Cruel horse slaughter

• What happens to horses that are slaughtered?
• Is it possible to conduct commercial horse slaughter in a humane manner?
• Is horsemeat safe for human consumption?
• Are there any other options for horses at risk of going to slaughter?
• How is Humane World for Animals tackling this issue?
• Can the U.S. federal government ensure the safety of horsemeat?
• Does horse slaughter have a negative financial impact on American taxpayers?
• Has ending domestic horse slaughter damaged the U.S. horse market and led to neglect and abandonment?
• How prevalent is this issue in Canada?
• What is Humane World for Animals doing to end slaughter?
• What can I do to help?

What happens to horses that are slaughtered?

Horses are brought to slaughter in every possible condition: old, young, sick, healthy, injured, and even pregnant. They are not all unwanted—often, their guardians can no longer afford to keep them and bring the horses to auction hoping to find them a good home. Instead, "kill buyers" purchase horses for their meat. Sadly, the vast majority of the equines who become victims of this predatory and deceptive industry are young, healthy animals who could have led productive lives with loving owners if they'd been given the chance.

A terrible and traumatic journey—horses are transported long distances for more than 24 hours at a time without food, water or rest in cramped trucks. They are often seriously injured or killed in transit. Many times, horses are crammed in trailers designed for shorter animals and travel in uncomfortable positions over very long distances. Loading and unloading at a slaughterhouse is extremely stressful and dangerous for horses as they are moved along the relatively steep ramps.

Once the horses are corralled into a slaughterhouse, the process is brutal and bloody. Sometimes injured and emaciated, horses are beaten and electro-shocked in overcrowded pens and must endure the smell of blood and the sights and sounds of other horses in pain and being killed before they are led into a kill chute. Horse slaughterhouses use the same type of stalls and techniques as cattle slaughterhouses. These stalls are too wide for horses and the captive-bolt stun gun method used with cattle is ill-suited for horses. The panic and instinctive desire to escape causes the horses to thrash their heads frantically in the kill chute, making it difficult to effectively stun them prior to slaughter. Witnesses and video footage document horses subjected to a sharp blow to the head from the captive-bolt gun three or four times before they are rendered unconscious for exsanguination. A slaughterhouse death is rarely quick or painless.

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Is it possible to conduct commercial horse slaughter in a humane manner?

No. Horse slaughter was never and cannot be humane because of the nature of the industry and the unique biology of horses. Slaughter is a brutal and terrifying end for horses, and it is not humane. Horses are shipped for more than 24 hours at a time without food, water or rest in crowded trucks. They are often seriously injured or killed in transit.

Horses are skittish by nature and inclined to fight-or-flight responses which makes accurate pre-slaughter stunning difficult. As a result, horses often endure repeated blows and sometimes remain conscious during dismemberment—this is rarely a quick, painless death. Before the last domestic plant closed in 2007, the USDA documented in the slaughter pipeline rampant cruelty violations and severe injuries to horses, including broken bones protruding from their bodies, eyeballs hanging by a thread of skin, and gaping wounds.

Veterinary experts around the world and leading animal protection groups have denounced horse slaughter as inhumane. We must ban both horse slaughter and the export of horses for slaughter to provide our horses with decent lives and, when necessary, humane death.

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Is horsemeat safe for human consumption?

No. Most horses are not intentionally raised for food and therefore have been given a variety of drugs that make their meat unfit for human consumption. U.S. horsemeat is particularly dangerous to humans because of the unregulated administration of numerous toxic substances. In the U.S., horses are raised and treated as companion animals, not as food-producing animals. Unlike animals raised for food, the vast majority of horses sent to slaughter will have ingested, or been treated or injected with, multiple chemical substances that are known to be dangerous to humans, untested on humans or specifically prohibited for use in animals raised for human consumption. Horses are gathered from random sources at various stages in their life, and there is no system in the U.S. to track medications and veterinary treatments given to horses to ensure that their meat is safe for human consumption. Due to concerns about the health threats of drug-laced horsemeat, the European Union (EU), a primary importer of North American horsemeat, suspended horsemeat imports from Mexico—where 87% of horses slaughtered for export to the EU are of U.S. origin. EU authorities made the decision after a series of scathing audits that exposed a plethora of problems, including the lack of traceability of American horses and horrific suffering on U.S. soil and in Mexico.

Horses are slaughtered in North America to meet demand for export markets, like Japan, where raw horsemeat is considered a delicacy. The horsemeat is sent to European and Asian countries.

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Are there any other options for horses at risk of going to slaughter?

Yes. There are several ways to reduce the number of homeless or at-risk horses. We can curb overbreeding, educate owners about other rehoming options and expand adoption work. Thousands of American horses are sent to slaughter every year and the vast majority would be rehomed; not every horse going to slaughter needs to go to rescue. The USDA documented that 92.3 % of horses sent to slaughter are in good condition and are able to live out a productive life. These horses would be sold, donated or otherwise rehomed; however, kill buyers outbid legitimate horse owners and rescues at auctions, robbing horses of ever having a second chance at life.

The idea of slaughtering companion animals is unacceptable to the American people and will never be embraced. A 2022 national poll found that 83% of Americans support banning horse slaughter for human consumption. There are countries that consume dogs, cats and other pets as food, but we do not allow our dogs and cats to be exported for food purposes, even though there is a well-documented overpopulation issue to contend with for those animals.

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Do horse slaughter plants stimulate local economies?

No. Horse slaughter plants have proven to be economic and environmental nightmares for the communities that host them. These plants pollute local water, decrease property values, permeate the air with a foul stench, drain local economies and damage the environment. The last three horse slaughter plants in the U.S. offered only a few low-income, dangerous jobs that did nothing to bolster local economies. Long before the plants closed in 2007, they had worn out their welcome.

For example, in 2005, the City Council of Kaufman, Texas, home to the Dallas Crown facility, voted unanimously to implement termination proceedings against the plant. Paula Bacon, then mayor of Kaufman, stated, “As a community leader where we are directly impacted by the horse slaughter industry, I can assure you the economic development return to our community is negative.” Attracting new business was difficult for communities burdened with the presence of a horse slaughter plant due to the related negative stigma. Any minimal financial contributions of horse slaughter facilities are vastly outweighed by the enormous economic and development-suppressing burden they present.

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Can the U.S. federal government ensure the safety of horsemeat?

No. The USDA has no system in place to track horses’ lifetime medical histories, and the reputation of the entire U.S. meat industry is at risk. Testing random samples of horsemeat overlooks the fact that every single horse has a unique, unknown past. Unlike animals raised for food, horses do not spend their lives being prepared for the food chain. Every horse is a pet, riding companion, race horse, show pony or work partner. Each may be a single patient to any number of vets, transferred by any number of owners, and has a unique life story. Relying on random-sample testing of horsemeat is inadequate and dangerous.

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Does horse slaughter have a negative financial impact on American taxpayers?

Yes. Subsidizing horse slaughter cruelty will divert precious financial resources away from American products and food safety. It makes no sense for the federal government to spend millions of taxpayer dollars to oversee new horse slaughter plants. At a time when Congress is focused on fiscal responsibility and the budget of the USDA’s Food Safety Inspection Service is already stretched thin, the USDA should not extend funding for a new program to slaughter horses—a practice that 80 % of Americans oppose.

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Has ending domestic horse slaughter damaged the U.S. horse market and led to neglect and abandonment?

No. Horse neglect and abandonment cannot logically be attributed to the closure of U.S slaughter plants. The numbers of horses being sent across our borders into Canada and Mexico for slaughter has decreased significantly in the last 10 years from a high of over 166,000 in 2012 to just over 23,000 in 2021. Clearly, any increase in neglect or abandonment—as well as any downturn in the horse market—is related to the economic downturn that began the same year that the last slaughter plant closed and continues today. Horse slaughter has never been, and will never be, a solution for abuse and neglect. Rather, the continued availability of horse slaughter has only enabled and perpetuated overbreeding, neglect and irresponsibility. As long as slaughter is an outlet for breeders to sell excess horses, they will be rewarded—and continue their irresponsible behavior.

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How prevalent is this issue in Canada?

With nearly 72,000 horses slaughtered in 2013 alone, Canada’s horse slaughter industry is among the largest in the world, and a shameful betrayal against our loyal companions. Horses are slaughtered in Canada primarily to provide horse meat to European and Asian countries. There are four equine slaughter plants in Canada, two in Quebec and two in Alberta. 

More than half of horses sold at rural auctions go to slaughter after being bought by “kill buyers.” Canadian animal transport standards are among the worst in the industrialized world. Current regulations allow horses to be transported for up to 36 hours without food, water or rest. There have been many reported cases of animal welfare violations in Canadian horse slaughterhouses including failure to provide food and water, illegal unloading of animals, animals left for extended periods in kill pens and sick or injured animals denied veterinary care. 

An investigation of a carcasses discarded by a Canadian slaughterhouse, skulls of many horses processed for meat were found without any holes from a stun gun or rifle whatsoever!

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What is Humane World for Animals doing to end slaughter?

Humane World for Animals, formerly called the Humane Society of the United States and Humane Society International is working to achieve federal bans on the horse slaughter industry that would end the slaughter, sale, transport and trade of horses for human consumption. By raising public awareness regarding horse slaughter, actively campaigning for legislative change and by working with our partners, Humane World for Animals aims to put an end to the cruel horse slaughter industry.

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What can I do to help?

You can help end cruel horse slaughter and protect people from the threat of toxic horse meat with these simple steps.

Tell your legislators

Call, email and visit your legislators. Urge them to cosponsor the SAFE Act to end horse slaughter. These are the most important points to make to representatives:

• Horse slaughter is unacceptably inhumane.
• 83% of Americans are opposed to horse slaughter. They don't want horse meat served at the dinner table and they don't want their tax dollars spent on inspecting meat bound for foreign markets.
• Horses are commonly exposed to drugs and other substances that are expressly forbidden for use in animals used for food, making their meat unfit for human consumption. Meat laced with toxic products such as fly sprays and de-wormers is dangerous to human health.
• Horse slaughter plants have been linked to air and water pollution, lowered property values and increased crime rates in the areas where they're located.
• The SAFE Act would keep U.S. horse slaughter plants shuttered and end the export of horses for human consumption.

Take your message to social media

Facebook: Post on your legislators' Facebook pages, urging cosponsorship of the SAFE Act to end horse slaughter. Already cosponsors? Thank them for their support!

Twitter: Tweet at your legislators and urge them to cosponsor the SAFE Act to end horse slaughter. Already cosponsors? Thank them for their support!

You can also use social media to share links to our investigative video, "Horse Slaughter: Cruelty Uncovered."

Speak out in the media and inform the public

Write an op-ed or letter to the editor of your local newspaper. You can present the same points listed above.

Attend Town Hall meetings

You don’t need to be an expert on slaughter or even a horse owner. You simply need to do your homework. Some town hall meetings are conducted in person, while others follow a call-in format. You can find the schedule for upcoming meetings by visiting the websites of your federal legislators or calling their offices. The U.S. Capitol switchboard’s number is 202-224-3121.

Volunteer with a horse rescue group

Help out at your local horse rescue facility. Rescue work is a demanding, round-the-clock job requiring dedication, resources and lots of hands-on help. Contact your local horse rescue and offer to lend a hand feeding, grooming, fundraising or organizing volunteers.

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