Detailed Summary

Prevention of Equine Cruelty Act of 2009 - Amends the federal criminal code to impose a fine and/or prison term of up to three years for possessing, shipping, transporting, purchasing, selling, delivering, or receiving any horse, horse flesh, or carcass with the intent that it be used for human consumption. Reduces the prison term to one year if the offense involves less than five horses or less than 2,000 pounds of horse flesh or carcass and the offender has no prior conviction for this offense.

Status of the Legislation

Latest Major Action: 3/26/2009: Referred to Senate committee. Status: Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.

Points in Favor

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Points Against

Various organizations asserting support of "humane" treatment of animals are waging a battle opposing slaughter of horses for human consumption. Their efforts employ distorted emotionality, and have gained popularity with people who love horses but don't have adequate information and a well-rounded perspective on the involved issues. Please don't let such attempts hide the facts involved.

Horse owners and lifelong horse lovers support appropriate, humane slaughter of horses. People who teach horse care and riding, who work at stables, and who have studied horses and horse care, support appropriate, humane slaughter of animals.

A dismaying surplus of horses has developed since horse slaughter was stopped in the U.S. in 2007.

As a result, prices are extremely low in the flooded horse market. Many owners are giving away or abandoning horses because of the combination of the market surplus and current high maintenance costs. My husband and I were given five free horses in the last year.

Many times horse buyers find out after making a purchase that the horse they bought is unsuitable for their needs. What are they to do with a dangerous or unsound horse? Or even one that just needs more training? Owners are hard-pressed to pay $300-$500 minimum for training when they will get next to nothing when they sell the horse. It is more economical for the owner to just get a different horse. Prices in the horse market are so low at this time that the buyer can potentially just seek out one of the MANY already trained and often physically superior horses readily available at very low prices. (For example, two broke registered Paints sold at an auction near me for $10 each, recently.) But then the unsuitable horse is added back into the circulation of the horse market, where it is likely to be a disappointment and wasted expense for another buyer.

If slaughter continues to be banned, where are the thousands of U.S. horses that are unsound, elderly or dangerous to go?

Using for food the meat from horses that appropriately need to be put down is a resource-conscious and life-valuing choice. If meat from unplaceable horses (Historically, an estimated 90,000 U.S. horses per year have gone to slaughter) is buried or incinerated rather than used, the disposal will contribute to environmental pollution, rather than resource conservation. Many more resources will have to be employed and many other animals killed to produce a comparable amount of meat to meet food demand.

For horse trainers, the effect on their livelihood can extend further than simply decreased demand for outside training. Trainers are also likely to struggle to even recoup expenses, much less make a profit, when they train horses of their own for sales income. How are they to make their living now? Training knowledge and skill require considerable investments in time, money and practice. Without a way to continue to afford such investments, who will be left to train the next generation of horses?

The cost of hay and other components of horse-keeping have risen significantly with shifts in fuel prices other economic factors. The drop in the market value of horses has created a staggering deterrent to owners providing adequate care. Many horses have paid the price in underfeeding, painfully overgrown hooves, neglected medical conditions, and even abandonment. This is not humane.

Since horse slaughter was outlawed in the U.S., horses to be slaughtered have had to be exported. The stresses in transportation are much greater because of the longer travel time and greater weather variances. Sometimes foreign laws regarding humane transport and euthanization are less protective of horses' welfare, as well. However, export for foreign slaughter should not be completely stopped if it is the only available slaughter outlet, because suffering would be even more widespread if all slaughter were to be halted. And for a great number of horses, the suffering would extend interminably. However, if we must use export channels, we need to exert whatever influence and implement whatever measures we still can to pressure export buyers to maintain high humane standards in foreign processing facilities.

The focus of humane efforts needs to be advocating measures to reliably ensure humane transport and euthanization of horses that are being slaughtered. Such protections need to take into account horses' nature, as well as their physical needs. Advances can be made, and in this we should not consent to decent considerations being ignored for the purpose of profit.

Please, let's work together to implement legal measures that integrate these factors into our stewardship of horses.