Horses on the menu in the USA

Tulsa - Horses could soon be butchered in the US for human consumption after Congress quietly lifted a 5-year-old ban on funding horse meat inspections, and activists say slaughterhouses could be up and running in as little as a month.

Slaughter opponents pushed a measure cutting off funding for horse meat inspections through Congress in 2006 after other efforts to pass outright bans on horse slaughter failed in previous years.


Congress lifted the ban in a spending bill President Barack Obama signed into law November 18 to keep the government afloat until mid-December.

It did not, however, allocate any new money to pay for horse meat inspections, which opponents claim could cost taxpayers $3m to $5m a year.


The US department of agriculture would have to find the money in its existing budget, which is expected to see more cuts this year as Congress and the White House aim to trim federal spending.

The USDA issued a statement on Tuesday saying there are no slaughterhouses in the US that butcher horses for human consumption now, but if one were to open, it would conduct inspections to make sure federal laws were being followed.


USDA spokesperson Neil Gaffney declined to answer questions beyond what was in the statement.

Although there are reports of Americans dining on horse meat as recently as the 1940s, the practice is virtually non-existent in this country, where the animals are treated as beloved pets and iconic symbols of the West.

The last US slaughterhouse that butchered horses closed in 2007 in Illinois, and animal welfare activists warned of massive public outcry in any town where a slaughterhouse may open.

"If plants open up in Oklahoma or Nebraska, you'll see controversy, litigation, legislative action and basically a very inhospitable environment to operate," predicted Wayne Pacelle, president and chief executive of The Humane Society of the United States.

But pro-slaughter activists say the ban had unintended consequences, including an increase in neglect and the abandonment of horses, and that they are scrambling to get a plant going - possibly in Wyoming, North Dakota, Nebraska or Missouri.

They estimate a slaughterhouse could open in 30 to 90 days with state approval and eventually as many as 200 000 horses a year could be slaughtered for human consumption.


Most of the meat would be shipped to Europe and Asia, where it's treated as a delicacy.

Dave Duquette, president of the nonprofit, pro-slaughter group United Horsemen, said no state or site has been picked yet but he's lined up plenty of investors who have expressed interest in financing a processing plant.


While the last three slaughterhouses in the US were owned by foreign companies, he said a new plant would be American-owned.

"I have personally probably five to 10 investors that I could call right now if I had a plant ready to go," said Duquette, who lives in Hermiston, Oregon. He added, "If one plant came open in two weeks, I'd have enough money to fund it. I've got people who will put up $100 000."

Romantic notions


Sue Wallis, a Wyoming state lawmaker who's the group's vice president, said ranchers used to be able to sell horses that were too old or unfit for work to slaughterhouses but now they have to ship them to butchers in Canada and Mexico, where they fetch less than half the price.

The federal ban devastated "an entire sector of animal agriculture for purely sentimental and romantic notions", she said.

Lawmakers in California and Illinois have banned the slaughter of horses for human consumption, and more than a dozen states tightly regulate the sale of horse meat.

Federal lawmakers' lifting of the ban on funding for horse meat inspections came about in part because of the recession, which struck just as slaughtering stopped.


A federal report issued in June found that local animal welfare organisations reported a spike in investigations for horse neglect and abandonment since 2007.


In Colorado, for example, data showed that investigations for horse neglect and abuse increased more than 60% - from 975 in 2005 to almost 1 600 in 2009.

The report from the US government accountability office also determined that about 138 000 horses were transported to Canada and Mexico for slaughter in 2010, nearly the same number that were killed in the US before the ban took effect in 2007.


The US has an estimated 9 million horses.

We have had a few threads on this subject but can't remember the headings?

I'm going to upset a lot of people by saying I don't have an issue with horses being slaughtered.

I do have an issue with how they are killed though.

At the moment, horses are transported by road and in Europe they are even shipped to the Continent, to places where it is legal to slaughter horses. Often they are old, unsound horses, but according to a lot of what I read there are a lot of pedigree horses, including Thoroughbreds, Arabs and even competition types, mares, foals, you name it.

No-one cares how the horses are transported and there is certainly no concern for their welfare on the journey in terms of food, water or injury. They're simply meat on its way to being processed.

The processing plants, certainly in South America in particular, are barbaric and the slaughtering is carried out by rough, low-income workers with little knowledge of horses or the job, so it is done sloppily and not very humanely. For anyone who is interested, there is lots of footage available on-line. I don't recommend it if you have a weak constitution though.

If the US were to re-open slaughter houses, at least they would have to be regulated and inspected on a regular basis. I'm not saying death by slaughterhouse is great, but surely being killed in a legislatively regulated manner beats being sold at public auction, being denied food and water, transported in rough, cramped conditions and often incurring injury and then being treated to a badly administered bolt to the head at the end of it ?

I just couldn't bring myself to eating horse meat in Europe 2 years back.....:X

Greg I went for it last year, you just have to be very careful with side effects -

Great one Dave, what did Lady Gaga have to say about that....

Neigh thing apart from she just told me to stop horsing around and shitting on the dance floor

Dave - you look so much younger!

Its funny how we "worship" these animals in some posts and in this, we talk about acceptable ways to kill a horse, or even better, how you would like your Frankel to be served?!!! The only difference between Frankel and a failure is ability. Do horses know they are able or not? Do horses know that they are destined for the diner should they not run like a bullet, or is that run from the bullet?

What is even scarier for me is how paper pushing lawmakers make decisions on this "meat commodity" and reject life. I suppose Afghanistan Iraq, Libya and perhaps Iran next are treated in the same way so there really is no thought on life. Its a stroke of a pen and a ticking of a box!

Anyone for a Pocket Power sandwich?

As I mentioned earlier we had many threads on this subject.

The human race are a funny bunch including cannibals, for example Mrs S would never eat a rabbit and I would, I guess the definition is do you see an animal as a pet or a friend or something you can eat to survive or just for a meal?

It's a massive subject and every Nation and religion will have another view, not to keen on eating a dog but many Chinese, and we have a lot would have no problems.

Have a feeling we could make a meal of this thread

Isn't horsemeat used mainly for pet food? I know many, many years ago when I had a cat, I used to get horsemeat chunks for her from a local butcher (Cape Town). These days pets are all fed out of tins and who knows what really goes into those? I'm no expert mind you ... haven't had a pet for decades.

Agonising thread.

We are omnivores and we eat meat. Beef if cow, mutton is sheep and bacon is pig. We have separated ourselves from the deed though, and now mince is from the fridge at PnP.

It's a close call on what is worse, the sight of a horse we knew (or not) now absolute skin and bones after years of torture from starvation and neglect, or the idea of it being eaten by us. In nature it would have been taken by a lion.

When horses in our care came to the end, we opted to euthanise and bury. The local horse butcher had a go at me and rightly pointed out that as I am not a vegetarian, that what I was doing was hypocritical. He added that it was costing me almost a grand and his customers were still going to need the meat and that the waste was criminal. He wasn't wrong. I hate this.