Vivian Farrell,
Tuesday's Horse
March 2017
[NOTE: Please also read Horse slaughter and horse meat production worldwide — Introduction]
If horses are turned away at the Mexican border, kill buyers have been known to tell the transporters to get rid of them
because they do not want the expense of returning the horses to the feedlot
when most probably wouldn’t survive the return trip anyway. So they are
turned loose.
Horses turned loose like this have been rescued when known about but most
die a long, agonizing death, as the numerous carcasses that have been found
tell us.
No horses have been legally slaughtered for human consumption in the US since 2007, when the last operating horse slaughterhouse in Illinois was closed down.
However... in 2017, kill buyers are still making a killing.
Numbers vary, but the general consensus is that approximately 130,000 US
horses are slaughtered annually across its borders. It is the job of the
kill buyer acting on behalf of these slaughterhouses to supply those
numbers. Often this is done at livestock auctions. But they also prey on
unsuspecting horse owners and many are also known horse thieves.
Unless something drastically changes, those numbers look to stay the same.
The number of US horses slaughtered may suffer a hiccup or two in the near
future.
The new EU mandate of a six month waiting period for US horses crossing the
border into Canada before they can be slaughtered for human consumption
should diminish the numbers killed when it starts on March 31.
However, we know from previous experience with the Canadian EID — a passport
of sorts listing all the medications a horse received in his lifetime but
was constantly forged — that kill buyers and horse dealers are very adept at
circumventing the law.
And who’s to enforce it?
Horses before the auction at Shipshewana. These were racing, riding, and
show horses. But the slaughterhouse buyers were there to bid on the least
expensive horses. Source: Animal Angels.
In the meantime, our sources tell us that slaughterers in Mexico are
scrambling to convert existing facilities and expand others in anticipation
of the new EU restrictions concerning Canada when thousands of slaughter
horses may be redirected to Mexico.
If thousands more slaughter horses are indeed sent instead to Mexico, a side
effect of this will likely be horses turned back at the border.
Horses bound for slaughter and turned back at the Mexican border are
sometimes cruelly abandoned after they have already made a long, horrifying
journey in all temperatures without food and water, many of them injured,
and some of them pregnant and mares with foals.
Kill buyers have been known to tell the transporters to get rid of them
because they do not want the expense of returning the horses to the feedlot
when most probably wouldn’t survive the return trip anyway. So they are
turned loose.
Horses turned loose like this have been rescued when known about but most
die a long, agonizing death, as the numerous carcasses that have been found
tell us.
There are several kill buyer lists on the internet. If you learn of any,
please report them to us anyone on the list below. But do not approach them.
They can be very dangerous people.
It is amazing how much these people look like the ruthless killers they are;
like serial killers. Very creepy.
KILL BUYER LIST
Number of animals killed in the world by the fishing, meat, dairy and egg industries, since you opened this webpage.
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