What happens to horses when their owners no longer want them?
Some are sold for slaughter so their meat can end up on dinner plates in Europe, Mexico and Asia.
A bill recently introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives, however, is the latest attempt to make that illegal.
The bill, the "Prevention of Equine Cruelty Act of 2008" would carry criminal penalties for the purchase, sale, delivery or export of horse meat intended for human consumption, including fines and prison time.
Proponents like the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) in Washington say the bill would end the cruel transport and slaughter of American horses meant for consumption.
But critics blast the proposal, arguing the bill — introduced July 24 by House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) and Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.) — doesn't offer any alternative solutions and would likely lead to more abuse of horses.
Only a few counties in the country have more horses than Lancaster's 20,000 or so — and the New Holland Sales Stables sells 100 or more horses a week — so the issue hits home here.
"One side wants to call it a slaughter horse issue," said Jim Holt, New Holland Sales Stables' veterinarian. "It's better characterized as an unwanted horse issue."
Equine rescues and some private citizens try to find new homes for unwanted horses, but their stables are full, he said.
The Pennsylvania Veterinary Medical Association, the American Veterinary Medical Association and the American Association of Equine Practitioners all recognize that humane slaughter of horses is a "necessary evil" because of the lack of other avenues for them, Holt said.
But the AWI argues in its press release that more than 100,000 U.S. horses a year are "brutally slaughtered" for human consumption in Canada and Mexico.
A 2006 national poll conducted by Public Opinion Strategies found that nearly 70 percent of Americans supported a federal ban on horse slaughter.
In the last Congress, the House of Representatives approved a bipartisan bill banning horse slaughter for human consumption by a vote of 263 to 146, AWI noted, but the bill was not taken up by the Senate.
U.S. Rep. Joe Pitts has supported legislation that would have prohibited slaughtering horses for human consumption in the past, spokesman Andrew Cole said Thursday.
"This bill, we're still looking at it," Cole said. "Making it a federal crime. That has nuances to it."
Holt, of Glenmoore in Chester County, said animal activists lobbied for measures that effectively closed down the last of the horse slaughter plants in the U.S. in recent years.
So some buyers now take horses to slaughter plants in Mexico and Canada.
The AWI said some of those horses are killed by knife stabbing or other inhumane methods.
Holt personally has visited a plant in Canada and said horses were treated very humanely and then euthanized with a bullet to the head, one of three humane methods to kill a horse (Others are drugs and a "penetrating captive bolt" which fires a steel pin into the brain).
He hasn't visited any slaughter plants in Mexico.
If the sale of horses for slaughter for human consumption is banned, he fears more horses would be abused, or abandoned, like one recently left tied next to a bucket of water outside the New Holland stables.
Some farmers might work horses longer, even if they are lame, Holt said.
Horses can live into their 20s and 30s, so it's a compounding problem, he said.
"We don't have an organized network of humane societies for horses like with dogs and cats," Holt said. "We do not have the facilities necessary to house these animals, nor a network of people to do it."
Exacerbating the problem is the fact that it's no longer cheap to euthanize and dispose of large animals, he said.
Holt said horses can become unwanted for several reasons.
Some owners sell racehorses that can no longer win, or workhorses or ponies which can no longer do the job for which they were bought.
"For some, it's a financial issue," Holt added. "Food prices are going up for horses at least as fast, if not faster, than for people."
He estimated it takes about $2,400 a year just to feed and house a horse.
Staff writer Ryan Robinson can be reached at rrobinson@LNPnews.com or 481-6032.
(466)
