Do they use gas, or captive bolt? We use CO2 gas here, sounds terrible but. I’d have thought a bolt would be quicker/kinder but apparently it is ineffective with their skulls and more traumatic.
Edit: sorry that was a question for @cutter99 regarding pigs.
Here in the U.S. for hogs it is captive bolt, and then they are bled. Very quick, very efficient.
Captive bolt, properly performed, results in instantaneous death. One of the challenges with horses is that their necks are longer and more flexible/mobile than other livestock.
And, in the stress of the slaughterhouse, and the kill box, mistakes can happen. The entire process is ultimately inhumane.
We should be better than this.
I disagree that slaughter is inherently inhumane.
Captive bolt is the standard and is very quick and effective when done properly.
As already stated, slaughtering properly is about management, you have to do all right.
From receiving to holding to handling to when you use the captive bolt.
Similar when a veterinarian euthanizes a horse and the rare time things go wrong, it happens also in the slaughter process.
That does not mean the rare problem is how euthanizing by a veterinarian or slaughtering happens.
Just happened here, in the local college meat department, is still being investigating, is how is supposed to be, when things don’t go right and hopefully won’t happen again.
Yes, this is a PETA release, but it has been in our local news:
People care and such should not happen and when it does, is not acceptable and measures are taken to keep such from happening.
Similar to, say, rotational falls in eventing, or any other we do with horses that rarely can cause injuries or death, some times, life happens and we try to do better.
My point, perspective when hearing any stories helps.
The mantra of animal rights extremist is, “would not hurt their feelings if humans would be gone from this world, so no animal was ever hurt by them”.
When someone tells you what they believe and are after, believe them.
Our whole horse world is in their sights as abuse, slaughter the low hanging fruit, why is demonized.
The human animal has evolved by using our animals as one more resource in our world.
We may eventually not have any more animals to care for, if we quit having any need to use animals for other than admiring them in their ecological niches.
Not sure we want to go there quite yet.
Let’s keep working on caring for our animals best we can and keeping anyone from abusing or accidentally doing harm to them in our uses of them, including in the slaughter process.
Her work would be just as useful in horses if given the opportunity to perform her work with them in mind. The herd behavior of horses is much the same as cows, although they are more agile, often flighty. athletic, and have different bodily structure that needs to be kept in mind when building a non-human contact facility. Temple Grandin worth visiting in person if you have the opportunity to do so.
At the end of the day the vast majority of people treat horses as disposable. From ranchers to racehorse owners and trainers all the way to the mega rich show-horse people. Many of them not dumping the horse at the livestock sale themselves, but handing said injured or past-its-prime horse off to “a good home” and wiping their hands of it. Out of sight, out of mind. And then several months or a few years down the line; the once pampered horse ends up at the livestock auction on its way to slaughter. It happens everyday.
To be brutally honest the process of slaughtering any animal is inhumane. We just try to kill them as quickly and efficiently as possible to eliminate any suffering and that is all we can hope to do.
We butcher our own animals here and it is something nobody enjoys. TBH I go away for the killing. My husband does the best he can to get it right the first time and for that I am thankful.
The same should be in any slaughter house.
Much more humane to have facilities here and available to horses that need to be slaughtered then trucking them across the country to Mexico/ Canada.
You can’t regulate breeding any easier than you could solve the issue. You have to have a place for the horses that are at the place where slaughter is the only option. That is a reality whether we like it or not.
The opinion of the general public in the U.S. is that horse slaughter should be illegal, and that’s why it is. The general public vastly outnumbers the horsey public, so I think that ship has sailed.
I think perhaps TB racing owners and breeders are in a better place to euthanize instead of sending horses through low end auctions than are backyard owners and breeders.
Through a combination of regulation and peer pressure, as well as funded efforts to move horses on to second jobs, there are already fewerTBs in the slaughter pipeline.
She has had the opportunity, and has been interviewed about it, spoken about it, and written about it. There is still no possible way to make the slaughter pipeline humane.
Because you don’t want it to be, or because you have investigated every possibility and every design and it’s truly impossible.
Let’s do it this way- what do you think constitutes a humane slaughter pipeline?
The usual response of one who has no answer to the question.
My idea would involve minimal transportation, to a local facility. Experienced horse people to unload and take the horse into the slaughter area, cleaned and evidence of last procedure gone. One captive bolt to the head, from trained operator, then blood let if needed, then the body goes to processing.
Who was it up thread said one bad day? Maybe you can’t make it entirely stress free, but on the other hand a euthanasia at home cannot always be entirely stress free either.
I’m going to ignore your snark. This is what is generally referred to as a teaching moment.
How will you make that profitable or even sustainable? How many abattoirs like that would be necessary to serve a geographic area?
Have you bought horses out of the kill pen, yourself? Brought them home?
It is not a requirement that you must bring home horses from the kill pen in order to be a good horse owner, horseman or even a good person.
To be perfectly honest, many owners are not prepared for the issues that come along with kill pen horses. Many horse owners board, cannot afford to board more than one horse, and do not have the time, inclination or money to spend time fixing problems someone else created.
Do not put the issue of kill pen horses on every horse owner out there. There are many of us who are responsible for the health and care of our horses right until their last breath. There are others, for one reason or another, who can not bear that responsibility.
The issue is yours for choosing to judge those you most likely know nothing about. You might want to consider you would not want to be judged that way.
[quote=“ASB_Stars, post:54, topic:772917, full:true”]
I’m going to ignore your snark. This is what is generally referred to as a teaching moment.[/quote]
Ooh, burn…teaching moment…that you don’t want to add to?
How will you make that profitable or even sustainable? How many abattoirs like that would be necessary to serve a geographic area?
I have no idea, but it might just be more doable than trying to make every breeder be responsible for every foal, for life, including all the back yard breeders.
Have you bought horses out of the kill pen, yourself? Brought them home?
Not sure what that has to do with anything, and technically no.
I did buy two mares from the ‘run through’ section of a public auction, so they would probably have gone for meat, I also bought a mare from an ad that said she would be sent to auction if no one picked her up, I turned that $200 mare into a $1500 farm horse. The other mares, one died of old age, the other I sent back through the auction the next sale after she came at me across the round pen, with determination. I don’t know if she went to another private home, or through the pipe line, I hope she found someone who could work with her, if not then maybe she became useful in another way. Is that cruel? Maybe, I gave her a chance, I could not handle her, the round pen was the last straw. BUT, it did give me the space to take the $200 mare.
I’ve brought home multiple horses from kill pens and am confused how that relates to the conversation.
Fixing the kill pen problem is part of improving the slaughter process. I feel like that’s a given.
I completely agree capitalism stands in the way of humane slaughter. But I also feel like that can be addressed with heavy regulation.
I don’t like slaughter. But there are always going to be unwanted horses and there needs to be a way to address that. What the BLM is forced to do seems almost as cruel as the current slaughter pipeline.
My big thing is how do we balance both humane slaughter while also preventing people from abusing the option? It shouldn’t be an easy way out of responsibilities.
And yet, you are judging me.
Here is why I asked the question: if you’ve been in a kill pen, you’ve seen a part of this nightmare, first hand. I think that it is harder to turn away from it when you have, just like so many other things in life.
I can, but I thought that having you explain why you thought all of this could work just fine was more useful. Because you can’t.
There is no way to make this humane. Logistics and economics dictate that.
By the time these horses start down the slaughter pipeline, hope is generally lost. Most people are not prepared to deal with a horse that has been stressed beyond belief, without professional assistance.
As to the comment about backyard breeders? This isn’t raising a puppy or a kitten with your kids. Don’t breed if you aren’t prepared to deal with the outcome of that decision.
If you think the average amateur owner should be snatching up kill pen horses, you are very wrong.
I spent 47 years living within a very close proximity of the New Holland Sales Stables, and in fact marketed hogs through there. I have owned kill pen horses myself, and worked as a professional in the equine industry in that area for over 15 years. I have testified in one of the largest animal abuse cases in Pennsylvania, not once but twice, when the hoarder decided to repopulate his animal collection. There were plenty of horses in his collection.
I have worked with owners who never should have owned a kill pen horse that they bought because their heart strings were tugged. People, who not equipped financially, emotionally, or had the training knowledge to fix what is broken on these horses.
Slaughter is a complex issue, but I will stand by the fact it is necessary. I have been in the equine industry long enough to know what happened when we banned it, and see the animals that have suffered through economic downfalls.
My fear is we are headed towards another downfall, and we will see many more horses in horrible situations, and no money to deal with it. Legitimate rescues are all ready full and stressed.
There are much, much fates than a quick death.
By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. You may also receive promotional emails from The Chronicle of the Horse. You can opt out at any time.
For Customers
Company
Terms of Use
