Last I checked Japan followed EU regulations.
There are still a few US packs that feed flesh and will take donations. Many of the huntsmen are from the UK and well versed in bullet euthanasia (also useful to know your local huntsman if you have an emergency) and rendering flesh for consumption.
4 Likes
We can - and 100% should - put regulations in place for how they are transported, held, and actually slaughtered. We already have changes to how they’re transported - no double-decker trucks, stops at appropriate intervals, and more.
We have no control over that in another country, but we absolutely have regulations in place now to get horses to the border, where it’s a free for all after that.
So yes, having the actual plants here will give that next level of control and humanity.
6 Likes
So at least the one I’m referring to is actually covered. The horses more likely to be injured are separated out from the others. It’s not perfect, but they actually do want the horses to do well. They loose money when horses loose weight or are injured.
I’ve talked with people who are kill buyers. They are not the evil dredges of society. They just need to make money like the rest of us, but their profession is seen as unsavory because Americans see horses as pets. Some of the KB’s will contact and sell the horses that have a chance at a career to people for meat price.
And yes, probably the #1 issue and main solution is to just stop breeding so many unwanted horses. But that’s easier said than enforced.
Thanks, glad to know at least some aren’t just a Wild Wild West corral.
1 Like
Yeah they aren’t as bad as they seem. I’m sure there are gross/dangerous ones, but from what I’ve encountered that’s more rare.
I’d actually say some of the holding pens for the BLM mustangs are worse off.
I disagree.
We have had regulations all along, and… Kaufman was a merde show. Just because we require something doesn’t mean it happens in reality.
Which wasn’t my point.
A plant in TX and one in Ill., which is what we basically had, were as far from many places in the US as the plants across our borders are.
So having plants in the US, unless you put one in almost every state, means animals will travel very far to reach one.
I doubt there are investors looking to open that many, and certainly probably far fewer communities willing to host a Kaufman like mess in their community.
1 Like
Deja vu all over again. This topic has come up many times in the past. I think it has been a while, however, since it was last revived when a bill was introduced in Congress. As JB noted above, there are transportation regulations in place. There is no easy solution. Either you manage the process that exports them to Mexico or Canada, or you establish slaughterhouses in the US. There is no easy solution.
1 Like
I wasn’t referring to travel time. I WAS referring to the regulations about how they can be transported, both in terms of how many hours they can be on the road before a required stop, the type of transport, water offered, etc.
As for Kaufman - unless I’m mistaken, that’s an auction house, not a slaughter holding pen. Verrrrrrry different scenarios. Slaughter holding pens are THE last stop for a horse. Auctions are not.
Yes, kill buyers frequent it, things are not always kosher, but it’s not a slaughterhouse pen. I have NO idea what regulations are in place, or how they are enforced, for places like that.
2 Likes
My first, admittedly cynical, reaction, was. “Good grief. Someone is really upset that the horse market has FINALLY recovered from the closing of the U.S. slaughter plants in 2007.”
I know that’s not the driving force behind this legislation, but…Sheesh. If we want to tank horse prices once again, here’s a surefire way to do it.
3 Likes
I would rather they regulate the transport to and management at the slaughterhouse. The slaughter is a necessary evil, but treatment of the horse before the slaughter could be improved.
8 Likes
I was. 
No, you are mistaken. It was a notorious slaughter plant, Dallas Crown, in Kaufman TX.
Here’s an eyeful of reading about how horrible this business was for the community:
https://www.kaufmanzoning.net/
“Two of the nation’s three horse slaughter plants will most likely remain closed after being turned away from the state Legislature and the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Houston Chronicle reported that the Texas House let a deadline of midnight Monday pass without action on a bill that had been expected to authorize the reopening of Dallas Crown Inc. in Kaufman, Texas, and Beltex Corp. in Fort Worth.
The other U.S. horse slaughter plant is the Cavel International plant in DeKalb, Ill. A ban on horse slaughter in that state was sent to Gov. Rod Blagojevich last week, and his spokesman has said Blagojevich will likely sign it”.
DeKalb Horse Processing Plant Shuts Down
Federal court decision forces Cavel to close and send back 200 horses to farms of origin.
Picture of Cherry Brieser-Stout
Cherry Brieser-Stout
March 30, 2007
2 Min Read
A horse processing plant at DeKalb closed on Thursday morning and 200 horses were turned away, according to Illinois State Veterinarian Colleen O’Keefe.
“The horses were being sent back to their farms of origin,” said O’Keefe.
The Belgian-owned Cavel International Inc. horse processing facility was closed following a federal appeals court decision Wednesday by Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly that prevents the U.S. Department of Agriculture from providing inspectors for a fee to the DeKalb-based plant.
Cavel was the last operating horse slaughter plant in the United States. The slaughter plant was specifically designed for horses and opened two and a half years ago, notes O’ Keefe.
The recent ruling follows a federal court decision in January that upheld a Texas state law banning the sale of horsemeat for human consumption. The January ruling forced plants in Fort Worth and Kaufman, Texas to quite sending horsemeat overseas for human consumption.
1 Like
ok, I thought you were talking about what exists now.
There wasn’t the oversight in s-houses then, that there should have been. There weren’t enough inspectors and/or not enough regulations in place to help ensure humane treatment.
The point wouldn’t be to just add back inspectors, it would have to be to do it RIGHT - enough of them, with enough rules in place, and serious repercussions for not following the laws.
Will that happen? I doubt it. The alternative - the ban on transport for slaughter - is going to go about as well as Prohibition went.
I’m not sure what the point of banning slaughter is at this point, since it’s “banned” as a side effect collateral damage of not funding inspectors now.
3 Likes
No, it’s not just about inspectors.
1 Like
Well if you can’t slaughter them, you can’t sell the meat. That was my point. Slaughter has been effectively “banned” for years, because of no funding for inspectors. No inspection, no operation.
They can ban slaughter, which will eliminate any talk of funding inspectors. Or, they can continue to not fund inspectors, which means there’s no slaughter.
Re: Kaufman - clearly there were NOT the inspections and regulations and repercussions that there should have been for it to have been that bad. THAT THERE SHOULD HAVE BEEN, I’ll say it again. What good are rules if they aren’t enforced?
2 Likes
Well exactly, and the definition of insanity is…?
Because this industry clearly, as per decades of ignoring them, will suddenly behave?
Pfft.
There was an interview on NPR with Temple Grandin about her work in a pig slaughter plant… about how things improved after people were there guiding the workers, which slowly regressed again, and again after… Because of course it does.
I think suggesting we can fix what was wrong, when what was wrong was wrong for decades and well known, is pablum.
Tasteless, useless, feel good nonsense that won’t actually solve the problem, but rather kick it down the road.
The process is wrong, cruel, heartless to animals and workers.
It ruins the communities, the infrastructure that it invades.
The product is unsafe.
The tiny redeeming quality of allowing horse owners an Easy button to wave off the last cost and responsibility of their animals doesn’t make those negatives ok.
5 Likes
Good grief, I never implied, let alone stated, that it was ok to just allow slaughter and to continue to allow mistreatment 
I also don’t have any grand ideas that the best rules will always be followed, I’m not naive.
But if you think the people who currently just pawn their horses off on the slaughter truck will to the right thing by their failing horses and humanely euthanize them, you don’t know people. They will turn them loose to die on their own, they will shove them into the back 40 to die on their own, they will allow the animals to suffer because they are too cheap to pay a vet to come do the job properly
There will be increases in sales of problem horses (behavior, health, both) and passing the problems down the road.
The solution is COMPLICATED. Banning transport for slaughter is just pushing the problem into another area, it’s not solving the issue of a humane end of life.
6 Likes
I’m not naive either… There are regulations against these, in bold, presently too.
Get ready to enforce them, I guess?
2 Likes
Of COURSE it’s not legal to do those things. Do you think that stops people? “Oh darnit, my old horse got out and I couldn’t find him, and I assume he went off and died”
So what do YOU think should be done if people can no longer put their horses on a slaughter truck?
1 Like
