There is no fundamental difference between slaughtering horses for consumption or slaughtering sheep and cattle (other than concerns about medications being used, that said they can be tested for at slaughter). Sheep and cattle are also flight animals and all the things that can go wrong with horse slaughter can also go wrong with the slaughter of any animal. The opposition to horse slaughter over cow slaughter is a purely cultural opposition.
The proposed legislation is not going to solve anything, all it is going to do is create an intermediary step where horses get bought at auction in the US by people who transport them to Canada or Mexico, and re-auction them there sometime later. Since the bill only outlaws knowingly selling them for slaughter and you have no idea what someone at an auction is going to do with an animal that would still be legal under the proposed law.
Prior to the discontinuation of slaughter in the US there were already laws on the books requiring safe and appropriate travel situations and humane situations in the slaughter facility. The problem was that those laws weren’t enforced. Writing more laws that also cannot be enforced doesn’t solve the problem.
The only realistic way to save horses from slaughter in the U.S. is to get some type of three party trade or treaty agreement between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada to end the practice. Shipping live horses across the ocean or further south might be cost prohibitive enough to protect horses in Canada and the U.S. anyway.
Euthanasia and disposal of the body afterward is typically expensive in the U.S., as long as horse owners are able to make money on horses that are no longer desirable or useful as opposed to it costing them money there will be a supply of horses. Since the demand is predominantly foreign there is little we can or should do to address the demand issue. The only way to make horse slaughter impractical is to have it outlawed in all three countries.
There is no fundamental difference between slaughtering horses for consumption or slaughtering sheep and cattle (other than concerns about medications being used, that said they can be tested for at slaughter). Sheep and cattle are also flight animals and all the things that can go wrong with horse slaughter can also go wrong with the slaughter of any animal. The opposition to horse slaughter over cow slaughter is a purely cultural opposition.
The proposed legislation is not going to solve anything, all it is going to do is create an intermediary step where horses get bought at auction in the US by people who transport them to Canada or Mexico, and re-auction them there sometime later. Since the bill only outlaws knowingly selling them for slaughter and you have no idea what someone at an auction is going to do with an animal that would still be legal under the proposed law.
Prior to the discontinuation of slaughter in the US there were already laws on the books requiring safe and appropriate travel situations and humane situations in the slaughter facility. The problem was that those laws weren’t enforced. Writing more laws that also cannot be enforced doesn’t solve the problem.
The only realistic way to save horses from slaughter in the U.S. is to get some type of three party trade or treaty agreement between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada to end the practice. Shipping live horses across the ocean or further south might be cost prohibitive enough to protect horses in Canada and the U.S. anyway.
Euthanasia and disposal of the body afterward is typically expensive in the U.S., as long as horse owners are able to make money on horses that are no longer desirable or useful as opposed to it costing them money there will be a supply of horses. Since the demand is predominantly foreign there is little we can or should do to address the demand issue. The only way to make horse slaughter impractical is to have it outlawed in all three countries.