HORSE SLAUGHTER MYTHS AND FACTS
MYTH: Horse slaughter must be stopped because it is inhumane.
FACT: The euthanasia method used at the plants occurs before processing, and this method is humane, according to the
American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) and the USDA, which regulates the practice. The method meets specific
humane requirements set forth by AVMA's Panel on Euthanasia, the U.S. Congress,1 the American Association of Equine Practitioners,
and the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) Statement on Euthanasia because it results in instantaneous brain death.
The plants are required to have USDA veterinarians on site supervising the euthanasia of each horse during the entire time the plant is in
operation. The veterinarian is bound by law to stop the process and close the plant immediately if any evidence of inhumane treatment is
witnessed. Retired USDA veterinarians who fulfilled this role are available for interviews.
MYTH: Banning U.S. horse slaughter will not affect our economy since the plants are foreign-owned.
FACT: Hundreds of employees in the United States who work for horse owners, trucking companies, auction houses, shipping
companies and other suppliers will lose their jobs. The plant communities of DeKalb, Illinois, and Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas,
will be especially hard-hit, with each of the local economies taking a predicted hit of $41 million. The value of each horse will
decrease by approximately $300, according to an independent report on the unintended consequences of a horse slaughter ban -- the
ripple effect of which is predicted to cripple the $40 billion U.S. horse industry. The negative impact will be significant, just as it is
when a Toyota plant or other foreign-owned business is closed in any other community.
MYTH: If horse slaughter for human consumption is banned, the processing plants will still accept horses and process them for other
important purposes.
FACT: H.R. 503's ban on processing horses for human consumption will close down the three processing plants, according to
plant owners, and result in:
• Elimination of the only option that provides salvage value to the horse owner for an animal that is no longer serviceable, useful or
desired.
• Elimination of the only USDA-inspected source of equine protein, an essential element in the diet of U.S. zoo animals.
• Elimination of the only large-scale equine research venue for leading schools of veterinary medicine.
• Elimination of the only U.S. source of equine pericardium sacs used in human heart surgeries.
• Elimination of the service plants provide to horse owners by preparing the horse carcasses for acceptance by rendering plants - a
time consuming procedure that the slaughter plants now provide at no cost to the owner.
MYTH: The only way to prevent the inhumane treatment of horses is to BAN the private property right to choose horse processing.
FACT: Congress has already performed its duty by passing laws that govern the humane treatment of horses during
transportation to the plants and onsite. Enforcement of these laws is the role of the USDA and local and state officials, so if there is
ever a compliance problem, these officials will report it.
However, if the right to send a horse to slaughter is taken away from horse owners, the Unintended Consequences paper predicts serious
problems. Nearly half of all horse owners earn between $25,000 and $75,000 per year.3 If these owners are forced to pay $300-$2,000
to dispose of a horse, instead of being able to receive value for their property ($300-400 for processing), the report says that some
owners will have no other option but to abandon the animal, slaughter it themselves and prepare the carcass for rendering, or simply
neglect it by not adequately feeding the horse. Concerns regarding the effects of BSE and other diseases on rendered products have
resulted in a decreasing number of rendering facilities in the U.S., so horse owners are finding it increasingly difficult to find a renderer.
Horse burial is illegal in many areas.
MYTH: The horse industry supports HR 503.
FACT: The American Quarter Horse Association (largest U.S. horse organization), the U.S. House Committee on Agriculture
(which has jurisdiction over the legislation), and 190 other horse, veterinary, cattle, and agriculture organizations OPPOSE this
horse slaughter ban based on fundamental economic, humane and public health issues. Many horse owners support keeping the
horse processing option, even if some choose not to use it.
MYTH: If U.S. horse slaughter is banned, Kentucky Derby champions like Ferdinand will be saved from slaughter in the future.
FACT: Ferdinand was slaughtered in Japan, and this ban will not prevent the foreign slaughter of any future unwanted horses.
After horses leave this country -- whether they go to Mexico, Latin America, or Japan -- passage of HR 503 would not prevent them
from being slaughtered in one of many foreign slaughterhouses, where seven million horses are slaughtered each year for human
consumption. The legislation would simply eliminate the U.S. plants: the most stringently regulated and humane animal processing
plants in the world.
MYTH: "Some horses...are improperly stunned and are conscious when they are hoisted by a rear leg to have their throats cut," states
the HSUS horse slaughter fact sheet posted at
www.hsus.org.
FACT: Each and every horse is humanely euthanized before any processing activities occur and the three plants have a
documented track record of humane treatment. In fact, USDA veterinarian inspectors are present for the humane euthanasia of
every horse, and are mandated by law to stop the process if the horses aren't rendered brain dead before they are moved and processed.
Not only is humane treatment the law, it is good business practice. Treating the horses well and minimizing their pain and stress keeps
the plants operating smoothly and efficiently.
MYTH: Horse neglect did not increase in the past when the number slaughtered horses declined, so if HR 503 passes and the number
of horses slaughtered drops from 90,000 to zero, there will be no increase in neglect, according to bill sponsor Rep. Ed Whitfield (RKy).
FACT: An increase in neglect is likely, according to university experts, because the ban will take away the only option that
provides salvage value for disposing of the nation's unwanted horses. According to the Unintended Consequences report, "Tens
of thousands of horses could be neglected or abandoned if a processing ban were imposed.....Local and state governments will be
adversely impacted by increased costs of regulation and care of unwanted or neglected horses."
Market forces, not slaughter plants, determine how many horses go to slaughter. Since there is no national system for recording and
tracking horse neglect, there is no way to identify trends or compare trends to slaughter numbers. Each year, a variety of factors dictate
the number of unwanted horses: the number of horses with insurmountable behavior problems, the disposable income of horse owners,
and the market value of horses. The plants are the repository for the unwanted horses that no one else will take.
MYTH: If horse slaughter is banned, people will adopt or buy the unwanted horses.
FACT: The horses that go to slaughter are the unwanted of the unwanted -- often because they can't be ridden, or are
dangerous. Their market value is so low, no one else bought them. A few of the influx of 60,000 to 90,000 unwanted horses may be
adopted. However, if there were such a demand to adopt and care for this type of horse, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management would
have been able to find homes for the thousands of unwanted wild horses that taxpayers paid nearly $40 million to feed and shelter in
2005. The average yearly cost of caring for a horse is $2,300 and many horses live to be 30 years old.
According to a memo from the Congressional Research Service, “A key concern expressed by a number of equine groups is whether the
existing U.S. horse sanctuaries have adequate resources to absorb the large number of animals that could be confiscated or otherwise
diverted from slaughter if this law were to pass…AHPA agrees that no nationwide standard-setting or oversight system is in place and
also that no rescue organizations may have the resources or business capabilities to take in large numbers of horses.”6
MYTH: Slaughter plants should be closed because that's where stolen horses end up.
FACT: There is no evidence of a stolen horse problem at the plants, so banning horse slaughter can't be a solution. The three
horse slaughter plants document every horse that arrives, and very few, if any, stolen horses have been found. In Texas, as of 1997, a
law enforcement official onsite inspects each horse and checks it against reports of stolen horses. In Illinois, horses arriving are also
checked against records of stolen horses. Why would someone steal a horse worth $3,000 or $800 to sell it for $300 to a processing
plant?
MYTH: Horses are treated poorly during transport to slaughter.
FACT: The treatment of horses to slaughter is stringently regulated. No other animal has humane treatment laws governing its
transportation to slaughter, so horses are already protected more than any other livestock animal.
USDA reports that the regulations are being enforced. In fact, an analysis published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical
Association in 1999, conducted by renowned animal welfare expert Temple Grandin, PhD, stated "...owner abuse or neglect (before
transportation) is the primary cause of severe welfare problems in horses arriving at slaughter plants." Although USDA has increased the
number of inspections of horse transportation to slaughter, inspectors have found no evidence of a systemic problem, according to a
recent USDA letter to the House Committee on Agriculture.
MYTH: Video on anti-slaughter Web sites proves that horse slaughter is not humane.
FACT: The footage of horses being mistreated may have been shot in Mexico or Latin America, but it was NOT filmed in any
of the three U.S. plants operating today, nor does it reflect the humane euthanasia process mandated by current federal laws
and regulations. To the plants' and their regulators' knowledge, there is no evidence that demonstrates a systemic problem of
horses being mistreated in the three U.S. processing plants. Therefore, there is no defendable reason to ban horse processing for
human consumption.
MYTH: Americans should support HR 503 because animal rights groups say it will improve horse welfare.
FACT: The Humane Society of the United States also said it would improve the welfare of animals saved after Hurricane
Katrina, but HSUS is currently under investigation by the Louisiana Attorney General, who is questioning exactly how they
improved animal welfare, especially since they raised $30 million to pursue this end.
