Horse Slaughter Houses

This is a paper that I wrote about horse slaughter. 

Make sure you are not eating when you read it!

October/3/2014

By

Serafina Churchill

HORSE SLAUGHTERHOUSES

Slaughterhouses are places that animals are taken to be killed and butchered. Most animals that go to slaughter houses are bred and raised for meat, but in this case horses that are not bred for meat are being sent to slaughterhouses. They’re many problems with slaughterhouses. From the minute the horses get on the trucks they are treated poorly, their body condition deteriorates, and the process of slaughter is very brutal. Its important to be aware of this problem in order to stop it.

CATTLE TRUCKS

Cattle trucks are a two story trailer that are made for cattle not horses, but when horses are being shipped to slaughterhouses this is how they get there. The trailers are much too low and tight for an average horse. A grown person can’t even stand up in a traditional cattle truck. Horses are crammed in as tight as possible and sometimes the transportation can take up to 24 hours without breaks. The longest a horse can go without water is eight hours. So during the long transportation, they will become extremely dehydrated. It can take weeks of unloading and loading into different trucks before they reach the slaughterhouse. The ramps to the trucks are too steep for horses because they are made for cattle and not horses; they’re also very narrow. The staff that loads the horses are untrained in how to guide the horses up to the trucks. The staff will use whips, metal pipes, and cattle prods to move the horses up the ramps. Since the truck doors are too low and very narrow the horses hit their heads and sides on the trailer door when they enter. After all this trauma the horses are usually severely injured by the time they get to the slaughterhouses.

MEXICAN SLAUGHTERHOUSES

They’re only two official slaughterhouses in Mexico. In the official slaughterhouses the horses are killed less violently than in the other ones, like the San Bernade Market. The San Bernade Market is one of the unofficial slaughterhouses in Mexico and it is the most brutal and inhumane in the world. At the San Bernade the horses are slaughtered by being hit in the head with a hammer or stabbed in the neck, back, and around the withers with a knife. After about ten stabs the horse falls to the floor, usually still alive, but paralyzed. After the horse is down, the workers will put a rope around the back legs and then the horses will be lifted by a machine, often while the horses are still alert. The machine will swing them by their back legs to the tables where they will be butchered. At this particular slaughterhouse the horses are usually skinned alive, and an excruciatingly painful way to die.

KILL BUYERS

Kill buyers are people that get horses in order to sell them to slaughterhouses. These people will go to auctions or find cheap horses online on websites like craigslist. The slaughterhouse will fire the kill buyers if they can’t meet their quota, so they will do anything they have to including: stealing horses, tricking people into selling their horses and being sneaky. After they have their horses they will take them to feedlots. At the feedlots they will be fed non-stop until they get back on the trucks and keep going to the next stop. Often the horses are too heavy to support themselves because they have eaten so much. Sometimes they will be fed to the point where they founder causing them to lay down from the pain, and then they can’t get up so they die.

SOULUTIONS

Most of the horse meat  from the slaughterhouses in Canada is sold to markets around Europe where people buy the meat, sometimes thinking that its beef or other types of meat. Store owners will sometimes label the meat not as horse so that people are more likely to buy it. They often dye the meat so that it is more convincing. In the past few years however, Europeans have started to demand more horse meat, because they like flavor and texture.

The problem with this, is that consumers aren't aware of the meat that they’re eating. People that eat horse meat should be taught about what beautiful animals they are eating and what's involved to get the meat. They should learn about how the horses are treated on their way to the slaughterhouse and during slaughter. The meat is very unhealthy and should not be eaten by people because many of the horses have been given supplements, shots, worming medicine, etc.

The slaughter process is unsanitary because of the way the system works, for example: the knives that the horses are stabbed, skinned, and butchered with are used for all the horses. Most of the time the knives don’t get a full cleaning before being used again. If the consumers were more aware of these things, they probably wouldn’t want to eat horse meat again. If there was no demand for this meat, then slaughterhouses would be out of business and shut down.

One of the big problems is that breeding facilities breed too many horses. This leads to many of the horses being sent to slaughter. The breeders want only the perfect horses but most of the horses born don’t meet those qualifications, so they get sent to slaughter. One way to solve this problem is to make laws that limit the number of horses bred at a farm every year. This will decrease the amount of unwanted horses being born. Having too many unwanted horses is the root of the slaughterhouse problem. If owners would only breed the best horses then they would have a better outcome.

Even though owners sometimes want to breed their pet horses, they should check the line that the horse comes from to decide if its a good idea. If they come from a bad line then that horse shouldn’t be bred because that just leads to more undesirable horses that might end up at slaughter. Every time someone breeds their horse they push another horse to slaughter. Instead of breeding, owners could rescue a baby or an older horse from slaughterhouses or rescues. Owners should consider the amount of work that another horse would take before breeding, even if the mares and stallions have good lines.

Another way to stop horses from going to slaughter is to help the unwanted horses. When a racehorses’ career is over it usually gets sent to slaughter, but instead potential owners could take in those younger horses. A young horse like a racehorse could turn out to be great at many things. They could be great show horses, lesson horses, or companion horses as well as many other life time jobs. These horses have more potential because they are young but the older ones have a harder time finding homes. Most people want young horses that can work for them not “old” horses, but not all old horses are useless. For example: an older horse could be a great kids horse, or even a lesson horse for beginners, a companion horses, or a family horse that lives with the chickens. An older horse could also be good for handicapped riders because they're usually slower and calmer.

!!!MORE SOLUTIONS!!!

• One solution is to control the breeding operations and only breed the best mares with the best stallions.

• The second way is to teach breeders and other horse owners about what problems they’re causing.

• A third way is to find homes for old or unneeded horses instead of sending them the auctions or to the slaughterhouse.

• One more way is to enforce laws against having horses pass the border.

• Another way is to have the United States pass a law that strictly states to having no more horse slaughterhouses to come back in the U.S.

• People that eat horse meat should be taught about what beautiful animals they are eating and what’s involved to get the meat. They should also learn what’s inside of it.

• The meat should be tested to see exactly what is in it that the horses eat but humanes shouldn’t have.

!!!IT HAS TO BE STOPPED!!!