Where do all the horses go?

It comes as a relief to know that finally all the slaughter houses for horses in the United States of America will be shut down once and for all. Recently in the news are the cases of the two foreign owned horse slaughter factories in Texas which are being shut down as a result of the January 19, 2007 by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. This ruling has now been confirmed as of 7 March 2007 despite the defendents trying to appeal their case. And, then comes the introduction of a bill to the State of Illinois legislature for achieving the same goal. As a life long horse lover, rider, foal raiser, and competitor, I can only say that the eradication of horse slaughter houses should have happened years ago already. Late is better then never.

I remember as a child hearing about the places where horses were slaughtered for dog food. Through reading the account of Velma Johnston, “Wild Horse Annie” as she was called, an activist, who, back in the 1950’s, fought for the protection of wild horses and burros from being slaughtered. So, already at a young age I came to be educated about the ethics of treating horses with dignity and respect. I was quite impressed with Johnston’s efforts and she was a role model for me later in my life when I began writing about ethical issues concerning equines.

However, the closure of slaughter houses will bring other problems and risks to the forefront. What are these problems and risks? Where will all the rejected horses go? Since the slaughter houses are being shut down there is no longer an equine dumping ground, for horse owners to place their unwanted animals, is there? The tragic reality that once was, has, instead been transformed into something else. It is sad to say, the slaughter houses served a purpose: they disposed of the equine garbage, the garbage from our wasteful consumer society. And, here I point the finger at the equine consumer society itself. Who are these people and what role do they play in this theater of life and death for horses in America—and let us not forget those in Europe who consume horsemeat?

Those horses who ended up at the slaughter factories, were, and still are, victims of a consumer society. Once upon a time they were wanted animals—many highly desired for their prized traits—cherished by their owners, having served some utilitarian purpose. I despise the word utilitarian, but the reality is that is the way humans view horses for the most part: using an animal to satisfy ones’s wants and desires, to give pleasure. Essentially it is about using a horse as a means to an end. Those wants and desires range from exquisite Arabian show horses, to high-stepping park horses, fast galloping throughbreds, fantastic trotters, abandoned aged broodmares, useless stallions, some old riding school pony, and of course many, many more. And, let me tell you the horses that ended up at the slaughter were not merely pedigreeless mongrels, rather, and quite sadly, many of them had pedigrees.

Not only this, the slaughter plants, who cater to the human consumption market in Europe, want healthy animals. What all these horses had in common—with a pedigree or not—was that they were equine objects belonging to human consumers who suddenly had no more use for them and they were dumped off. The dumping is an intentional act of irresponsibility. However, not all dumping can be viciously criticized. I say this because for some situations the slaughter house may have been the only good solution for some of them—sad, but true. I remember a friend of mine who would search the yards outside the horse slaughter house in Siler City, North Carolina and the tragic story of one gelding in particular. One day she discovered a beautiful, sound looking, gelding standing among many in the stock yard destined for slaughter. She decided to give this gelding a second chance on life and transported him to her farm. When she began to ride him, she found much to her horror that he reared. Then in a few days time she loaded him up in the trailer and hauled him back to Siler City to that awful place. Sad, but true. In the end it was the only place for him. But we must remember too that horses who end up dangerous riding horses did not become so without human help. Obviously this horse had been abused and/ or even had a medical problem. We really do not know the full story. But what we do know is that he was consigned to the slaughter.

One has to know that the majority of horses who ended up in the slaughter houses in the first place were those dumped off out of gross neglect and irresponsibility by their owners (equine insurance companies may have played a part in this). Irresponsibility is often the result of too much freedom in being able to do what one wants with no consequences. Also, there have been no strong animal protection laws and this has resulted in no restrainment on actions done to horses. Moral side constraints upon action as the late philosopher Robert Nozick would say—he of course was referring to individual human persons—but in no way does that mean we cannot think about using some of his philosophy when it concerns the treatment of horses. I can take Nozick’s ideas one step further: a person is one who acts responsibly. This can be directed to the horse owner. A horse owner who is a person will treat his or her horse with the utmost respect and will act responsibly due to having reflected on what they are about to do. Irresponsibility may result because someone does not reflect on their intended actions; in other words, the one’s who dump and abandon a horse are humans who seem to have no remorse, no compassion for the animal. Their attitude and behavior puts a horse's life at risk.

The risk for horses now and for tomorrow and for all the days to come, is that there will be thousands of them living in some horrible misery, having no good quality of life. This is a tragedy. The closing of the slaughter houses in the U.S.A. has ended the slaughter of horses, but in doing so has started another problem: now, where do all the horses go that no one wants and how do we prevent them from suffering even more at the hands of irresponsible owners who once used slaughter houses as the last resort? That is a very difficult question to face, considering that nearly 85,000 horses per year are slaughtered in the U.S.A.(2005 statistics). How does society cope with this problem? Where do all those 85,000 horses come from in the first place? Some would say that since there are many horses existing and experiencing such a poor quality of life that it would then be justifiable to take them to slaughter to put them out of their misery. The 85,000 horses who end up at the slaughter house yard are those horses discarded by the human consumer society for all sorts of reasons. As long as humans use horses it can be assumed then that at one point or another a horse will be discarded. And, then there are those who say we should sell the horse meat for human consumption.

During the early days of living in Italy I became aware, quite by surprise, that horsemeat was consumed by humans. Not only this, but In Turin I often passed a horsemeat shop which had a saddle hanging in its front display window. I live in Italy and see people around me buying horsemeat in the supermarket and eating horsemeat in fine restaurants. I am American and I come from a culture where we did not eat horsemeat. I am against human consumption of horsemeat for many reasons. The main reason, among many, is that they are sentient, intelligent animals and for this reason they should not be consumed by humans. Having been a horsewoman all of my life, having raised, trained and competed with them, I cannot imagine eating a living being whose emotions and soul I have interacted with. For me it is as simple as that. Second, if it is okay for humans to eat sentient and intelligent creatures, then what would stop humans from considering other sentient and intelligent creatures for the dinner table? It could, albeit remote, lead to a slippery slope on what all could, in theory, be consumed as food by humans. The third reason is that allowing the slaughter of horses contributes to horse theft and cruelty. I remember many years ago while living in Mississippi a friend of mine had a large number of horses stolen from her farm; the theft took place during the middle of the day; apparently a large livestock trailer was brought in and loaded up with all the horses on the farm; she came home at the end of the day to find that all the horses had disappeared. There was a horse slaughter plant in Mississippi at that time. The closing of slaughter houses should in theory decrease horse theft and cruelty to horses.

This was already observed in California where horse theft and and cruelty decreased when slaughter plants were closed in 1998. However, in Texas, where slaughter continued far longer, horse theft and cruelty were high. Here, in Italy, where I currently live, I can certainly say that there is a high incidence of horse theft and cruelty taking place. A few years ago in Italy there was an case of some men in a Fiat stopping outside a farm and stealing a Halfinger foal and then forcing the foal inside their car to transport it away; the culprits were arrested. Haflinger foal is a delicacy eaten in the Canton of Ticino, Switzerland and in some parts of north Italy. Finally, horses were an important part of American history. They were active work partners in building America, as cavalry horses, cattle horses, as farm work horses, as police horses, the list goes on and on. They were, and still are, sentient, loyal, hard working creatures who contributed to building American society with their human partners already from the pre-colonial and frontier days and up to recent times. Of course horses were used as a means to an end in earlier times too, but still we should learn from this and appreciate America’s equine and human cultural history for what it is. And, that gives even more reason to respect horses.

A poor quality of life does not justify slaughtering horses either. Utilitarian ways of thinking are just another way to side step the issues. What healthy horse should be subjected to the cruelties of slaughter? For far too long horses have been needlessly dumped off at the slaughter houses because when people were finished using them they had to go somewhere. Well, now, that somewhere does not exist anymore, at least not in most U.S. states. However, the rejected horses still do exist. What is at issue here is how to prevent horses from being rejected in the first place. The starting point for that is of course with changing the people’s attitudes towards horses. As long as society continues to view horses as something to be used as a means to an end for satisfying human needs, then the abandonment, mistreatment and rejection of horses will not end.

Ultimately, it is up to the horse owners to change attitude, because they are ones who have the ultimate responsibility in caring for their horses. Horse owners everywhere now have to act responsibly so that horses will no longer suffer. It should always have been this way, but it was not because there was always a garbage dumpster, the slaughter house, to rely on for discarding consumer society’s mistakes and rejects. This of course cannot continue. What is so difficult for me to understand and many other horse people, is how anyone could abandon, reject and dump off a horse at a slaughter house, knowing that their carcass might be shipped off to Europe be consumed by humans? This is something I have difficulty coming to terms with. Those who have horses must take care of them and be accountable. Horses are sentient, intelligent animals who deserve to be treated with respect. Responsibility, empathy and care is the message that I want to send out loud and clear.

Karin S. Fester - Scala, March 16, 2007

Copyright © 2007 Karin S. Fester - Scala

Karin Fester - Scala

Milan, Italy

Email: karinfstr (at) yahoo (dot) com

Email : karin (dot) fester (at) tin (dot) it