plants by the pound; therefore they suggest a heavier weighing, more filled out horse. Unlike, cattle slaughter for example, with the old, used up cattle known as cull cows, the majority of horses slaughtered are rejects. Not all of the horses slaughtered are young horses with bright futures, however some of the horses are old but not malnourished.

Looking into slaughter houses of other animals, they have a certain regulation that have to be followed in order for the houses to continue. What people do not realize is that these slaughter houses make the killing of other animals pain free. By quickly inserting a captive bolt gun straight into the temple of the animal. This process is a quick and painless procedure, the bolt is shot out so quickly that the animal does not feel it. According to Temple Grandin, a captive-bolt gun kills the animal by concussive force and penetration of the bolt. A non-penetrating, mushroom—head captive bolt only stuns the animal, thus, it cannot be used as the sole method of euthanasia. A non-penetrating captive bolt must be followed by an adjunctive method, such as exsanguination (Grandin 1). One of the greater problems with using the captive bolt gun on horses is that due to the horse having such a small brain, the bolt doesn't always hit straight into the brain, however, it renders the horse