Bonus Critter Blogging: Horses

I'm devoting November Bonus Critter Blogging to various rescue organizations. Today it's the National Horse Protection League.

It's an American disgrace. The side of equestrian life that people rarely see, and fewer talk about--the slaughter of 100,000 horses killed every year for human consumption in Europe and Japan.

What's at stake:

Show horses, Thoroughbreds, wild horses, burros, work horses, family pets and "Premarin©" foals are sacrificed to this horrible practice.

Kentucky Derby winner Ferdinand was a victim as are many others, famous and unknown.

Most horses that end up slaughtered are bought by killer-buyers acting on behalf of the slaughterhouses. Sometimes these horses have been abandoned by irresponsible owners who no longer wish to care for them; more often, owners surrender their horses to a person who promises to care for them but then sells them for slaughter. And many have been stolen by horse thieves or rounded up by the Bureau of Land Management which although charged with protecting wild horses facilitates their being sent to slaughter instead.

The horses' pain begins well before they reach the plants. They are transported in unspeakably inhumane conditions in crowded trailers, unprotected from heat or cold and deprived of food and water for a day or more. Many do not survive or arrive at the slaughterhouses too injured or sick to stand. Abused, terrified and desperate, they are killed by a captive bolt gun, which shoots a metal rod into the horse's brain.

What's next:

Recently, Cavel International was shut down for the third time after the U.S. Appeals Court for the Seventh District upheld Illinois' ban on slaughter for human consumption. And Texas ended their legislative session earlier this summer without seeking to overturn the court ruling to re-open their two slaughterhouses -- a minor victory. So although there are no operating slaughter houses in the U.S., there is also no law in place that forbids the exportation of horses across our borders, and horses are still being shipped to Canada and Mexico for slaughter.

The only way to end this barbaric practice is to pass the American Horse Slaughter Protection Act (S 311/HR 503) which would outlaw slaughter throughout the United States and prohibit the export of horses as well.

Please visit the site, contribute, and write your congress critters in support of the pending bill.

Note: The photo is by Sean Sauber and published at the NHPL site.