News
Anti-horse slaughter group says numbers don’t add up
An anti-horse-slaughter group says the numbers released from a leading pro-slaughter group don’t add up.
Jo-Claire Corcoran, with the Equine Welfare Alliance (EWA), says the group did a study of claims about abandoned U.S. horses and very few were substantiated. She says those that were, were of horses in the southwestern states – rejects from Mexican slaughter plants.
Corcoran also says claims from the International Equine Business Association’s Sue Wallis about the number of U.S. horses going to Mexican and Canadian slaughter plants are inflated.
“Three months, 48,000 horses? Well, that’s 192,000 a year. That number’s grossly exaggerated. They’re not slaughtering horses at that rate,” says Corcoran.
Wallis and her association are working to open domestic slaughter plants in the U.S. to resume horse processing since Congress removed the ban. Wallis applauds the recent lifting of a temporary EU ban on horse meat from U.S. horses.
Corcoran, however, says the horse slaughter industry is in for a rude awakening when the European Union’s regulations on drug residue tracing go into effect next year, which she says will essentially shut down the market. Corcoran tells Brownfield Ag News, “In essence, when that happens, there won’t be any horses eligible. The U.S. does not have a passport program. Canada does not have a passport program.” Corcoran says Mexico doesn’t have a good tracing program in place either.
She says 70% of the market of U.S. horses slaughtered for horse meat goes to the E.U. and that 80% of Americans are opposed to horse slaughter. Corcoran says U.S. horses are not raised as livestock and should not be treated as such.
AUDIO: Jo-Claire Corcoran (27:00 mp3)
Temporary halt of U.S. horsemeat to E.U.
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More “cooked” statistics, Ms. Corcoran? Anything to justify the *emotional* anti-slaughter position, regardless of the FACT that horses have historically been eaten as meat sources along with other animals by most cultures. Just because we are an affluent (at least right now) society that wants to pamper all its animals, regardless of the costs to animals and people, there are those who would *force* their expensive views on others. Hmmm. Seems a quote comes to mind from the French Revolution, “Let them eat cake!”
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Morgan,
Horse slaughter is about food production, they will only slaughter the numbers to supply the demand. The plants in Canada and Mexico must meet EU standards for humane treatment and food safety. Same as plants in the US would have to do. Horse slaughter was not, humane not ethical when it was conducted in the states, nor would it be. There is nothing ethical about horse slaughter.
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Ethically dispose? Give me a freakin’ break…
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Slaughter and ethical disposal do no belong in the same sentence. Also you might want to consider that the horses that are hauled to slaughter plants are NOT old, lame, sick or unwanted. Slaughter plants want young fat healthy ones, like the ones standing in most peoples pastures. If horse slaughter is restarted here in this country the breeders will have no incentive to breed responsibly since they will have a convenient place to dump the ones that don’t run fast enough or slide far enough or are not the right color or conformation. Horse theft will go back up again since we all know how unscrupulous horse meat buyers are. Anything to make a buck. Horses are not raised for food. We give them drugs that make them ineligible for slaughter for their entire lives. Just go in the feed store and read the back of dewormers and fly sprays NOT FOR USE IN HORSES INTENDED FOR FOOD. They don’t put that there just for grins and giggles. Furazone is a common booboo cream that we use for them. Permanently banned in the food supply because it’s carcinogenic as well as phenylbutazone, commonly called Bute. No withdrawal time. Permanently banned. I for one have given all of my horses at least one dose of it in their lifetimes
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No, they would slaughter at the rate that meets the demand for horsemeat. No more, no less. Slaughter is for the production of food, not to dispose of unwanted animals.
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I have 7 horses. None of them are on drugs. Where does this come from that the meat is contaminated. Whom has the solution to my caring for my 7 horses when I can no longer make it out to the barn? We as horse owners should have a way to humanely dispose of unwanted, lame or aged animals. What I can’t understand is not using them for human consumption. They are a delicacy in some areas, but also are used for Zoos and could be a source of good meat for any country that needs to be fed. Usually the people. Most opposed are the who have have never cared for them or owned them. A 1200# horse requires way more than a cat or a dog and is not suitable to confine 24/7. If people want to save the horses so we can continue to enjoy them and be able to keep them on small acreages, they need to understand and think about this generation who has devoted their lives to them. I have had 3 horses slaughtered over the last 50 years. There has to be an option other than “rescue” because there are simply too many horses.
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Are you kidding me? If horse slaughter starts up in the USA we will see more horse abuse. People will be afraid for their horses and in turn will let their horses starve instead of taking a chance that they will end up at slaughter. Also more crime in those areas that would have horse slaughter.
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Morgan Y. – Hogwash! Your comment presumes there are that many ‘unwanted’ horses that would pass muster (medical contaminant screening) and have enough meat on them for slaughter houses to care. It’s a false number about a false premise. The real answer to the smaller number of horses that do not have good placement is to spay and neuter, same as with dogs & cats, and to get them to the many, many shelters & rescues who specialize in rehab & retraining for adoption. Over breeding by registries that make money from promoting breeding no matter what markets are doing, and back yard breeders – the equine equivalent of puppy mills – are the primary sources of any population in excess of buyers. Even without the many medical or moral objections to horse slaughter, it’s the wrong solution because it addresses the wrong end of the problem – the numbers should be reduced 2-4 years earlier by managing ‘production’ the way any sensible business would, rather than saying breed on! and we’ll worry about it later.
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Sorry, Morgan, but that just is NOT true. We are already slaughtering as many horses as the market will bear. The number of horses that go to slaughter is determined by the MARKET, not the number of horses that might – or might not – be available.
In addition, slaughter is NOT, never has been and never will be an “ethical” way to “dispose” of horses we don’t want to take care of anymore. Don’t be fooled. Slaughter plants will NOT accept sick, old, crippled, injured or starved horses. They reject them and then the killers themselves abandon them in the desert Southwest. This has been verified by investigations by several agencies. And, USDA records show that over 90% of horses that have gone to slaughter were perfectly healthy.
Horses are an extreme example of creatures of flight – panic prone with an overwhelming flight response and an instinctive urge to raise their heads in panic when approached front on by a someone with a strange object in his hand – especially if they are already in full panic. This makes the captive bolt impossible to use as the regulations demand. Neither can the required head restraints be used on horses. Even Temple Grandin has acknowledged that it is impossible to humanely slaughter horses in the noisy, fast moving assembly-line structure of the modern slaughter plant.
In addition, our horses are not food animals. They are not bred, raised or regulated like food animals. Many of the most widely prescribed horse medications and other widely used products contain ingredients that are BANNED in food animals. Banned means that if an animal is EVER exposed to the substance during their lifetime, they are no longer permitted in the human food chain – ever.
That is why – as Jo-Claire said – the European Union, which purchases 80% of our horse meat, has been steadily tightening the regulations for the last three years. The have said all along that if we don’t have a traceability system for horses comparable to their own passport system, after July 31, 2013 they will not accept our horses any more. Period.
80% of American people know all this and are dead set against slaughtering horses. I’ve owned horses for over 30 years. I lived in Texas when the two slaughter plants were open there. Both were within 40 miles of me. The US horse slaughter “business” has much more in common with organized crime than legitimate animal agriculture. The killers have no qualms about stealing horses, purchasing them under false pretenses and being in collusion with auction owners to make sure all the best horses – those that would probably have gone to a good home – are sold only to them. I’ve been there. I’ve seen horse slaughter. My own horse was nearly stolen and a number of my friends were not so fortunate. We don’t want or need those hell-holes back in the US. Besides, the EU isn’t going to take our horses after July no matter where they’re slaughtered.
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Morgan, that’s not true. The plants buy the number of horses needed to fill the demand, not the number of available horses. The average number from 2001 to 2011 is 124,084 during which, the US plants were open for the majority of years (6 full years with all 3 plants and 1 year with 9 months of one plant). These are statistics posted on the USDA site.
Horse slaughter is not a disposal service, it’s for food production. It is unethical to send any animal to slaughter that was not raised or regulated as a food animal.
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Ms. Corcoran goes to great effort to disparage the Government Accountability Office, (GAO) report, Horse Welfare, Action Needed to Address Unintended Consequences From Cessasion of Domestic Slaughter. Some people may not know that the GAO is is an independent, nonpartisan agency that works for Congress. Often called the “congressional watchdog,” GAO investigates how the federal government spends taxpayer dollars. Both sides of the horse slaughter issue waited with baited breath to see what the result would be. The pro-slaugter side was releaved when the report varified what we had witnessed. The anti-slaughter immediately began to make aligations of impropriety, everything from incompetence such as Ms. Corcoran charges to others shouting out and out bribery of agency officials by the horse industry. Had the study backed her side, Corcoran & others would be shouting it as the greatest non religous work ever written, but it did not, so the anti-slaughter groups must try to dismiss it as flawed.
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d11228.pdf -
America’s Horses are not purpose raised for consumption, they are frequently administered many drugs not used in food producing animals (some of which are banned from ever entering the Human food chain, with NO withdrawal period what so ever) Our American Horses bred for Pleasure, Sport,Work & Competition have no place in the Human food chain..No meat from any animal gathered at random & without traceability should be in the Consumer Market. Try using the same model for sourcing with Beef, Pork, Poultry and watch those markets come crashing down. Slaughter is for food production not animal “disposal” Table 1. Therapeutic Medications Routinely Used and Identified as Necessary by the Veterinary Advisory Committee — (Racing Medication and Testing Consortium [RMTC] draft list of therapeutic medications, 2005)
1. Acepromazine 17. Dipyrone 33. Omeprazole
2. Albuterol 18. Flunixin 34. Pentoxifylline
3. Aminocaproic Acid 19. Fluprednisolone 35. Phenylbutazone
4. Atropine 20. Fluphenazine 36. Phenytoin
5. Beclomethasone 21. Furosemide 37. Prednisolone
6. Betamethasone 22. Glycopyrrolate 38. Prednisone
7. Boldenone 23. Guaifenesin 39. Procaine Penicillin
8. Butorphanol 24. Hydroxyzine 40. Pyrilamine
9. Cimetidine 25. Isoflupredone 41. Ranitidine
10. Clenbuterol 26. Isoxsuprine 42. Reserpine
11. Cromolyn 27. Ketoprofen 43. Stanozolol
12. Dantrolene 28. Lidocaine 44. Testosterone
13. Detomidine 29. Mepivacaine 45. Triamcinolone
14. Dexamethasone 30. Methocarbamol 46. Trichlomethiazide
15. Diazepam 31. Methylprednisolone
16. DMSO 32. Nandrolone -
US horses are slaughtered for human consumption at a rate that meets demand. For the week ending 10/13/12, 84,570 were slaughtered inhumanely.
As to ‘ethical’ disposal, I and many others define that as humane euthanasia via a qualified veterinarian, medically induced, or gunshot. Many caring Americans will continue to work for the passage of a federal slaughter ban bill, currently S.1176/HR.2966. -
We had slaughter here Morgan. It was a dismal failure on all points. US animal cruelty laws for the slaughter of livestock were violated , being one (1) strike insensible. Equine take from 3 to 11 strikes as average before a direct hit leaving them insensible is obtained. It has been documented by our own USDA and Canada. Often leaving them blinded and horrifically injured before insensible, then they regain sensibility often in 30 seconds, meaning they are aware of their throat being slit and bleeding out. A clear violation of our laws.
To make matters worse all slaughter houses owned when in the US were foreign owned and are foreign owned in Canada & Mexico. They have no regard for USDA laws, environmental laws or animal cruelty laws. Proven first here in the US and now in Canada, where plants have been repeatedly documented violating animal cruelty laws, environmental laws & meat inspection laws. Here they cost the tax payers of this Nation hard earned dollars fighting them in court, to have them NEVER pay one single penny of the fines levied upon them, instead breaking the towns budgets that they resided in, while the towns fought to make them adhere to US laws. They paid a measly $5.00 in US Federal taxes at one plant alone for a $12 million dollar profit in one year. All the while bankrupting the towns budget, wracking up hospital bills for poor or illegal workers and crime rates shot through the roof, to include horse thieving. In Canada the citizens are fighting to end slaughter as well. Environmental blood spill disasters, cruelty and violations in their Grandin state of the art plants is a disaster. All of this is well documented and the information is easily accessed.
In the mean time we have a section of the meat industry, not the horse or livestock industry that is pushing hard to reopen slaughter here. To be run once again in part by foreign corporations. Without once again addressing the violations of US livestock slaughter laws, we can firmly state, that US tax paying citizens should not have to foot the bill in excess of $5 million a year for USDA horse meat inspection for foreign diners to eat. We see no return on this expense. The returns will profit a small minority in the meat industry, the kill buyers and the transporters while we foot the bill for a predatory and often criminally minded section of this industry. This will be at a huge cost to us as tax payers, because we don’t have enough USDA meat inspectors now, nor do we have the funds to properly inspect our own food for consumption. So why in bloody hell should we foot the bill for foreigners to dine on our American horses that aren’t raised for food production? It is the ONLY area of our meat production that avoids all laws pertaining to contaminants in the meat, forges documents and puts horses to slaughter that are filled with carcinogens at pure profit to them. American horses are given on a regular basis over 100 BANNED for animals for human consumption medications period.
Look in any barn at the labels on 99% of the meds given to horses and shudder. Because we as a Nation, are knowingly shipping TOXIC meat across this globe. Our government is allowing it and at some point we as a Nation will pay a high price for allowing this to continue at the profit to a few.
A live horse generates income to the feed store, the hay man, the veterinarian, his staff, the farrier, trainers, the tack and saddle companies, clothes companies, livestock suppliers, fencing companies, lumber yards, truckers and on & on & on. A slaughtered horse provides income to the kill buyer, the feed lot and the slaughter house. Most slaughter plants hire unskilled labor, often criminals. Now where do you want your money to go? I can tell you 80% of Americans don’t want it going to the slaughter house.
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The number of horses that sent to slaughter can not be substantiated because the numbers of the horses are a collage from different regions, reflections of the economy, reactions to feed prices, unemployment, weather and drought, stolen horses, wild horses off BLM lands, Amish bred horses unaccountable, race track rejections, back yard breeders for slaughter purposes etc
Since this source is also impacted by disease, predators, backyard illegal butchering, and unethical purchases from unknown families and surrenders or off Craig’s List then these variables are flexible. Numbers from transports do not reflect rejected sick, lame, pregnant or blind horses required to be rejected at the auction the export pens. There is no known or accountability of statistics to support how many horses are unfit to slaughter. A horse can be exported for slaughter, rejected after 2-3 days and then released onto a back road in the states which now becomes an abandoned horses that is counted as an example of a statistic of a sick abanoned horse. It has been proposed that kill buyers typically release and turn loose horses and then report those horses to create pro slaugter media to justify by inflating and reporting inaccurate numbers to use to justify their pro slaughter poistion.. Pro slaughter has no substatiation for their numbers . It is like counting dandilions in your yard. Pro slaughter true course is to create horse breeding miles to sell horses to slaughter as a contaminated food supply for profit. There is no humane, ethical or love of horses that is a part of this. If so they would euthenize the horse by a vet in the pasture which makes it unable to be sold as meat as the horse needs to knocked unconcious in a living slaughter to pump the blood out. The inhumane slaughter is that a horse is unable to be put unconcious in one single blow and suffers panic and fear fighting for its life. If evey sick or abandoned horse was euthenized in one year, where would the pro slaughter supply come from? The slaughtwer kill buyers want heavy young horses to slaughter. Thus the pro slaughter are creating a business for themselves, not heroically and humanely serving a higher need. If we shot every bad parent we would eliminate child abuse. If we built more prisons we would eliminate crime. If we built more hospitals we would eliminate cancer. This straw man arguement of building slaughter plants to eliminate sick, diseases and old horses is not worth the powder to blow it to Hell. and we h aven’t even discussed the cancer causing chemicals in horses. A can of cat food is inspected by the USDA and held to a higher standard. Horsemeat is banned from petfoods because of the death rate in pets. I say no to the transparency of motives, the risks to our beef supplies, the damage to the environmental, the image of the United States and elimaination of democracy from the 80% of US citizens that do not wantunding export or slaughter of horses NOR taxation US taxpayers to fund a non income tax producing industry for foreign profits for China, Belgium, Italy, Japan, Germany and France.
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Unwanted and not of use horses have nothing to do with the number of horses slaughtered. The number of horses slaughtered depends on the market demand for horsemeat. Now that the EU is doing more testing on the meat, they are realizing that US horses are not safe for human comsumption due to the vaccines, meds, wormers, supplements, etc. that are given to our horses. Especially Bute, proven to be unsafe and can be fatal for humans. Most horses in the US have been treated with Bute at one time or another. It is a pain reliever and anti-inflammatory and is the most commonly used pain med. Bute never completely leaves the horses’ system. One treatment with Bute makes the horse ineligible for human consumption. It’s high time people put food safety first. There is no way of proving that a horse has never had any of these dangerous meds unless we keep track from day one of the horses’ life, through a reliable vet and well kept records. This does NOT happen. Falsified papers are the norm at slaughter houses In July 2013, the EU will require a Passport, stating that each horse has never had these meds. We don’t see this happening, therefore, the market for US horsemeat will be non-existent. Horse owners wake up. If you own it, you are responsible to care for it. If you can’t care for it, there are rescues, friends, therapy horse groups, petting zoo’s, and others that would be willing to help. There are hay banks and feed stores that would be willing to help out through a rough time. Slaughter is a horrible fate for such a majestic animal. It just isn’t necessary, there are other options.
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The US needs to reopen Humane Slaughter houses that accommodates horses , I would rather see horses go to slaughter than stand on dry lots and get starved to death . and there are numerous horses that are too dangerous and will intentionally try to hurt a person and horses like this really need to go to slaughter … I know there are a lot of anti slaughter people out there but these people need to open their eyes and look at the benefits of opening humane slaughterhouses , it will create jobs for the unemployed , it will feed other animals , like at the zoo’s , it could be used in dog and cat foods , it could feed the hungry if need be , that would be left to personal choice . and it will reduce the numbers of unwanted , abused , neglected , and dangerous horses and it will eventually improve the horse industry ,where horses are at least worth something .
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I agree……Horses are companion animals. They are not meant to be in our food chain. It is only the unlucky ones, produced by over zealous breeding, have irresponsible owners or are stolen from their pastures that find themselves on the road to the slaughterhouses. At long last the EU will no longer tolerate falsified health records in just a few short months. Kill buyers and breeders beware, you need to find another livelihood if you want to remain financially viable. You have no one to blame but yourselves if you do not.
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If they did slaughter horses at that rate, there would be none left in a short amount of time and horse theft would increase, as would all other horrors of horse slaughter.
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Ethically? LOL. Get real… Spot on Jo-C. Thanks to Brownfield Ag. and Julie Harker for actually printing the truth. Good job!!
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Anyone supporting horse slaughter has failed to do their homework.
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I want to point out that the person this article quotes is a rabid AR extremist. She has several times told me to go kill myself and countless times has told others the same, and viciously attacks Sue Wallis and others who promote horse slaughter-most of the time making personal attacks on them. I am disturbed that she was actually used to do an interview/article.
As far as her saying horses here are not bred for slaughter-that is a outright LIE!! The draft horse market has counted on the meat market to keep the draft breeds from becoming extinct as there is an extremely small market for horses intended for draft purposes. Breeders have known and trusted the meat market to give a base price for their horses, and are fully aware that sometimes the highest bidder is the meat pen and have no problem with that-the meat buyer has been a valued customer since the 1950s.
As far as Equine passports-I have several as I have imported horses from Europe. It is clearly stated that if the drug history of the horse is unknown, the horse must be kept for 6 months before entering the food chain…and, one last thing. I have talked extensively to people in Europe-NONE of the people who actually eat horse meat are concerned about safety-THE ENTIRE SO-CALLED SAFETY CONCERN ORIGINATED FROM ANIMAL RIGHTS GROUPS TRYING TO SLOWLY BAN USE OF ANY ANYIMAL FOR FOOD-HORSES ARE JUST AN EASIER TARGET!!!! The AR groups in this country are also bombarding the EU with outright lies that all US horses have drugs in their system-an OUTRIGHT LIE!!!
I hope in the future that the person responsible for writing these articles checks the sources first, and them offers the “other side” an opportunity to voice their opnion and defend themselves. I must say that this is the most biased article I have ever seen from this news group, and it is disturbing.
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CM,
Please provide proof that I have ever told anyone to go “kill themselves”. As I stated in my interview yesterday, if you are relying on slaughter for a base price on the horses you are breeding, perhaps you should not be breeding horses. You need to find another line of business. As one very reputable breeder once told me, I do not breed horses for slaughter, I breed my horses to race, for sport performance and then for second careers, but never for slaughter. Other breeders should take note…
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Horses in the US are not raised for slaughter, and there is likely not one.single.horse that has not been exposed at the very least to phenylbutazone. “Bute” is an extremely common non steroidal anti inflammatory for use in equines that remains in the tissues and has been shown to be carcinogenic in humans. Sue Wallis, then, with her defiant pro slaughter stance, will be the direct link to increasing cancer diagnoses. And that is but one of the horrific consequences that would occur as the result of her greed.
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Unwanted or not of use? MOST of the horses slaughtered are between 5 and 7 years old, healthy, and approximately 70% of them are Quarter horses. Fact remains that american horse meat , from domestic horses is unsafe to eat, as most of these horses have been given bute, wormers, and over 130 banned substances ( on the EU list). Equine slaughter is inhumane in any country, and the lies spouted by the pro slaughter groups, led by Sue Wallis, are money motivated.
American horses have NEVER been raised for food, most people consider them companion animals in this country. would you slaughter and eat your cat or dog? If not, you are a hypocrite, as I see no difference. -
CM, you have cited nothing by hearsay. The EU doesn’t agree with your hearsay. Please take the time to read the most recent EU FVO reports. Three items should jump out at you;
1) Banned substances found in US horses slaughtered in Canada and Mexico
2) Falsified paperwork accompanying the horses in item 1
3) The report issued within the last two weeks for Mexico states that the health affidavits are not sufficient to meet EU standardsActually, supporting horse slaughter will bring down animal agriculture. Do the producers of our food supply have the same callous disregard for food safety as the supporters of horse slaughter?
Also, please explain how those opposed to horse slaughter are radical extremists? In reading the comments on this thread, yours appears to be the most rabid.
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CM – YOU are the outright liar. First, Jo-Claire is NOT an rabid AR extremest. ANYONE who has the slightest knowledge of her work knows that. YOU, Sir, are the extremest, spreading total lies about anyone who disagrees with you.
What you have seen is NOT a passport, it is an EID – Equine Identification Document. – and it was intended by the EU to be only an interim document to give the US and Canada time to work out their own passport systems. On a passport, if a horse has EVER received any of the banned substances – which MUST be administered by a licensed veterinarian – that owner must then sign the portion of the passport that removes a horse from the human food chain PERMANENTLY. Incidentally, that is also the LAW concerning food animals in the US, Canada, Mexico, and the EU. Any horse that has EVER been exposed to a banned substance must never enter the human food chain, Look it up.
The ARs are NOT the majority of anti-horse slaughter advocates – we are horse welfare advocates and that’s it. We are NOT interested in ending animal ag. Only the cruel and illegal slaughter of a non food animal that isn’t bred, raised or regulated in this country as a food animal. Fully 80% of the American people are dead set against the slaughter of our horses. Are all these people AR extremists? Ah, the Vast Vegan Conspiracy! What paranoia! You people need to GET A CLUE.
I thought by now everyone was aware that the consumers overseas have NEVER been informed that in the US, horses are not considered food animals, unregulated and have no traceability at all. They’ve been told that the horses they”re eating were raised especially for human consumption, which is certainly not true in the US or Canada.
CM, just because the draft breeders want to dump horses on the slaughter market does NOT mean they have raised them from birth to be food animals. They probably don’t even know in advance which horses will be going to slaughter. It will be the ones they can’t sell and they have no doubt at least wormed them, vaccinated them and probably given them a dose of bute for the dings horses are such experts at acquiring. Some vaccinations are banned, others, like wormers do have a withdrawal period, but if they don’t keep detailed records FROM BIRTH they can’t even determine if the withdrawal times have been met or not. There is a LOT more to raising food animals that you don’t seem to understand.
I suggest you read the actual 2013 regulations from the EU for “3rd countries” exporting to the EU. There is a special section on horses starting on page 14. Be sure to see p. 15, col. 2, where it says in part, “Any horse in the EU that has been treated with phenylbutazone must be excluded from the food chain and signed out of the food chain on the passport.” This is what must be done for ALL banned substances. This is what we will have to implement after next July or the EU – nor anyone else – will accept our horses, as they have said they will do for THREE YEARS.
EU regs: http://ec.europa.eu/food/food/chemicalsafety/residues/docs/requirements_non_eu.pdf
CM, I don’t know what your stake is in all this, but cut the propaganda. We’ve heard it all, and we are sick of it. People like Sue Wallis think they can get away with ignoring the food safety laws, but she too is in for a rude awakening come next July.
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CM = Your cap key is stuck on…as well as you do not use your real name which detracks from the validity of your pro slaughter opinion.
If horse meat is so safe to eat then why don’t you and Sue Wallis injest the portional amount of wormer and see if anything improves in your health as you claim that the benifits of eating horsemeat.
When you check your feces do a before and after for egg counts ( I am not a so please perform at your own risk. Since Sue Wallis does not own a horse please advise her which end of the horse is used for worming which is the oral not anal end. Let us know the results!
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To the Editor of this news site: I will not engage in arguement with any of these AR/anti slaughter extremists- I have NO respect for them whatsover nor do they want to have rational debate-just an emotional response to push THEIR opinion onto everone else. This same arguement goes on and on at any place horse slaughter is mentioned-and I wont waste my time debating trashcans. However, I stand by EVERY word I posted and will give support for my posts. Please get all viewpoints and arguements if you decide to preent another article relating to horse slaughter.
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CM, Really, most every article which has appeared in this publication has been pro slaughter and Sue Wallis has been quoted. I applaud Julie Harker for giving our side a voice this time. This interview was in response to Sue’s interview from two days prior to this article. You really need to calm down.
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I have to disagree. The news stories on the Brownfield Ag News website are not pro-slaughter or anti-slaughter. They are news stories. Julie Harker is an unbiased journalist.
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How does this work? CM stated:”As far as her saying horses here are not bred for slaughter-that is a outright LIE!! The draft horse market has counted on the meat market to keep the draft breeds from becoming extinct as there is an extremely small market for horses intended for draft purposes.” First You say Draft Horses are bred specifically for slaughter..then You say they are slaughtered to save them from extinction? I’m also curious, How many Draft breeders in the USA other than Yourself currently “count on the meat market” ?
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Mellony, the GAO report is full of hearsay, not facts. Where are the reports from the states- the agencies that take, investigate and record abandoned horse reports?. You’ll not find any in the GAO report. What they provided was anecdotal comments from 17 vets. Vets from the meat industry. Not only is that biased, but holds no water for documentation. A government report should provide documented sourceable facts, not hearsay and anecdotal comments.
Another glaring example was their outright lie that the fire at Cavel in IL was started by animal advocates. All they had to do was pull the police and fire department reports and they would have learned that the cause was undetermined. They also failed to mention that although the damages were $2M, Cavel filed a claim for $5M.
The blatant lie regarding Cavel took away all credibility from the report. The report is a farce. And it is so much of a farce, they have refused to release the underlying data. Since when do you release a report and refuse to provide the back up the assumptions? The guy heading the team has disappeared in the bowels of the GAO so no one can get answers.
Did you miss the recommendation that horse slaughter and the transport of horses be banned? Did you miss the part about the broken transport program? Where are you going to get the money to fix that? More taxpayer dollars? What about a national passport program? More taxpayer dollars? How about waste water clean-up? More tax payer dollars? Inspections? More taxpayer dollars? It sounds like another government welfare program for the meat industry. Aren’t the hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars we dish out for ranchers to run their businesses on public lands enough welfare?
I find it curious that slaughter supporters tout this report and how unbiased the GAO is but yet, totally dismiss the GAO report that determined the livestock on public lands are ruining the ranges, not the wild horses or the abysmal reports on slaughter houses. Why is that report credible but the others aren’t? The other reports have on-site documentation and yet, all of you ignore them.
Why is that?
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I reside in Canada, and i can tell you that these HORSES die a cruel death in the BARBARIC house of horrors in Quebec and Alberta. These plants have been shut down on multible occasions for fraudlent EID forms, and inhumane handling and slaughter. These house of horrors are staffed by temporary immigrants who have little or no command of the english language, worse these temporary workers come from countries of a culture of animal cruelty. Govt. inspectors are RARELY on the kill floor to assure humane killing, if there is such a thing. Veternarians have been removed from HORSE slaughter plants due to budget cuts. Undercover video, clearly showing HORSES hung by a back leg while still conscious, and more horrific moved further onto the slaughter process took place in a Quebec slaughter house in late 2011. Transport conditions of these animals from the U.S. to Canada is HORRIFIC, and virtually unregulated or policed. This is a seedy, corrupt industry that transports and kills these animals in unspeakable cruelty. As a majority of U.S., and Canadians are ADAMANTLEY OPPOSED TO THIS UNCIVILIZED INDUSTRY, THAT SHAMEFULLY IS SUPPORTED BY CORRUPT, COMPRIMISED POLITICANS WE CAN ONLY PRAY THE NEW TRACABILITY RULES COMING IN 2013 WILL PUT A STOP TO THIS BARBARIC INDUSTRY.
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CM, Sue Wallis reaps what she sows, nothing more or less. I doubt seriously that Jo-Claire Corcoran has told you to kill yourself. That sounds more like it would come out of Sue’s mouth. I have seen many of her rants about us (Animal Welfare Advocates)……they are very unprofessional and vulgar. We are so far from AR extremists that using that term to describe us only serves to show your own ignorance and prejudice against animal welfare.
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Never have I heard anyone brag that their horse was destined for slaughter. I’ve heard them brag how good they are at the racetrack, the pen, the arena, the trail, etc. I’ve heard them brag about how pretty they are, how good their attitude is, or how well they perform. Never have I heard that their horse is fat enough to be slaughtered.
Slaughter is about money, pure and simple. Not how much money the owner makes, but that horse meat is sold for human consumption at an inflated rate of approximately $20-$30/pound. Slaughter provides a dumping ground for breed horses that aren’t perfect, so the irresponsible breeder can make big bucks on those that are perfect.
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David Luckett If horse slaughter ,as you claim, would help the horse industry, then pray tell what is the current problem? You have ALWAYS had access to slaughter, it’s never stopped & we have ALWAYS shipped to Canada & Mexico. The same folks are profiting now that did when we had slaughter here. The same criminal activities exist. I think you speak with either lack of knowledge or forked tongue.
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Sorry meant Davina Luckett
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One last comment to the eitor or others who may be reading and unfamiliar with the horse meat arguement….If you read thru this thread, you can see the twistted mentality of the anti-slaughter zealots and the complete nastiness and vile attacks they make against anyone who has a differing opinion. It should be clear how I and many more have absoutely no respect for these people whatsoever. They , as usual, have resorted to personal attacks and outright lies once again. I invite any of you to continue to read comments they leave on any article regarding horse slaughter, and this will be apparent over and over again. I exposed the perpetuated LIE by the person quoted in this article-horses ARE and HAVE BEEN bred in this country for the meat market, and you can see in the comments above that she has personally attacked me and had the blatant audacity to even say that I shouldnt breed any more and should find another business. She will not admit she is wrong-she has already posted comments on other sites repeating her lie even though she has been shown it IS a lie.
Then we have another commenter who also knows NOTHING about me, and, like the first one mentioned, is attacking me and spreading MORE lies. I dont know how she can sit there and tell me just what paperwork I have as she is completely clueless, but I will tell you that I stand behind EVERY word I post-and my paperwork IS AUTHENTIC EQUINE PASSPORTS. If you continue reading, you will see more personal attacks on me and Sue Wallis.
I invite you to continue to follow these type posts, and you WILL see that the PRO-slaughter people do not stoop to the level of these commentors-we do not tell people what they should do with THIER horses-(we really dont care) or do we start personal attacks against them. They not only resort to name calling, Twisitng the truth, and spreading outright lies, but also photo-shop nasty, disturbing photos of pro-slaughter proponents and spew them around the internet.
If any one has a desire to get more information, please go to an unbiased source. I am confident that you will see that the pro-slaughter side has nothing to hide and any unbiased source will confirm what we state. I am also confident that you will see the true nature of many of the commenters here should you continue to follow horse-slaughter threads.
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CM, if you have facts, post them instead of name calling.Trashcans? That’s a new one.
We provided the sources to our comments that prove your comments are not valid. That is not ranting. USDA statistics are not rants. Providing the proof to the misinformation in the GAO report is not a rant.
This article is in response to Wallis’ misinformation so both sides have been presented.
Sorry to see you go and not provide the sources for what you posted. But that’s okay, we’re used to that.
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With regard to the GAO Report, it is important to do the front reading. What were the goals of the report? To explore the decline of the US horse industry since 2007 and the close of domestric horse slaughter?
The essential problem begins here because the implication is that two unrelated events that just happened to coincide, the end of domestic slaughter and the economic recession, have caused the decline in the horse industry. The truth is if you look back over the years of AVMA and AAEP conferences, their notes reflect that horse welfare decrease during an economic downturn as it does for all animals. The close of the slaughter plants in the US had nothing to do with the decline of the horse industry. Two factors did, however. First, there was a down economy where many people have lost their homes and their jobs. The second piece is that the members of the horse industry who breed know that there are breeders among them who not only over breed, but know nothing of the science of breeding, so there were too many horses being produced for the market and there were horses being bred that were going to have some genetic issues. However, is it fair to make animals suffer because humans are uneducated or undisciplined.
The GAO Report did not address the safety of horse meat. Should not one of the first considerations of a report on food production be about whether the food is healthful and nutritious? There may people who never give there horse a drug (no dewormer? no fly spray?) I don’t have much of anything that I use on my horse that does not warn me not to use it on horses used for human consumption. I usually wear latex gloves as do other people at my barn. Ask your vet if he or she would eat horse meat.
If you review the groups who were interviewed or asked to supplied material for the report, each one of them is known to support horse slaughter. The AHC now says they are slaughter neutral, but I have documents they think they have removed from the Internet that says something different. Former Representative Stenholm was one of the first to meet with the GAO committee,. As a former member of the House Agriculture Committee and as a Senior Advisor to Ollson, Frank, Weeda, it is impossible to believe that he would be unaware of the requirements of the Federal Meat Inspectional Act or that the USDA has a National Residue Program for Beef that includes many of the medications that are commonly used in horses. He should also know that the tests that we have had have not been as effective as they need to be to protect public health. His firm specializes in litigation for FSIS violators, so he has to know the ins and outs of the food safety subject. Yet, he did not even mention that the GAO might want to consider the drug issue.
Another fact that was omitted from the GAO report is how well the upper end of the horse slaughter industry is doing. Stud fees of $150,000, $75,000, $25,000? Someone is doing well somewhere. Then there are the advances in assistive equine reproduction that have opened all new doors to ways to make money in the horse business, and these have been ongoing during the time the report was made. Veterinarians are needed to assist with some forms of assistive equine reproduction. Some horse breeders may be able to produce four or five off-spring from the same mare-stud pair by using a recipent mare. How’s the DNA storage business and the storage business for left over embryo’s going. Amazing that neither the AVMA nor the AAEP mentioned this.
In order to make transport humane for horses, APHIS will need to be funded at a significantly higher amount. Transport is one of the most humane elements or slaughter—not because of the length of the trip, but because of the nature of the horses. Even in Texas A&M’s very controlled study with lights, cameras, and so forth, one horse still arrived dead.
The GAO Report recommended that if the government were not willing to commit the funds for APHIS, then Congress should consider passing a ban altogether. Wonder what GAO would have recommended if it knew that horses were full of carcinogenic and other drugs banned in all food animals due to their known adverse affects on human health.
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Here is the question that I wish beef and pork producers would answer for me because it has bothered me a lot. It appears that organizations representing beef and pork producers largely support the slaughter of US horses. However, beef and pork producers must follow the directives of the National Food Residue Program as well. I am aware that there are some producers who do not, and this also bothers me because our meat inspection program is insufficient to find all the hobby farmers who might not wait out the time period for certain drugs to leave the system of the animal. There are 100’s of people who raise cattle as a hobby or for a second income.
How is it ethical for a meat producer who should know what drugs are banned in food animals can stand behind people who want to slaughter US horses knowing that these horses are filled with the drugs that are banned in cattle including dairy catttle and bob veal? The amount of drugs that my vet puts into a horse are mixed at an amount and concentration that he said would kill five cows. So even if you think a little won’t hurt (which is contrary with scientific evidence), how does a beef producer condone the production of adulterated meat to be sold for human or animal consumption?
I believe this position of the NCA has caused the public to lose faith in the commitment, if there is a commitment, between food producers and consumers that has allowed consumers to believe that beef producers would not knowingly use substances in food production that are known to be harmful to consumers. It has been an unspoken contract. However, as I have researched this issue, I am beginning to wonder if food producers are worthy of consumer’s trust. A friend of mine nearly died of e-coli last year and she is still not completely recovered.
So can anyone explain to me why I should trust beef producers who advocate the sale of adulterated horse meat for human and animal consumption to produce beef that is safe for my family to consume? I’d really like to hear from you on this.
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I want to thank the Brownfield Network and Julie Harker for letting the truth come out.
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CM, Ms. Harker did her homework. Because you don’t agree, that doesn’t make it biased. Until your first post that did not contain any sourceable published documentation, comments were quite calm. Sorry if you take offensive to advocates asking for proof. When you post misinformation, people will correct the misinformation. That is not an attack.
Regarding horse meat, US horses are not raised as food animals. There is no traceability. Food animals must be raised under strict laws to ensure food safety. How is that attacking you? That is the law. Because you say draft horses were raised for slaughter doesn’t make it so. We don’t have a passport system or any vehicle in place to prove a horse has been raised under food safety guidelines. So where is your proof the horses were raised under food safety guidelines? That’s all were asking for, proof.
Why is it that you ignore anyone asking you for proof to support your comments?
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CM ~ If you would calm down and do some research on your own instead of depending on Wallis – who has been totally discredited – you might be surprised.
What you saw was an EID, NOT a passport. Neither the US nor Canada is on the passport system. That’s WHY the EU is going to stop accepting our horses after July 31, 2013. They want us to START using the passport system because we have NO traceability at the present time. Look at the EU’s own official reports if you don’t believe me. The reports are public documents. Read them.
I would post some links if I thought for one second you would use them, but frankly, I’m tired of posting links to information I have researched MYSELF and then have them ignored by you rabid pro-slaughter extremists. I will post one however. This is the information the EU put out concerning the regs for 2013 telling us we must implement a system comparable to their passport system or they will stop accepting our horses. The EID was only meant to be TEMPORARY during our period of adjustment and implementation of our passport system. We are NOT in compliance with the 2013 regs: http://ec.europa.eu/food/food/chemicalsafety/residues/docs/requirements_non_eu.pdf
The special section on horses p. 14 has some succinct comments on bute and residues in general. Check it out or shut-up about US being clueless!
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As a harness horse(Standardbred race horse) groom and caretaker, I can bear witness that almost every race horse is injected with various drugs on a weekly basis, all kinds of linaments and salves are applied to their legs and bodies. These chemicals end up in the meat and bone of slaughtered horses. Many owners and trainers are constantly trying a new untested drug and or chemical on the poor horses,just so their horse crosses the finish line first. Since most European and East Asian countries prefer race horse meat, they are consuming a great deal of toxins. These toxins include EPO,so called “Frog Juice” ,human growth hormone, and much more. Large industrial breeding farm owners have been at the core of the overbreeding problem for decades,however now with the economy as it is they have slowed down production. Canada may end horse slaughter before slaughter plants open in the US, this could be the reason some American politicians are hopping on the pro-killing bandwagon .Contact your representatives and let them know YOU VOTE ! Work on getting slaughter of horses in your state banned.
They would slaughter at that rate if there were facilities in the U.S. to ethically dispose of those that are unwanted or not of use.