The Unintended Effect of Slaughter Ban

I will not put up the pictures they had in
the paper down here in San Antonio from the
slaughter barns in Mexico. This was about
a month ago and my wife almost lost her lunch.

Absolutey disgusting. It should have had a warning;
the pictures were kind of hard to see at first and then
all of the sudden it was obvious.

There was absolutely no thought to how painful
it might be, it was all about the cheapest way
to kill without damaging meat.

I will not elaborate except to say it had to be
pure torture.

[Suffolk Shippers]

This, sadly, is one of those cases where a loop hole almost seems worse than not having the law in place at all. I think the promising news is that this can be ended. As with anything legislative in nature, it will take some time. I think common ground can certainly be found on this subject, where exportation is outlawed and owners need to be held accountable for doing right by the animal.
No one likes to put their dog or cat down, but at some point, you do right by the animal and end it's suffering, in a humane, close to painless manner.

These kill pens, and attempting to subdue the horse by severing it's spine are just beyond comprehension in terms of disgust. Just like anything, voices need to be heard, I hope anyone concerned with this topic takes a few minutes to look up their House of Rep delegate and Senators and maybe drop a line to support measures to ban exportation...if you need help finding your reps, follow these links:

https://forms.house.gov/wyr/welcome.shtml

http://www.senate.gov/general/contac...nators_cfm.cfm

[Echo Farm]

They close them down, then another state welcomes the business:
SOUTH DAKOTA INTRODUCES BILL TO FINANCE HORSE SLAUGHTER PLANT

Senate Bill No. 170 introduced in the South Dakota Legislature would authorize $1 million loan for the construction of "equine processing facility" within the state of South Dakota and is scheduled for hearing in the South Dakota Senate Agriculture Committee at 10 a.m. Tuesday, January 29, 2008. The bill was introduced by:

SD Senators - Kloucek, Garnos, Gary Hanson, Koetzle, Maher, Sutton

SD Representatives - DeVries, Elliott, Howie, Lucas, Betty Olson, Van Norman

It is important to note that South Dakota has been extremely pro slaughter. The possibilities for parent companies Velda - Zele, Belgium (Cavel-IL), Chevideco - Rekkem, Belgium (Dallas Crown - TX), Frontier Meats - Fort Worth, TX (Beltex), as well as outside interests, constructing facilities in a state that would not be problematic with anti-slaughter legislation is very high and financially advantageous.


What can you do? Animal Welfare Institute eAlert provides specific actions and contact information. Until the federal legislation is passed, there is nothing preventing this action in the state of South Dakota and it would not be expected that countering legislation could be attained in the state.

[Danzig]

obviously the best case scenario would be no slaughter of horses. but until the overbreeding of horses is discontinued, the fact remains there will be more horses than willing owners.
so...then what? with the closing of any u.s. slaughterhouses, the result is that the horses are being shipped that much further, in the same rotten conditions, to out of country slaughter--without the watchful eye of our govt inspectors. i'm not so sure that is an improvement over what we had previously. obviously no horse lover would want horse slaughter in this country, but we can't pretend that the problem has been solved just because we no longer have it within our borders.

i'm absolutely not pro slaughter--but the current 'solution' to the slaughter issue is no solution at all.

[prudery]

Originally Posted by Danzig

obviously the best case scenario would be no slaughter of horses. but until the overbreeding of horses is discontinued, the fact remains there will be more horses than willing owners.
so...then what? with the closing of any u.s. slaughterhouses, the result is that the horses are being shipped that much further, in the same rotten conditions, to out of country slaughter--without the watchful eye of our govt inspectors. i'm not so sure that is an improvement over what we had previously. obviously no horse lover would want horse slaughter in this country, but we can't pretend that the problem has been solved just because we no longer have it within our borders.

i'm absolutely not pro slaughter--but the current 'solution' to the slaughter issue is no solution at all.

No one has ever called the current situation a solution ... The work is not finished ... The closing of the US slaughterhouses was not intented as a " solution " in itself---the solution was the passage of the bill, the closing of borders, and the subsequent future fight to enlighten owners and breeders toward a goal of humanity and responsibility ... This is not a simple issue by any means, and it is in no way finished ...

[Princess Doreen]

Mrs. Rip Van Winkle has awoken from her nap. And nobody missed me either. But I'm going to give my 2 cents on a subject which I am passionate about.

There are horse breeders/owners/trainers who depend on the kill buyer stopping by their barns on a regular basis taking away their unwanted equines for $300 - $500/head.

No slaughter and no transport? No kill buyer! No kill buyer? A boatload of horse breeders, owners and trainers no longer breeding, owning, racing poorly bred horses on nothing more than 100% speculation. And, horse thievery would greatly diminish.

There will always be abuse, neglect and abandonment. But, it should not be blamed on the fact that slaughter ceases to exist in the USA.

The problem of overpopulation, overbreeding, over ownership, horse theft, horse slaughter didn't happen over night. Many years in the making - many decades even.

The problem is complex - many stages and it may take years to see a drastic improvement - perhaps a decade.

But, by first attacking the problem by legislating breeding and ownership is going to cause a backlash and accusations of government interference. We can't get legislators to get the slaughter bill into law. Do you really think they'll craft legislation to limit breeding and ownership?

Cutting off the profitability of horse slaughter will lead to "voluntary" and drastic cutbacks in breeding, owning and racing inferior equines.

It's the simple start to a complex problem and the bedrock on which the problem will eventually be solved - not 100%; maybe not even 80 or 90 percent. But, a 50 - 75% improvement over the next 10 years would be a God send.

The journey starts somewhere. Slaughter and transport for slaughter is the snake's head.