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sitaangelUpdated: March 6, 2007, 11:46 AM ET
Is horse slaughter in the U.S. near an end?
By Jason Shandler
Special to ESPN.com
Laura Buel had Shanna for just over six months. During that time she developed a special bond with the black standardbred, adopting Shanna as her favorite among three other horses that she had on her 8-acre farm in rural Millersburg, Pennsylvania.
Buel first saw Shanna at a sale in nearby New Holland. She was a horse that nobody wanted. Abused by her previous owners, Shanna was now prone to biting any person that came too close, especially males.
The auctioneer who operated the New Holland horse sale advised her against buying Shanna, but Buel paid no attention. She bought Shanna anyway and slowly began building trust with the 13-year-old horse. Within weeks Shanna was thriving in her new home, miles away from the abusive life that she had known before. It seemed like yet another successful horse rescue, one of the thousands each year in the United States.
"She was shy, but always came out of the barn in the morning to say hello," recalled Buel. "I found out that she had been ridden by an Amish man, 20 miles up and back to work every day. That's why she didn't like to be ridden much any more. So I promised her I would never hook her up again. She was really starting to adjust to her new home."
But one day in late November, Buel went out of town to be with her family for Thanksgiving. While she was away Buel had asked a neighbor to look after the horses, especially Shanna, who needed more attention than the other three. Unfortunately, when Buel returned home she was heartbroken to find out that Shanna was missing. The neighbor, who was in the process of selling some of her own horses, had accidentally sold Shanna, mistaking her for another black horse in the barn. Buel frantically made phone calls, drove out to the place where Shanna had been sold and spent every waking hour trying get back her beloved pet. It was to no avail.
"I was completely destroyed," Buel said.
After weeks of searching Buel was informed that her worst nightmare had come true: Shanna had been sold to a slaughterhouse. There she was killed and her meat sold to a foreign country for human consumption.
***
Chris Heyde has been trying to get horse slaughter banned in the United States since 2001. A Washington, D.C. lobbyist and president of the Society for Animal Protective Legislation (SAPL), he was one of the first to propose an outlaw on slaughter to the United States Congress. He wrote the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act bill, which after several years of opposition and failure, has finally gained enough momentum that it could be written into law later this year.
Heyde is one of the few to have seen the brutality inside a slaughterhouse. There are currently three operating in the U.S., one in Illinois and two in Texas, all of them Belgium-owned companies. In countries such as Japan, Italy, Germany, Austria, France and Belgium, horse meat is considered a delicacy. The meat can cost as much as $20 per pound. The companies operate at a loss in the U.S., but make huge profits in Europe in Asia.
Of the over nine million horses in America, about 100,000 go to slaughter each year. Some are sent by people who are no longer willing to care for them, some are retired race horses, show horses, riding horses, stolen horses or foals born solely for the purpose of the Premarin industry, which uses pregnant female horse urine for pharmaceutical drugs. Although many people working in the industry claim that the majority of the slaughtered horses are sick, old or injured, research has shown that 92 percent are in good to excellent condition. Many are under a year old when killed. An overwhelming 80 percent of slaughtered horses are contributed by the American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA), which promotes the practice. Quarter horses, which are much smaller than thoroughbreds, are used in sprint races at many tracks around the country. Most of them are no longer able to consistently win after age three and are sold for slaughter shortly thereafter. Because of a massive overbreeding problem in the quarter horse industry, it makes slaughtering an all too common practice.
Another 17 percent of slaughtered horses are thoroughbreds, many of them older and retired.
Ultimately, the decision on whether or not to slaughter a horse lies with the individual owner.
Heyde says when a horse is sold for slaughter, an owner can profit anywhere from $125-$600. Occasionally owners will sell directly to the slaughterhouses, but more often than not, unsuspecting owners sell to people who say they will care for the horses, only to turn around and sell them for slaughter. Also, many times horses are stolen and then sold for profit. It is estimated by netposse.com, a Web site dedicated to reuniting people with their stolen horses, that as many as 30,000 horses are stolen in the U.S. every year.
The slaughtering journey begins at a livestock auction, which are scattered around the country, many of the larger ones in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana. One of the major auctions is in New Holland, where Shanna was sold.
"The horses are taken to an auction where cattle and other livestock are bought," begins Heyde. "Usually there are about three guys sitting off in the corner. It's easy to spot them. They are called "killer buyers." Their job is to outbid people for the horses and take them to the slaughterhouses. They like to round up about 30 or 40 of them at a time and often transport them in large, double-decker trailers."
The transportation of the horses is sometimes the worst part of the ordeal.
"Horses are crammed into the trailers," Heyde continues. "They are barely able to stand because it is usually so crowded in there. They will put stallions, pregnant horses, injured horses that sometimes can't even stand, and even blind horses all together. Needless to say the horses can get frantic. There are cases we've seen where people beat them in the face with tire irons to subdue them. It is really horrific.
"By law they are allowed only 28 hours to ship the horses. But many times the transport takes longer than that and there is no water, food or rest provided for the horses. There are many times when they are left in the hot sun for hours. It's a grueling, brutal process."
And that is only the transport.
Once the horses get to the slaughterhouse in Texas or Illinois, Heyde says they are often treated poorly. To get the horses off the trailer, they are poked with long broom handles through holes in the side of the trucks, guiding them down a ramp and into the warehouses. Many times they are severely whipped or beaten if they are not cooperating. Once inside, the brutality continues. Workers have been seen hitting the frightened horses in the face, causing more panic. Some are trampled or kicked by other horses next to them.
Finally they are led through metal doors to meet their ultimate fate.
"They are led into a place called a kill box," Heyde says. "It looks like a big garbage dumpster. The room is filled with blood, feces, urine and the horses can smell the fear. Someone then stands over them with what looks like a jackhammer on a handle. It's called a bolt gun. They shoot it through the brain. It doesn't kill the horse. It's designed to make them brain dead. The animal is still alive. They shove it into the skull until the horse goes down.
"The final process is to hang the horse by the foot and raise it in the air. The heart is still pumping before they slit the throat because they want all the blood to come out." Heyde says that anyone who wants to watch the slaughter can view a video of it on his Web site, saplonline.org. It is not for the faint of heart.
***
Like every emotionally-charged issue, there are varying opinions on slaughtering. One of the leading proponents of horse slaughter is Charlie Stenholm, a lobbyist and spokesman for the Horse Welfare Coalition, a group that was formed with the sole purpose of making sure slaughter is kept legal. Stenholm opposes the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act and is doing everything in his power to make sure that bill does not get passed into law.
Stenholm, a former Texas Congressman, does not believe that horse slaughter is inhumane. The entire process, from transport to slaughter, he says, is not that bad.
"There are three ways you can kill a horse, with a bolt, a bullet or an injection," said Stenholm. "I do not think using a bolt is inhumane. There are those who are perpetuating the myth that it is."
Stenholm has a counter for every point that anti-slaughter proponents throw his way. He says the transport laws have become much more strict, the actual slaughter is not as gruesome as people say it is, and horses should be treated just like cattle, chickens and pigs - even though horses are not raised for food as those other animals are.
"The transport cruelty is a myth," he says. "They don't use the double-decker trailers anymore and a horse is not allowed to travel more than a certain amount of hours. For every one example that these people give of a horse being mistreated I can give 99 examples of times when they are not. Like anything else, if someone breaks the law, they should be punished.
"Look, this is an emotional issue. Horses are special to some of us. But a horse is not a pet. You can't tell an individual owner what they should do with their horse."
One of the questions the Horse Welfare Coalition wants answered is, what will happen to all the unwanted horses if they are not slaughtered? Stenholm claims that slaughter is an important way to control the horse population and without it, there will be major problems. Many owners, he says, simply cannot afford to keep a horse.
"All the folks who oppose slaughter never seem to have anything to say about where these 100,000 horses will go," Stenholm said. "What is going to happen to them? There isn't a solution. Right now, there are 32,000 wild horses in this country. Unwanted horses are a real problem. There is not enough money to take of all of them."
Which is where people like Steve Rei come in.
Rei is the president of the National Equine Rescue Coalition, a non-profit organization designed to help unwanted horses find homes. Like many, Rei got involved in horse welfare because of Barbaro. The catastrophic injury to the 2006 Kentucky Derby champion has fueled an outpouring of concern for injured and mistreated horses. Barbaro owners Roy and Gretchen Jackson have been outspoken proponents of banning slaughter as well.
"I was shocked when I found out about horse slaughter," said Rei, an attorney in Worcester, Mass. "I wanted to do something about it, so late last year I put together a website (nationalequinerescuecoalition.com) that would help find rescue homes. One of our biggest goals was to put together a database, with the help of the Humane Society and law enforcement, so that we can find local rescue groups during emergencies.
"If and when slaughter ends, we want to have enough homes for these horses."
Rei says that so far there are about 80 rescue groups on his Web site, all of them available to place unwanted horses. He says that by the time the law goes into effect, they will be ready. And despite what pro-slaughter people say, the rescue groups will have to be responsible for only about 1 percent of the total horse population. It is a manageable number, Rei says.
"Over a period of time, we can do it," said Rei. "One of the big issues is funding. This was not a focused effort before, but it is now. There are groups forming all over the place, people are starting fundraisers and we have a real plan."
***
The probability that slaughter will soon be banished in the United States is very good. In 2006, the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act bill passed a House of Representatives vote overwhelmingly, 263-146. But the bill was not acted upon by the Senate before it adjourned for the year and had to be re-introduced in 2007.
On Jan. 17 the bills were simultaneously re-introduced to both the House (HR503) and the Senate (S311). If passed, horse slaughter for human consumption would be prohibited immediately.
In addition, on Jan. 19 a federal appeals court ruled that horse slaughter is illegal in Texas, upholding a state law from 1949 that was not being enforced. Although the two Texas slaughter plants, Dallas Crown Inc. and Beltex Corp., still remain open on appeal, horses are not currently being slaughtered for human consumption, only for zoo animals. On Feb. 22 a bill was also introduced to the Illinois state legislature that would put an end to slaughter at Cavel International Inc., a slaughtering plant that processes more than 35,000 horses annually.
By the fall of 2007, it is a very good possibility that horses like Shanna will no longer face the same fate.
Anyone who would like to see the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act bill passed into law is encouraged to write or call their local U.S. Representative and Senators.
Is horse slaughter in the U.S. near an end?
By Jason Shandler
Special to ESPN.com
Laura Buel had Shanna for just over six months. During that time she developed a special bond with the black standardbred, adopting Shanna as her favorite among three other horses that she had on her 8-acre farm in rural Millersburg, Pennsylvania.
Buel first saw Shanna at a sale in nearby New Holland. She was a horse that nobody wanted. Abused by her previous owners, Shanna was now prone to biting any person that came too close, especially males.
The auctioneer who operated the New Holland horse sale advised her against buying Shanna, but Buel paid no attention. She bought Shanna anyway and slowly began building trust with the 13-year-old horse. Within weeks Shanna was thriving in her new home, miles away from the abusive life that she had known before. It seemed like yet another successful horse rescue, one of the thousands each year in the United States.
"She was shy, but always came out of the barn in the morning to say hello," recalled Buel. "I found out that she had been ridden by an Amish man, 20 miles up and back to work every day. That's why she didn't like to be ridden much any more. So I promised her I would never hook her up again. She was really starting to adjust to her new home."
But one day in late November, Buel went out of town to be with her family for Thanksgiving. While she was away Buel had asked a neighbor to look after the horses, especially Shanna, who needed more attention than the other three. Unfortunately, when Buel returned home she was heartbroken to find out that Shanna was missing. The neighbor, who was in the process of selling some of her own horses, had accidentally sold Shanna, mistaking her for another black horse in the barn. Buel frantically made phone calls, drove out to the place where Shanna had been sold and spent every waking hour trying get back her beloved pet. It was to no avail.
"I was completely destroyed," Buel said.
After weeks of searching Buel was informed that her worst nightmare had come true: Shanna had been sold to a slaughterhouse. There she was killed and her meat sold to a foreign country for human consumption.
***
Chris Heyde has been trying to get horse slaughter banned in the United States since 2001. A Washington, D.C. lobbyist and president of the Society for Animal Protective Legislation (SAPL), he was one of the first to propose an outlaw on slaughter to the United States Congress. He wrote the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act bill, which after several years of opposition and failure, has finally gained enough momentum that it could be written into law later this year.
Heyde is one of the few to have seen the brutality inside a slaughterhouse. There are currently three operating in the U.S., one in Illinois and two in Texas, all of them Belgium-owned companies. In countries such as Japan, Italy, Germany, Austria, France and Belgium, horse meat is considered a delicacy. The meat can cost as much as $20 per pound. The companies operate at a loss in the U.S., but make huge profits in Europe in Asia.
Of the over nine million horses in America, about 100,000 go to slaughter each year. Some are sent by people who are no longer willing to care for them, some are retired race horses, show horses, riding horses, stolen horses or foals born solely for the purpose of the Premarin industry, which uses pregnant female horse urine for pharmaceutical drugs. Although many people working in the industry claim that the majority of the slaughtered horses are sick, old or injured, research has shown that 92 percent are in good to excellent condition. Many are under a year old when killed. An overwhelming 80 percent of slaughtered horses are contributed by the American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA), which promotes the practice. Quarter horses, which are much smaller than thoroughbreds, are used in sprint races at many tracks around the country. Most of them are no longer able to consistently win after age three and are sold for slaughter shortly thereafter. Because of a massive overbreeding problem in the quarter horse industry, it makes slaughtering an all too common practice.
Another 17 percent of slaughtered horses are thoroughbreds, many of them older and retired.
Ultimately, the decision on whether or not to slaughter a horse lies with the individual owner.
Heyde says when a horse is sold for slaughter, an owner can profit anywhere from $125-$600. Occasionally owners will sell directly to the slaughterhouses, but more often than not, unsuspecting owners sell to people who say they will care for the horses, only to turn around and sell them for slaughter. Also, many times horses are stolen and then sold for profit. It is estimated by netposse.com, a Web site dedicated to reuniting people with their stolen horses, that as many as 30,000 horses are stolen in the U.S. every year.
The slaughtering journey begins at a livestock auction, which are scattered around the country, many of the larger ones in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana. One of the major auctions is in New Holland, where Shanna was sold.
"The horses are taken to an auction where cattle and other livestock are bought," begins Heyde. "Usually there are about three guys sitting off in the corner. It's easy to spot them. They are called "killer buyers." Their job is to outbid people for the horses and take them to the slaughterhouses. They like to round up about 30 or 40 of them at a time and often transport them in large, double-decker trailers."
The transportation of the horses is sometimes the worst part of the ordeal.
"Horses are crammed into the trailers," Heyde continues. "They are barely able to stand because it is usually so crowded in there. They will put stallions, pregnant horses, injured horses that sometimes can't even stand, and even blind horses all together. Needless to say the horses can get frantic. There are cases we've seen where people beat them in the face with tire irons to subdue them. It is really horrific.
"By law they are allowed only 28 hours to ship the horses. But many times the transport takes longer than that and there is no water, food or rest provided for the horses. There are many times when they are left in the hot sun for hours. It's a grueling, brutal process."
And that is only the transport.
Once the horses get to the slaughterhouse in Texas or Illinois, Heyde says they are often treated poorly. To get the horses off the trailer, they are poked with long broom handles through holes in the side of the trucks, guiding them down a ramp and into the warehouses. Many times they are severely whipped or beaten if they are not cooperating. Once inside, the brutality continues. Workers have been seen hitting the frightened horses in the face, causing more panic. Some are trampled or kicked by other horses next to them.
Finally they are led through metal doors to meet their ultimate fate.
"They are led into a place called a kill box," Heyde says. "It looks like a big garbage dumpster. The room is filled with blood, feces, urine and the horses can smell the fear. Someone then stands over them with what looks like a jackhammer on a handle. It's called a bolt gun. They shoot it through the brain. It doesn't kill the horse. It's designed to make them brain dead. The animal is still alive. They shove it into the skull until the horse goes down.
"The final process is to hang the horse by the foot and raise it in the air. The heart is still pumping before they slit the throat because they want all the blood to come out." Heyde says that anyone who wants to watch the slaughter can view a video of it on his Web site, saplonline.org. It is not for the faint of heart.
***
Like every emotionally-charged issue, there are varying opinions on slaughtering. One of the leading proponents of horse slaughter is Charlie Stenholm, a lobbyist and spokesman for the Horse Welfare Coalition, a group that was formed with the sole purpose of making sure slaughter is kept legal. Stenholm opposes the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act and is doing everything in his power to make sure that bill does not get passed into law.
Stenholm, a former Texas Congressman, does not believe that horse slaughter is inhumane. The entire process, from transport to slaughter, he says, is not that bad.
"There are three ways you can kill a horse, with a bolt, a bullet or an injection," said Stenholm. "I do not think using a bolt is inhumane. There are those who are perpetuating the myth that it is."
Stenholm has a counter for every point that anti-slaughter proponents throw his way. He says the transport laws have become much more strict, the actual slaughter is not as gruesome as people say it is, and horses should be treated just like cattle, chickens and pigs - even though horses are not raised for food as those other animals are.
"The transport cruelty is a myth," he says. "They don't use the double-decker trailers anymore and a horse is not allowed to travel more than a certain amount of hours. For every one example that these people give of a horse being mistreated I can give 99 examples of times when they are not. Like anything else, if someone breaks the law, they should be punished.
"Look, this is an emotional issue. Horses are special to some of us. But a horse is not a pet. You can't tell an individual owner what they should do with their horse."
One of the questions the Horse Welfare Coalition wants answered is, what will happen to all the unwanted horses if they are not slaughtered? Stenholm claims that slaughter is an important way to control the horse population and without it, there will be major problems. Many owners, he says, simply cannot afford to keep a horse.
"All the folks who oppose slaughter never seem to have anything to say about where these 100,000 horses will go," Stenholm said. "What is going to happen to them? There isn't a solution. Right now, there are 32,000 wild horses in this country. Unwanted horses are a real problem. There is not enough money to take of all of them."
Which is where people like Steve Rei come in.
Rei is the president of the National Equine Rescue Coalition, a non-profit organization designed to help unwanted horses find homes. Like many, Rei got involved in horse welfare because of Barbaro. The catastrophic injury to the 2006 Kentucky Derby champion has fueled an outpouring of concern for injured and mistreated horses. Barbaro owners Roy and Gretchen Jackson have been outspoken proponents of banning slaughter as well.
"I was shocked when I found out about horse slaughter," said Rei, an attorney in Worcester, Mass. "I wanted to do something about it, so late last year I put together a website (nationalequinerescuecoalition.com) that would help find rescue homes. One of our biggest goals was to put together a database, with the help of the Humane Society and law enforcement, so that we can find local rescue groups during emergencies.
"If and when slaughter ends, we want to have enough homes for these horses."
Rei says that so far there are about 80 rescue groups on his Web site, all of them available to place unwanted horses. He says that by the time the law goes into effect, they will be ready. And despite what pro-slaughter people say, the rescue groups will have to be responsible for only about 1 percent of the total horse population. It is a manageable number, Rei says.
"Over a period of time, we can do it," said Rei. "One of the big issues is funding. This was not a focused effort before, but it is now. There are groups forming all over the place, people are starting fundraisers and we have a real plan."
***
The probability that slaughter will soon be banished in the United States is very good. In 2006, the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act bill passed a House of Representatives vote overwhelmingly, 263-146. But the bill was not acted upon by the Senate before it adjourned for the year and had to be re-introduced in 2007.
On Jan. 17 the bills were simultaneously re-introduced to both the House (HR503) and the Senate (S311). If passed, horse slaughter for human consumption would be prohibited immediately.
In addition, on Jan. 19 a federal appeals court ruled that horse slaughter is illegal in Texas, upholding a state law from 1949 that was not being enforced. Although the two Texas slaughter plants, Dallas Crown Inc. and Beltex Corp., still remain open on appeal, horses are not currently being slaughtered for human consumption, only for zoo animals. On Feb. 22 a bill was also introduced to the Illinois state legislature that would put an end to slaughter at Cavel International Inc., a slaughtering plant that processes more than 35,000 horses annually.
By the fall of 2007, it is a very good possibility that horses like Shanna will no longer face the same fate.
Anyone who would like to see the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act bill passed into law is encouraged to write or call their local U.S. Representative and Senators.
