Documents recently released by the United States Department Agriculture(USDA) contain shocking images of the extreme suffering of horses transported to U.S.-based slaughter plants.
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A severely injured horse at the Beltex slaughter plant.© USDA |
Animals' Angels, a Maryland-based animal protection organization, obtained the photos as the result of a Freedom of Information Act request related to 2005 violations of the Commercial Transport of Equines to Slaughter Act at the former Bel-Tex horse slaughter plant in Kaufman, TX.
The photos were taken by USDA officials charged with monitoring the horses upon arrival at the slaughter plant. While some of the photos depict graphic injuries obviously suffered in transport to slaughter (eyeballs hanging off, bruised and bloodied faces, severely injured and missing legs), others show horses that were clearly mistreated by their owners prior to being purchased for and transported to slaughter.
"These graphic photos prove the horrible cruelty endured by horses transported to U.S.-based slaughter plants," said Keith Dane, Director of Equine Protection for The Humane Society of the United States. "Whether on U.S. soil or abroad horse slaughter is cruel and inhumane and must be stopped."
"For far too long, the availability of horse slaughter has allowed unscrupulous horse owners and breeders to use slaughter auctions as a dumping ground for their "excess" horses. It is time for the horse industry to take responsibility for its horses—for their entire lives—instead of hiding behind a foreign owned industry that preys on our companion animals", said Dane.
In its 1996 Farm Bill, Congress gave the USDA authority to regulate the transport of horses to U.S. based, foreign-owned slaughter plants. The final rule, which was not published until 2001, included a phase out of the use of double-decker trailers to transport horses directly to slaughter. However, an egregious loophole in the law allows horses to be transported to any other destination, such as auctions, feed lots or intermediary points, on these cramped, dangerous trailers, meant for shorter neck species like cattle and pigs. When forced to travel on these trailers, horses cannot balance properly, causing them to suffer serious injuries, and sometimes death, before arriving at the slaughter plant. Many of the USDA photos depict injuries typical of horses forced to travel on double-decker trailers—severe head injuries, gaping wounds on their hindquarters, and leg injuries.
In recent years, there have been a number of horrific accidents in which top heavy, double-decker trailers carrying horses have flipped over en route to slaughter plants and feed lots. In 2007, a trailer carrying more than 50 young, Belgian draft horses overturned on an Illinois highway, killing 17 of the horses and severely injuring dozens more.
First responders described a horrific scene with "live and dead horses stacked on top of one another…horses kicking and whinnying as they tried to escape the wreckage." The surviving horses were turned over to a local horse rescue, which rehabilitated them and adopted them out to loving homes.
Horses transported to slaughter, both in the U.S. and abroad, endure many hours, and sometimes days, in the crowded confines of trailers without food, water and rest. Lack of segregation of more dominant, young, old or injured horses make fighting, injury and even death a frequent occurrence on slaughter bound trailers.
In 2007, the last three horse slaughter plants in the U.S. closed as a result of legislation and legal action in the states where the plants operated—Illinois and Texas. Even when there were operational plants in the U.S., horses were being transported by the thousands across our borders to plants in Mexico and Canada. The Prevention of Equine Cruelty Act of 2009, currently pending in Congress, would prevent any new horse slaughter plants from opening in the U.S. and as well as prohibit horses from being exported to Canada and Mexico for slaughter for human consumption.
