Your Representative and the House leaders can be reached through the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121.
Horse slaughter is NOT humane euthanasia as documented by a USDA FOIA. The captive bolt gun used in the U.S. slaughterhouses did not typically render horses senseless before slaughter. The slaughter houses never bothered to restrain the horses' heads or use only trained personnel to operate the gun.
In its 2000 report on methods of Euthanasia, the AVMA stated that the captive bolt gun should not be used on equines unless head restraint could be assured. This is because of the relatively narrow forehead of equines, their head shyness and the fact that the brain is set back further than in cattle for which the gun is intended. It is difficult for an operator to assure proper placement of the gun.
"No slaughter house has ever found a practical way to restrain the heads of the horses, so by the AVMA's very definition, the process was not acceptable. The result was a very large number of ineffective stuns. These misplaced blows undoubtedly caused severe pain until a stunning or fatal blow was delivered. " - John Holland
Photo Credit Animals-Angels
Read investigation by Angels Animals about the transport of horses to slaughter. GO!
Photo Credit Animals-Angels
Horse Slaughter: The Facts
From Animal-Angels
Every year, approximately 100.000 American horses are slaughtered for human consumption. They are transported across the border to large slaughter facilities in Mexico and Canada and their meat is exported to Italy, Belgium, France and Japan.
They are transported for up to 28 hours, without food, water and rest, to their final destination.
Upon their arrival at the slaughterhouse, many of them are already “down”, unable to rise, due to exhaustion, dehydration or injuries. These horses are supposed to be euthanized on the truck. However, they are sometimes dragged into the slaughter facility with a cable winch. (Continued)
Supporters of Horse Slaughter Claimed that Abuse and Neglect would Rise if Horse Slaughter Stopped...
In a recent study to quantify the combined impact of the plant closings, the economic downturn and higher grain and hay prices in the past year.
When asked to explain the unexpected results, John Holland, senior analyst for AAHS (Americans Against Horse Slaughter) said "A significant number of media stories had assured us that abuse and neglect had increased dramatically following the closing of the Texas horse slaughter plants in February of 2007 and the Illinois plant in September. What we see is that this clearly never happened."
“Racing For Time”, tells the story of a racehorse who loses his best friend to slaughter only because he couldn't run fast enough to win races. He quickly realized with fear that he also may be running for his life.
(Music Published with express Permission by Ronnie Nyles and Deb Lopez) All rights Reserved
TALK RADIO FOR ANIMAL PROTECTION
MISSION: PROTECTION FROM SLAUGHTER FOR ALL HORSES
"Saving America's Horses"
"Saving America's Horses - A Nation Betrayed"
BEST IN FESTIVAL: Los Angeles Women’s International Film Festival
ACCOLADE MERIT AWARD: Advocacy, Visuals, and Investigative Journalism
AWARDED FOR CINEMATOGRAPHY, ADVOCACY, Editing & Conservation Message: International Wildlife Film Festival.
"Masterfully presented" – Larry Lindner, New York Times best-selling writer
“Powerful and compelling” — Greg MacGillivary, MacGillivary Freeman Films (IMAX)
“A brilliant and heartbreaking exposé.” — Laura Allen
"It raises the bar for animal welfare in this country” – Shelley Abrams, racehorse owner, Founder of "Horses Helping Horses", Co-Founder AAHS
"Transcends the finest investigative journalism" —Debra Lopez, AAHS, Animal Advocate TV
Help Put an End to the Suffering and the Corruption
America's horses are traveling north in south in huge numbers, during heat indexes as high as 116 degrees and as low as 10 degrees below freezing. They have been betrayed and are suffering horribly and terrified.
Please take a minute right now to call ans ask your U.S. Representative to cosponsor and support SB 1176. If your U.S. legislators are already cosponsors then please thank them and ask them to help get the bills through committee and on to the floor for a vote.
Your 30-second phone calls urging your legislators to “please support SB 1176 to protect horses from slaughter” are critical.
Call the Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask to be connected to your two US Senators and US Representative’s offices.
Thank you!
FACTS ABOUT HORSE SLAUGHTER
Horse slaughter is not euthanasia. Horse slaughter is a multi million dollar a year business that is driven by a demand for horse meat. Kill buyers buy horses at auction for slaughter, and the USDA has said over 92% of American horses slaughtered, are healthy, not old, sick, injured, or neglected. These horses were not "unwanted"; they were simply sold at auction, and their owners had no control over who purchased them. Without the kill buyers who skulk around horse auctions, looking for the best potential horse meat, most of these horses would be purchased by loving new owners or placed in sanctuaries.
As John Holland, a free lance writer and researcher on horse slaughter, has explained, "Kill buyers do not go around the country like dog catchers gathering ‘unwanted horses' as a public service."
As Americans Against Horse Slaughter points out, "Just over 100,000 horses were slaughtered in the U.S. in 2006. If slaughter were no longer an option and these horses were rendered or buried instead, it would represent a small increase in the number of horse being disposed of in this manner - an increase that the current infrastructure can certainly sustain. Humane euthanasia and carcass disposal is highly affordable and widely available. The average cost of having a horse humanely euthanized and safely disposing of the animal's carcass is approximately $225, while the average monthly cost of keeping a horse is approximately $200."
The horse slaughter industry actually encourages the over breeding of horses. Because owners can make money from the brutal slaughter of their horses, they have an incentive to over breed. As Paul Sorvino put it, "37% of those horses are going to be slaughtered because they couldn't run fast enough....So, it's run for your life." If the slaughter of horses for human consumption is illegal, there is no reward for over breeding.
Sadly, pro-slaughter groups have disseminated disinformation in the media to convince the public that without horse slaughter, there will be large numbers of abandoned, abused and neglected horses. (Even if that were true, it is not clear how substituting one form of cruelty for another is somehow a solution.)
A study released last year showed a decrease in horse abuse and neglect cases following closure of the last U.S. horse slaughter house in 2007. Any abandoned or neglected horses are not a result of a lack of horse slaughter houses. READ STUDY!
Horse slaughter is driven by a demand for horse meat. Typically, kill buyers buy horses at auction for slaughter. The kill buyers are looking for healthy horses that can be slaughtered for horsemeat, a delicacy in parts of Europe and Asia. The USDA has said over 92% of American horses slaughtered are healthy.
Paula Bacon, Americans Against Horse Slaughter. Former mayor of Kaufman, TX 2003-07 where Belgian owned Dallas Crown operated for almost 30 years until the city finally closed them in 2006 for various violations.
"Our job today is to amass and activate people into calling, emailing and faxing the U.S. Congress—until this is done. Perhaps mark your calendars and every Tuesday or alternate day on Wednesday, call, email, fax, but calling is very because we want to keep staff busy with us and the issue on peoples’ minds."
- Paula Bacon
John Holland, Senior Analyst Americans Against Horse Slaughter. He is also a world renowned author on the subject of horse slaughter.
"Despite the closing of all domestic horse slaughter plants, American horses continue to be barbarically slaughtered in Canada and Mexico. These exports have rapidly grown to match the highest levels of slaughter in over ten year."
- John Holland
Laura Allen, Animal Law Coalition. She is regarded as one of the nation's most active and astute Animal Law Attorney's.
"Documents never before made public reveal the USDA was aware of extreme cruelty during horse slaughter at facilities in the U.S. The documents dispute claims horse slaughter in the U.S. was in any sense humane and instead reveal a brutal, terrifying ordeal that should be permanently banned."
About Americans Against Horse Slaughter: Americans Against Horse Slaughter is a non funded, grassroots movement comprised of supporters of a federal ban on the slaughter of American horses for human consumption. It is the intention of Amercians Against Horse Slaughter to spread the word about horse slaughter and the pending legislation.
About Animal Law Coalition: Animal Law Coalition works to stop animal cruelty and suffering through legislation, administrative agency action, and litigation. ALC offers legal analysis of the difficult and controversial issues relating to animals. Join ALC and together we can take action for animals nationally and in your state and community.
Animals' Angels is a 501 (c)(3) non profit organization incorporated in Maryland with fulltime investigators working in the United States and Canada. Our focus is on improving conditions for farm animals. We work primarily in the field, trailing livestock trucks on highways, visiting markets, collecting stations and slaughterhouses. We seek to cooperate with auction managers, transport companies and other authorities, including the police, veterinarians and the United States Department of Agriculture.
Saving America's Horses PSA
"Saving America's Horses"
Saving America's Horses centers on the Hidden Cruelty of Horse Slaughter and the Fight for Federal Support to Make it Stop.
The orginial guestpanel included Paula Bacon, former Mayor of Kaufman TX; renown author on the issue of horse slaughter, John Holland; senior analyst for Americans Against Horse Slaughter; Animal Law Attorney, Laura Allen of the Animal Law Coalition and Nena Winand DVM, PHD representing Veterinarians for Equine Welfare.
S.B. 1176 would protect America's horses from being used for slaughter
Beware of Propaganda
Proponents claim that there is an increase of so-called "unwanted" horses because of the closing of U.S. horse slaughter facilities in 2007.
They claim the closing of U.S. slaughter houses in 2007 had "significant economic impact on the...equine industry". They claim horse slaughter can be humanely managed through inspections and regulations.
The Horror of Horse Slaughter
The USDA says 90% of horses are healthy when they begin their horrific journey to the slaughterhouse. These horses are shipped in cramped, overcrowded transports to the slaughterhouse. They often have no food or water for over 24 hours. In the summer they endure extremely hot temperatures during these transports.
Once at the slaughterhouse, the horses are typically shot in the head. They are then hung by their back legs upside down, many times while they are conscious.
In testimony before the U.S. House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection on July 25, 2006, Christopher J. Heyde, Deputy Legislative Director for Society for Animal Protective Legislation (SAPL) urged lawmakers to pass the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act, H.R. 503. (The bill did not become law in that Congressional session and has the same number, H.R. 503, in this session.) Heyde pointed out the numerous polls showing most Americans support an end to horse slaughter for human consumption.
Heyde described the horrific conditions for horses during transport and when they are at the slaughter houses. He testified, "The horses end up at the slaughterhouse in a variety of ways, all unlucky.
Sometimes they are sent by individuals or groups no longer able or willing to care for them. Sometimes they are retired or injured racehorses, riding school or show horses, federally protected wild horses, foals born as a by-product of the Premarin industry, or stolen horses.
"The majority is not actively sold to slaughter by their owners, but instead arrive at the slaughterhouse via livestock auction, often sold by owners unaware of their ultimate fate. Those purchased at auctions by individuals known as "killer buyers" may then be shipped on trailers for as long as 28 hours without water, food or rest".
Heyde described for the Subcommittee his visit to a slaughterhouse, "When I visited a slaughterhouse, there was a double-deck trailer fully loaded with horses from Canada located at the rear of the nondescript facility. The horses filled both rows and were unable to stand normally, forced to keep their heads low. Despite the fact that several of the horses I could see had cuts and blood trailing from their mouths and noses, all looked otherwise healthy and fairly young.... Workers poked some of them with long fiberglass rods through holes on the side of the trailer. The horses, typically very sensitive animals, slid and fell down the ramp, only to be whipped by another worker's rod. All exhibited "flight" behavior, pacing in prance-like movements with their ears pinned back against their heads and their eyes bulging. (continued)
Read the July 25, 2006 testimony of Christopher J. Heyde, Deputy Legislative Director for Animal Welfare Institute, before the U.S. House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection.
Unprecedented Evidence that Horse Slaughter is Inhumane
Documents never before made public reveal the USDA was aware of extreme cruelty during horse slaughter at facilities in the U.S. The documents dispute claims horse slaughter in the U.S. was in any sense humane and instead reveal a brutal, terrifying ordeal that should be permanently banned.
Ithaca, New York - The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has released a 906-page document revealing for the first time the alarming cruelty that takes place during horse slaughter in the U.S. The documents included almost nine hundred photographs.
Also, tell your representatives to support The Horse Transportatioin Act This will put an end to the cruel transports of horses on double deck trailers.
TAKE MORE ACTION!
Call your Representative and the House leaders through the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121.
Five this PDF Document with FOIA images to your Vet. Print it and take it with you. (Viewer discretion advised) Please tell your friends to do the same. Save America's Horses!
RACE HORSES
Findings: Congressional Hearings
Injuries and fatalities in racing horses are clearly on the rise.
Susan M. Stover, DVM, PhD, Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Surgeons, Professor, JD Wheat Veterinary Orthopedic Research Laboratory, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California, Davis, testified, "Musculoskeletal injuries are the greatest cause of racehorse death and attrition." (more)
Additional Photo Credits: FOIA: Kaufman Zoning & Animals-Angels; American's Against Horse Slaughter, Animal Law Coalition, Animal Fairy Charities and HSUS
