Efforts to ban horse slaughter continue

Efforts to ban horse slaughter continue to move forward within the various government channels.  In the most recent government spending bill that Congress has approved, there is a provision that would effectively remove the ability to slaughter horses in the United States.

How this was implemented within the context of the bill is really quite simple.  The USDA that monitors all meat inspections, would be prohibited from collecting its fees - this would in turn not allow them to supervise the slaughter, and that would in turn remove the ability of the horse slaughter facilties to be able to operate without their supervision.

This is an example of just one aspect that many persons find objectionable within the horse industry.  There are other efforts to further prohibit possible slaughter by mandating that there can not be any transport, sale, purchase or even donation of horses where they are going to be slaughtered for human consumption.  This would of course would limit the loophole of taking the horses to other countries for slaughtering.

But, just as with many things - close one loophole and find another.  Some unscrupulous persons then could just say they are taking their horses to another country for “a horse show” - and then dispatch the animal as an “afterthought” or “it became injured/sick”, etc., etc.

But, it is a beginning.  There is one big area of concern though with the limiting of slaughter of horses.  There is currently little to no regulation on breeding - so you have 23623416231476 horses getting bred each year, and when you have tough years like this one where hay prices have sky rocketed, and people are unable to humanely care for their horse, - and there is no way to humanely slaughter them, what happens to the animal?

What has been happening is either cases of neglect, or abandonment.  Both of those are issues that have to be addressed ASAP.  You can’t have thousands of new horses coming into the population each year - and then have persons that paint themselves into a corner with no way to humanely care for the horses.

So, while it is commendable that efforts are being made to address the poor conditions that horses that were going to slaughter were having to deal with - its not “good” to have them being abandoned or neglected and keeping them alive in inhumane conditions.  Alternatives need to get put into place that give persons that can no longer care for their horse - or to provide incentives to limit breeding in the first place.