Horses will be slaughtered by the hundreds in the United States every day if Sue Wallis, Wyoming State Representative and chief executive officer of Unified Equine, gets her way. Unified Equine is pressing forward with their plans to open a slaughterhouse for horses near Mountain Grove, Missouri before the end of 2012. Their plan calls for slaughtering 200-400 horses every day when operating at peak capacity. This would give Unified Equine the capacity to process almost 150,000 horses yearly. Unified Equines proposed slaughter house for horses has reignited the horse slaughter debate among horse slaughter advocates and opponents.
The primary advocates of horse slaughter are registries and breeders, both of which make most of their money when baby horses are born, registered and sold. The American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA) routinely registers over 100,000 foals a year. As Jim Dudley, an AQHA breeder in Missouri, stated regarding the horse slaughter plant potentially opening near Mountain Grove: “My passion are the horses but my knowledge is telling me that we need a place to take these horses.” It can be assumed that Jim is willing to breed horses, fully expecting to ship his excess horses straight to slaughter.
Advocates of horse slaughter argue that slaughter is necessary to deal with unwanted horses: the old, the lame, and the injured, but a little investigation reveals that reality is quite the opposite. Horses in transit to slaughter in Canada or Mexico are regularly dumped into the deserts of the Midwest after they are rejected at the border due to injury, pregnancy, or for being too emaciated. Many of the abandoned horses are still wearing their livestock auction tags. They are left to die of starvation and dehydration because they are not even good enough for a slaughter house. As Sue Wallis, ceo of Unified Equine, told KY3 News “The horses that are processed — it’s just like cattle or hogs or sheep. You don’t want starving, abused horses. You want horses that are in good shape.” Sue is not wanting to slaughter skinny, sick, or injured horses. She wants to maximize profits by only slaughtering healthy, fat horses.
The solution to the unwanted horse is simple and economically viable: humane euthanasia by chemical injection. The chemical used to euthanize horses, Sodium Pentobarbital, costs between $35 and $70 per horse, depending on age, health and size of the animal. Sodium Pentobarbital is a heavy sedation, which simply puts an animal to sleep. Disposal of a horse carcass costs $20 at a rendering plant, where the entire horse is used to manufacture a host of products, including glue, solvents, shoe polish, anti-freeze, hair dyes, and many others. Horses can be humanely euthanized and disposed of for less than $100 per horse. You can watch the humane euthanasia of a horse by chemical injection, which is not graphic. Horse Plus Humane Society in northern California provides free and low cost end of life services for horses, and is planning to expand nation wide with Euthanasia Clinics.
Sue Wallis states on her website: “Horse meat is healthy, safe, and plentiful, and is 50% higher in protein, 40% less in fat, high in iron, and has 18 times the Omega-3 fatty acids of beef.” Despite her beliefs, nothing could be farther from the truth. Horses in the United States are not raised for human consumption, and as such are routinely given drugs banned from being administered to animals intended for human consumption. The FDA has banned many drugs from being given to horses intended for human consumption, including Bute, GastroGard, Ivermectin, Moxidectin (used in Quest 2% Equine Oral Gel) and many others. These drugs are administered to almost every horse that has ever been handled by a human. The two most common drugs on the banned list, Bute and Ivermectin, are used routinely. Bute is a pain reliever and fever reducer, and Ivermectin is the primary ingredient in most wormer medications used to treat parasites. There has been no guidelines established for withdrawal times for horses that have been given drugs banned for human consumption. In Europe and the United Kingdom, horses can never be slaughtered for human consumption if they have ever received drugs that are deemed unsafe. It is the belief of many veterinarians that no American horse is safe for human consumption due to the routine, widespread use of drugs that are banned for use in animals intended for human consumption. Why is Sue Wallis willing to risk American lives, and the lives of those around the world, with drug tainted horse meat from her slaughter house? No domestic American horse can be certified free of banned drugs or their residue.
Jason Preisner is the president of Horse Plus Humane Society. He has been involved with horse welfare since 2003.