On the Renewed Debate Over Horse Slaughter

"Surge in Abandoned Horses Renews Debate Over Slaughterhouses" in today's New York Times begs a lot of questions that I wonder how you would answer.

Let's deconstruct:

• The facts of the case: "Emaciated horses eating bark off trees. Abandoned horses tied to telephone poles. Horses subsisting on feces, walking among carcasses. As the economy continues to falter, law enforcement officers in Kentucky and throughout the country are seeing major increases in the number of unwanted and neglected horses, some abandoned on public land, others left to starve by their owners."
• But the really telling language begins with the next sentence: "The situation has renewed the debate over whether reopening slaughterhouses in the United States — the last ones closed in 2007 — would help address the problem."

The problem is that people are abandoning and neglecting horses, and to address that problem--to address the problem that people abandon horses--we'll kill the horses? That doesn't address the problem, it addresses the result. If you want to address the problem, you do something about the people abandoning and neglecting horses.

• This is about finding "affordable options for unwanted horses," the article says. No, it's about finding affordable options for people to unload their unwanted horses.
• In case you thought horses were somehow magically more wonderful than other nonhuman animals and that the rest of this country agreed with that sentiment and acted accordingly, just remember that: "Also unresolved in the overall debate is whether the closing of slaughterhouses contributed to the growing numbers of unwanted horses, driving down the price of the animals to as little as $50 each at auction."

In other words, horses, like pigs and cows and chickens, are commodities whose worth has a dollar value to people, and we should be doing what we can do maximize that dollar value. Not approving the institutionalized slaughter of the horses we claim to hold so dear lowers that value. And no matter how special we claim horses are, they're only special if they're still worth something (to us. Financially).

• Disagree? Then take a subsequent sentence--a quote by Representative Edward B. Butcher (no joke) from Montana: " “No one has to send a horse to a processing plant. It’s just an option for horses that are unusable. And it’s much more humane than leaving them there to starve to death.”

What happened to all of the talk of tradition and the American West and culture and the horse's unique place in our history and how horses are different from cows and chickens? Butcher plainly speaks of the use of horses and that those not usable perhaps should be killed. Where did all the fanfare around horses go?

This article--this tragic situation--tells us one thing, loud and clear: That horses have a value to us, and when they cease being valuable, or when we can no longer care for them, we should consider killing them to solve our problem.

What about people who have children they cannot afford to have? Do we recommend killing those children? There are entire countries filled with starving people--do we think killing them is a "humane" idea?

Comments

[Bea Elliott]

The opening of a horse slaughter facility is being considered in Ireland too, with just about the same rhetoric... horse starvation, and affordable options for horse breeders:

"In the economy at the moment, a lot of the horses which were produced don't have a job, and no-one will buy them."

I love that line... that "the horses don't have a job."

And it is also proclaimed that there's a deep *respect* for the services horses have contributed historically.... and that they "advanced on the back of horses".

But still... The Northern Ireland Horse Board said "while they weren't happy with the situation, they would be in favour of a permanent horse abattoir in the Province so animals wouldn't have to travel long distances before they die."

Those words are predictable... "before they die". The word "kill" seems so hard for people to say... especially the ones that are accomplices in the killing.

Anyway, here's the rest if you care to know:
http://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/Cashstrapped-owners-selling-horses-for.5147312.jp?articlepage=1

[maggie rose]

Horse trainers and owners must take responsibility and provide suitable and appropriate housing for horses when they no longer win races - or - ban breeding of horses altogether.