Thoughts On Horse Slaughter

 Foals In The Kill Pen Awaiting Transport To Slaughter

"If slaughterhouses had glass walls we would all be vegetarians"

-Linda McCartney

 I just can't get the images I have been viewing today online about horse slaughter in Canada & Mexico out of my head.. I was like most people I guess. I knew that when horses were sent to auctions there were buyers there called "killers". I knew that some of the horses sent were destined to end up in dogfood or on the plates of wealthy Europeans. I was under the impression that this was a necessary evil in a sense. That there are far to many horses and not enough quality homes and that the sick, the lame, the unwanted filtered through and found a final resting place at a slaughterhouse in a humane manner. Not that I was ok with it, it was just the end of the line to trim off the excess population a fact of horse life. I tried not to think about it too hard...and then I did some research on starving and neglected horses and as the Interent often does I found my self clicking through links that eventually brought me to a profound realization...horse slaughter is absolutely the most insanely inhumane thing I have ever had the misfortune of revealing to myself and if we live in a society that has this as a necessary evil...we have to be the most disgusting wretched form of life to ever crawl across the face of the planet.

These horses are kept in the most disgusting of conditions. They are starved, dehydrated, maimed, and treated so abusively I can't fathom how this is legal. I saw horses lying on the floor, legs cut off with hacksaws still clinging to life. I saw horses with half their faces blown off from botched shootings. Horses missing ears, missing eyes, horses with infected eye sockets, horses with holes on their sides oozing green puss. Horses so starved and so weak they fall down and can't even muster the energy to get up and if they survive without being trampled to death they are drug across the floor and shot. New born foals alongside their placenta waiting to be butchered. The "killers" outbid families and scoop up healthy robust beautiful animals with so much life left to give. They crowd them on transport trucks to drop them off at facilities that rarely abide by humane slaughter guidelines. I saw horses being stunned up to 17 times. I saw horses being shot 5 times sometimes several minutes passed between each bullet. I saw little ponies being crammed two at at a time into the kill shoot watching each other die. And for ANYONE that knows anything about horses, their herd instinct is so strong this must be HORRIFYING to be trapped and watch as your herdmates are being shot so brutally. One by one they are fed into those shoots only to end their service to mankind in such a
HORRIBLE painful way.

Our Sugarcreek Survivors

So now I am just sad and am thinking of what part can I do to make a difference. First off I have two horses here that have SugarCreek histories. One our little Sunshine was bought at the infamous SugarCreek auction house in Ohio by my cousin and I have since taken her on as mine. So she very easily could have ended up on the slughterhouse floor. I think of how much fun my sons have had with her I wonder why on earth she was ever sent there in the first place. She is only 3 and she is sooooo pretty! She is teaching them so much about being good horsemen. I can't imagine that little pony being crammed into one of those shoots and so brutally shot in the head. In mexico they don't even use bullets, sometimes it is nails or bolts loaded into a gun and sometimes it takes hours for the horse to die I can't imagine her enduring that pain and lucky for her she is a survivor of Sugarcreek and will have a forever home with our family. When the boys out grow her she will hang out and wait for some grandkids to come along and start riding.

Star's Story Saved From Sugarcreek Sale

And then there is Star a beautiful 13 year old Quarter horse who was bought days before she was to be sent to Sugarcreek. She has turned out to be a dream come true for my neice, who tries to ride every pretty day. She takes Star to horseshows and loves her dearly. Star was on her way until she was scooped up and she was spared the horror of the processing plants. Both Star & Sunshine got lucky and thier tags were passed on to other horses who were not as lucky.



Info & Links:
Here is a link to the USHS fact sheet on horse slaughter .There is a link on the page that I will provide to you as well to video footage of a horse being killed at a slaughterhouse in the kill shoot. I couldn't watch the video in it's entirety I closed the browser when the horse is shown and the man prepares to shoot it. Maybe you can stomach it I just can't:
Horse Being Killed In Canada Video 1 of 3

Video From Sugarcreek Auction House

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