Horse Illustrated Magazine

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• I think it is a good thing because if we don't we will have an overpopulation of horses and they will get disease and die out! Do we want that i don't think so

• I am against the USDA opening up inspections for the proposed horse slaughter plant in Gallatin, Missouri, or in any other city or county in Missouri or in the United States. Horses in the U.S. are not raised for human consumption.

  They are our friends and companions, and as such horses are treated with drugs like cats and dogs to a wide variety of vaccinations, bacterins, topical and oral treatments that are not approved for human consumption. We use gloves with topical treatments such as Surpass, because we don't want equine drugs touching our skin, let alone consuming them.

  It's not economical to raise horses for slaughter in the U.S., because it takes a whole lot more money to feed a horse than it does a bovine (or cow), for example. The USDA has no business inspecting a horse slaughter plant that by default will be receiving horses that are not fit for human consumption. The horses they will be receiving have not been raised drug-free for human consumption. That's a fact.

  As a grower of corn, wheat and soybeans, the USDA's reputation directly affects many. The European Union, which is where most of the horse meat would go, has a zero tolerance for Bute (Phenylbutazone) , which is routinely given to horses in the U.S. It is estimated that 90% of horses in the U.S. have been treated with this drug, not to mention all of the other drugs.

  There is no way to test for all of these drugs on every horse destined for slaughter. If you don't believe me, then keep reading. We had a horse at one of the Universities that was sick and on the premises of the University, and it took two days for us to get the test results of one test. Many tests would need to be run on each horse, and there is no way to do this in a timely fashion.

  Most of the horses destined for slaughter are young or middle-aged, and in the prime of their lives. Two that have been rescued from slaughter have gone on and are now showing at the Morgan Grand National level.

  Horse slaughter has no place in America.

• Please sign the petition to ban horse slaughter in the U.S.:
  http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/ban-horse-slaughter-now
  Here is another petition, this one to Stop Horse Slaughter Factory in Missouri:
  http://www.thepetitionsite.com/925/215/246/stop-horse-slaughter-factory-in-missouri/

• "According to the USDA, each horse slaughter facility...would cost U.S. taxpayers over $400,000 per year in operation costs." http://moran.house.gov/press-release/moran-statement-usda-decision-allowing-re-opening-us-horse-slaughter-facility

• Horse slaughter is not only cruel and inhumane to horses, it is harmful to humans as well. In its lifetime, a horse is given medications and other toxic substances that would be harmful to humans and animals that consume its meat. Horse meat is not sold in the United States, but it is exported to other countries.
  Horses are beautiful, intelligent animals that bring joy and friendship into our lives. We need to protect these sensitive animals from being killed.
  Horses can't speak for themselves, but we can be their voice. Let congress know that Americans won't stand by while these precious animals are butchered.
  Please don't be a bystander, be a rescuer! Follow this link to act today:
  http://act.wildhorsepreservation.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=13157

• We start with horses than what stops them from going tp dogs and cats we become like other companies that slaughter domestic animals. A country withoit a heart

• Horse slaughter must not be allowed on many levels. These are our children's pets and friends. What message to we send to them to allow such atrocities? The slaughter of other animals for food is controversial enough especially concerning sanitary conditions. This opens up all sorts of future problems for regulators making sure horse meat is not incorporated with cow meat an other kinds of meat. And it opens up many avenues litigations and law suits against the government and the slaughter houses themselves.

• we need horse slaughter I am sorry it is a necessary evil with any animal it is not like a goldfish that when you don't feed it you can flush it down the toilet not everyone has a place to bury a 1200 lb animal in their backyard. There are more horses being neglected and starving than when there was horse slaughter plants and what makes better sense sending these poor creatures to MX or Canada in crowded trailers for thousands of miles or keeping them in the US where their suffering won't be as severe. Horses are classified as a livestock animal it has a hoof so what is next going after cows, hogs and goats because you don't want Bessie the cow, Wilbur the pig or Elmer the goat to become someones next meal? I believe it should be up the owners if they want to send their animal to auction knowing where it might end up rather than not having a choice at all other than that animal suffering from neglect or starvation.

• Horse slaughter is a necessary. The few years horse slaughter was banned in the United States, it completely backfired. Horses were being abandoned in public areas and rescues were so overrun they stopped accepting any surrenders or new arrivals. Owners who didn't have the funds or means to take care of these animals couldn't sell them to legitimate owners either, so they were allowing them to simply die from malnourished in pastures. Plus, so many horses were just being shipped to Mexico and Canada anyway for slaughter there anyway. And Horses, by almost any state laws, are considered livestock. I know a lot of people who keep livestock as pets and wouldn't eat them, but that doesn't make them livestock none the less.

  • if you have a horse than you have a place to bury the horse

• Horse slaughter is NOT humane euthanasia!
  With the captive-bolt, which was developed for use on cattle, stunning is ineffective over 40% of the time when applied to domestic, trained horses (the ones full of prohibited drugs and medications.) This is due to the fact that horses' heads cannot be restrained as cattle are and accuracy is very difficult. Horses will routinely break their own necks if restrained. The captive-bolt is ineffective at stunning wild, untrained or under-trained horses nearly 100% of the time. Everyone who knows horses and has any experience at all with wild horses knows that it is near impossible to get anywhere near their poll which is a very vulnerable area to every horse. To get near a wild horse's poll with a captive-bolt apparatus and have an accurate shot is technically, practically and virtually impossible. This is the reason why we find so much carcass evidence documentation of severe abuse to slaughtered horses. The captive-bolt process itself is so ineffective that many horses are shot multiple times or vivisected while conscious. This is a definite violation of the Humane Slaughter Act which mandates slaughtered animals to be rendered "senseless with one (1) shot."