THE FINISH LINE: How U.S. racehorses end up on dinner plates
About 20,000 U.S. horses, including former racehorses, work horses, show animals, discarded pets, and even wild horses are sold to slaughterhouses in Canada and Mexico every year.
RACHEL FOBAR: At a feedlot in Alberta, Canada, up to 10,000 horses await their death. In the winter, when temperatures can drop to -30 degrees Fahrenheit, the snow-covered equines huddle together for warmth. On multiple occasions, only a handful of employees were around to check on the animals, and scavengers have picked over neglected carcasses. In 2019, a dead newborn foal was found frozen to the ground.
“Pure agony” is how Sonja Meadows, president of the nonprofit Animals’ Angels, describes these animals’ situation. She’s visited the Prime Feedlot, owned by meat exporter Bouvry Exports—and others—many times, but this, “I can never forget,” she says. (Bouvry Exports did not respond to a request for comment.)
About 20,000 U.S. horses—including former racehorses, work horses, show animals, discarded pets, and even wild horses are sold to slaughterhouses in Canada and Mexico every year, according to a recent report by U.S. nonprofits Animal Wellness Action, Center for a Humane Economy, and Animals’ Angels.
While there’s no explicit ban on killing horses for meat in the U.S., Congress has blocked funding of USDA inspections of horse slaughterhouses since 2007. Without these inspections, it’s illegal to sell horse meat across state lines.
No such bans exist in neighboring countries, however, which is why Canada and Mexico have become a “dumping ground” for unwanted horses, says Camille Labchuk, executive director of the Canadian nonprofit Animal Justice. In 2022, more than 16,300 U.S. horses were shipped to Mexico and more than 5,100 to Canada, according to USDA export data…
The supply of U.S. horses to the foreign meat industry has sharply declined from more than 300,000 in the 1990s. But the auction-to-slaughter pipeline remains notorious for its suffering. Investigations of auctions, holding pens, transport, and slaughterhouses have found animals injured, diseased, and starving, according to the report, compiled by the three animal-welfare nonprofits. Witnesses saw downed animals dragged from trailers, beaten by their handlers, and trampled by other horses…
Unwanted horses are brought to auctions in the U.S., where so-called “kill buyers” are present. The horse-meat industry depends on a “stealthy, predatory network” of these buyers, who purchase discarded horses and sell them at a profit to foreign slaughterhouses, the report says.
Once these buyers purchase horses, they take them to holding pens or feedlots, where their conditions deteriorate. It’s common to see horses with their bones protruding, suffering from broken legs, festering wounds, and disease, Meadows says. Veterinary care is minimal or nonexistent…
Moving horses to Canada or Mexico requires long-distance travel, often in cramped, repurposed cow trailers. They often spend more than a day in these trailers… Conditions in slaughterhouses are also poor, and likely violate welfare laws… One slaughterhouse employee confessed that workers would “just drag” horses with broken legs to slaughter, according to the report…
The market for horse meat is all but nonexistent in North America, but the animals are more commonly eaten in Europe and Asia. Live horses are even shipped to Japan for sashimi. Last year, Mexico sent four million dollars’ worth of horse meat to Japan, China, and Russia; and in 2021, Canada exported $28.6 million worth of meat to Japan and Europe, including France, Belgium, Italy, Germany, Luxembourg, and Switzerland. SOURCE…
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