Update: This resolution did not pass before the end of the legislative session.

Original report: Missouri state Sen. Wes Shoemyer is pushing Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 35 which refers to horse slaughter as "horse harvesting" as if these animals are beets or carrots to be removed from the fields when they are ready for market.  

The Resolution calls on Congress to defeat the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act, H.R. 503/S.B. 311 and "support the location of USDA approved horse processing facilities on state, tribal, or private lands under mutually-acceptable and market-driven land leases and, if necessary, a mutually-acceptable assignment of revenues".  Click here for a full copy of the resolution.

Reps. Paul Quinn and Thomas Todd are sponsoring a similar resolution in the Missouri state House, HCR 33.

Sadly, the Senate resolution has passed that chamber.  The resolution is now pending in the House Agricultural Policy Committee. Click here to find committee members. Call or write and urge them to vote no on SCR 35 and HCR 33.

These resolutions rely on the same discredited misinformation that the misnamed Horse Welfare Coalition has been disseminating as part of the slaughter industry's effort to stave off federal legislation to stop this cruel, arcane practice. The resolution, in fact, cites to the Horse Welfare Coalition, claiming that without horse slaughter "90,000 to 100,000 unwanted horses annually would be exposed to potential abandonment and neglect".

This is utter nonsense, a shameless effort to preserve the slaughter industry. The slaughter industry is driven by a demand for horse meat, not the numbers of abandoned or unwanted horses. As John Holland, a free lance writer and researcher on horse slaughter, has explained, "Kill buyers do not go around the country like dog catchers gathering ‘unwanted horses' as a public service."  Kill buyers buy horses at auction for slaughter. The kill buyers are not looking for the unwanted or abused or neglected horses. They are looking for healthy horses that can be slaughtered for horsemeat, a delicacy in parts of Europe and Asia. The USDA has said over 92% of American horses slaughtered, are healthy. 

Also, the horse slaughter industry actually encourages the over breeding of horses. Because owners can make money from the brutal slaughter of their horses, they have an incentive to over breed.  Horse slaughter makes it economical for owners to over breed horses to try to produce faster, better horses for racing. As actor Paul Sorvino has said, "37% of those horses are going to be slaughtered because they couldn't run fast enough....So, it's run for your life."  If the slaughter of horses for human consumption is illegal, there is no reward for over breeding.  

Historically, there have not been increases in abandoned, neglected or abused horses following closures of horse slaughter houses.  Pet Abuse.com actually reported a decrease in horse abuse and neglect cases following closure of the last U.S. horse slaughter house in 2007.

In 2002 the Illinois slaughter house burned to the ground and was out of commission for some time.  Reports of abandoned, abused and neglected horses in the Illinois area were actually on the rise in the 2 years before the fire but decreased afterwards.

The number of horses slaughtered in the U.S. dropped significantly from over 300,000 annually in the 1990s to 66,000 in 2004.  There was no notable increase during that time of abandoned, abused or neglected horses.

As Americans Against Horse Slaughter ("AAHS") puts it, "The ‘surplus horse population' [argument] is a scare tactic.

The recent reports in some media that horses have been abandoned in increasing numbers because of closure of the horse slaughter plants in the U.S. have proved to be unfounded, obviously planted as part of a disinformation campaign.  

AAHS points out, "Just over 100,000 horses were slaughtered in the U.S. in 2006. If slaughter were no longer an option and these horses were rendered or buried instead, it would represent a small increase in the number of horse being disposed of in this manner  - an increase that the current infrastructure can certainly sustain. Humane euthanasia and carcass disposal is highly affordable and widely available. The average cost of having a horse humanely euthanized and safely disposing of the animal's carcass is approximately $225, while the average monthly cost of keeping a horse is approximately $200."

The resolution also contends zoos rely on horse meat.  This is simply not the case. Most zoos have stopped using horse meat at all. It is not used in pet food. Horse meat is not consumed in the U.S. Horse meat is an expensive delicacy served in fine restaurants primarily in parts of Asia and Europe.     

Indeed, the horse slaughter industry was insignificant to the U.S. economy. All 3 of the horse slaughter houses closed last year were part of a horse meat industry that was only 0.001% of the U.S. meat industry. The slaughterhouses were all foreign-owned. They paid little in income taxes. One facility paid $5 in federal taxes on $12 million in sales. These slaughter houses paid no export taxes, meaning the U.S. government effectively subsidized the sale of horse meat to consumers generally in Asia and Europe.

Horse slaughter is a brutal business. It has no place in American culture. It's time it went the way of dog fighting, trafficking in illegal drugs, slavery, prostitution, child labor, dumping of pollutants onto land or waterways and other sordid practices. It's time to ban horse slaughter.

Click here for more information on the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act now pending in Congress, where it stands now, and how you can help pass it!

Remember it's an election year. The three remaining presidential candidates, all Senators, have all signed up as co-sponsors to this Act. No one should be elected to Congress without agreeing to co-sponsor this legislation. No member of Congress should be re-elected without signing on as co-sponsor to H.R. 503 or S.B. 311.

Contact Animal Law Coalition for help in convincing Congressional candidates or your representative or senators to sign on now as co-sponsors!  

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Click here to read  the white paper issued by the Veterinarians for Equine Welfare on horse slaughter.

Click here to read John  Holland's point by point refutation of the AVMA's pro-slaughter arguments.

Click here to read how you can help restore the protections of the Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act.