Are there any still running horse slaughter houses in the US?

Question

Just wondering if there were any horse slaughter houses still up and running.

I hate the idea of slaughtering horses, and was curious if we still did this in America.

Answer 1

Not any more, thanks to the federal ban on horse slaughter which was passed and signed into law by George Bush a little over a year ago now. Nowadays, horses who don't make it on the track, or are too old, ill, or lame to work any more, or which have behavior problems that make them a threat to themselves, other horses, and to people, get put on trucks and sent to Canada, Mexico, or overseas to Europe and the Pacific Rim, where slaughter is still legal. Horse meat, particularly young horse meat, is considered to be a delicacy in large parts of the world- the US is one of the only countries which has a cultural taboo against consuming it.

Out of country shipment has also become a prime means of disposal for all the overbred, inbred, injured, lame, and often insane young ex-racehorses which come off our nation's tracks each year. These horses have no future- and prior to passage of the slaughter ban, they were typically sold for meat and disposed of here at home. This is sad, yes, but it's necessary, or we would quickly become overrun with these poor unfortunate animals which no one wants or has any use for. There simply aren't enough homes or people available to care for them all- and in many parts of the country, there is no food available for them to eat, thanks to the droughts last year which destroyed the hay crop in a lot of states. This has meant that the price of what little hay is available ( and we had to import our hay from the Midwest last year at the farm I live on, because there was nothing available locally) has skyrocketed, which in turn means that a lot of people can't afford to keep their stock. Since slaughter is now illegal, these owners have few options open to them. The market is flooded with excess, usually unsalable animals- and the rendering plants and glue factories can't handle the demand right now. Many people also can't afford the costs associated with having horses euthanized, because such animals must be either buried afterwards, or the carcasses must be cremated and burned. That process isn't CHEAP- I know, because I have been through it myself several times. No euthanized animal is ever turned into dogfood or meat, because the drugs used to do this are POISONOUS to people and animals alike, and in any case, federal laws prohibit this.

So what's an owner to do in this situation? Well, a lot of these horses get put on cattle trucks bound for Canada- and there are others which get put into tiny feedlots somewhere and are left to fend for themselves. It's not a pretty picture- but there is no way to really end this situation, short of having someone make an appeal to the Supreme Court- and that's not likely to happen.

What a sad story.

Answer 2

No, the last one to close was Cavel International in DeKalb, IL.  They filed suit to stay open but lost their case in September 2007.

Answer 3

No.  Not long ago there was a big push for Congress to make a law to put an end to the few remaining slaughter houses in the US.

According to this detailed article, all US plants have been shut down: http://alexbrownracing.com/wiki/index.ph...

And wikipedia has a pretty detailed report: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horse_slaug...

There is still horse slaughter in other parts of the world though... they eat horses in other countries.  Unfortunately, there's no world government and Congress has no jurisdiction to outlaw horse slaughter in other countries.  We did, however, create the Ferdinand fee to ensure that our heroes can come home before they're mistreated in other countries... it's a voluntary payment (you can, but don't have to do it) into a fund every time you enter a horse into a race... we use that fund to rescue the horses from the other countries and the fund pays for the fees of bringing the horse home.  It was created in response to the horrible events that claimed Ferdinand's life... he turned out not to be such a great stud, so the Japanese ate him.  I think we need to bring War Emblem home immediately!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_(...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Emblem

this video kinda tells you a little about War Emblem in a rather creative way... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZS0Ih4YY-...

Answer 4

i believe there is one.  the rest of the horses stand in the field or stall lame and cant walk to water or their feed.  thank you america.  they dont slaughter them like they did in the old days, they do it humanely.  there is one thing i hate to see is a horse in pain, but personally i have never taken one to a slaughter house.  when you have to put a horse down it costs around 2 to 3 thousand to get them buried.

Answer 5

No, but we are shipping horses from the U.S to Canada to be slaughtered.

Answer 6

The only way American horses get slaughtered any more is if they're first sold to someone in a different country, then slaughtered by different owners there. There are no horse slaughterhouses in the US (especially considering there is almost no market at all for them over here).