Ok So here is the other side-Caution, Graphic

Found this on Craigslist. Humane slaughter? So what is the answer? Stop breeding, stop owning, Wow I am overwhelmed. Again, be cautious if you have a weak constitution. I am not sure that is what really happens but I have a tendency to believe it is so.

horse facts get them straight before you post !! (california)
Reply to: sale-732743564@craigslist.org
Date: 2008-06-25, 5:22PM PDT


Please get your facts straight before you post
First of all The women is pleaing for money or the horse goes- The husband is planning to buy another race horse, or will trade for a truck . How is that going to feed the baby?? \
There is no increase of neglect or abuse related to the slaughter ban, in fact the horse theft and neglect cases went down (look it up) . The increase in horses being dumped is due to a poor economy , those trends have also been proven . There is also an increase in other pets being dumped , surely you have heard that on the news as well.

Learn about horse slaughter before you guess about horses being used to feed zoo animals, or dogs or poor people. Horses are not able to be put down at the slaughterhouses the same way cattle were ,its not the right equiptment. Those foreign slaughterhouse owners refused to obey the US laws to make it humane and left . Horses are very different than a cow , pig or chicken. They are built different react different and fight and have been raised (most) to trust humans , if horse owners can't be responsible and find a new home or spend the money to put it down humanely then they should have never owned any horse. Its all about squeezing that last 50 bucks out of a horse they probably ruined themselves or didn't have the intelligence to plan ahead for . They live a long time , eat a lot if you can't get a second job to support it- no matter what_ don't get one in the first place , but don't just dump it .
The below is prior to the foreign owned slaughterhouses leaving because they could not comply with our laws on transport or humane slaughter. They paid a whopping $5 in taxes to the US and ruined sewer systems as well as operating poorly managed places where many workers were injured . Its crappier in Mexico and Canada and some argue a longer trip even though the only ones in the US were Illinois and Texas so longer trip depends on where the horses started. The pro slaughter people will say its all about the horses they will starve. People in favor of slavery said the same thing. That seemed to have turned out ok . You know what, there have always been neglect and starving animals its worse in crappy economies such as the one we are in. Always will be no matter what. There is also rapists, child abusers, murders etc. Should we go back to allowing the foreign owned companies to kill our horses ignore our laws or should we use our heads to think of a better way, oh wait we already are so why on earth do people want to bring slaughter back, so they can have an easier place to dump their mistakes . There are humane euth programs, shelters, rescues. Or here is a novel thought make owners responsible , stop breeding crap horses, stop ruining them at young ages. Stop saying I can't afford to put them down but go out and get another one once you got your $50 bucks from the auction
The Trip To A Slaughterhouse
Video www.kaufmanzoning.net/horsemeat/reclaimingtheamericanhorse.wmv (This video takes 1 1/2 minutes to load, it's worth the wait.) Its early in the morning when you arrive, the corrugated metal building of the plant is already operating in full swing. Sounds and smells roll from the structure and crash against your senses like a wave. The sound of horses can be heard across the parking lot -- not the pleasant nickering or occasional whinny that greets you when you enter your barn at home, but a rapid, frantic neighing. You can almost feel the panic, fear and discomfort in the sound of the horses. Soon enough you will see the cause of the terror that is almost palatable in the air around the plant.

Each horse awaiting slaughter in the chute leading to the "kill stall" is suffering symptoms of terror that few ever witness, but are the routine at these facilities. Another sound mingles with the cry's of the horses and pierces into your soul, the strange muffled whine that can only come from a saw cutting bone still encased in flesh.

You had tried to prepare yourself for this, but now realize that you are not prepared for what you are about to experience. Nausea, your companion for the duration of your stay at this facility, engulfs you as you catch the first whiff of the oddly sickening odor of newly slaughtered flesh. Carcass after carcass, row upon row, steaming as it hangs in the freezer storage area. You had thought you were prepared a little bit for the visual experience, but you are caught blindsided by the almost unbearable smell that permeates the entire plant. Choking back the bile, as it rises in your throat, you enter the structure.

You enter the same room the horses do, the "kill shed". The kill shed consists of one room in which various operations are performed by one of six butchers at four stations within the room. An inspector from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is also present to examine parts of every horse who goes through the kill shed.

The first station is the killing station. One man works the kill chute, his job is to herd the animal into the killing stall, slaughter him or her, and begin the butchering process. This stage of the process takes about ten minutes for each animal, and begins with the opening of a heavy steel door that separates the killing stall from the waiting chute. The man working this station goes into a corridor adjacent to the waiting chute where the panicked horses are trembling violently and urinating on themselves, prodding his next victim into the killing stall with a high voltage electric cattle prod.

The building rings with the cry's of the horses, the sounds echoing off the surrounding walls. This is the most time-consuming part of the operation because the horses are fully aware of what lies ahead, and are determined not to enter the killing stall. They thrash around, trying to reverse their direction, trampling over any smaller pony, foal or weaker animal in their desperate effort to escape. The physical symptoms of terror are painfully evident on the faces of each and every animal you see either in the actual killing stall or in the waiting chute. During the 40 seconds to a minute that each horse or pony has to wait in the killing stall before losing consciousness, the terror becomes visibly more intense.

The animal can smell the blood, and see his or her former companions in various stages of dismemberment. During the last few seconds of life, the horses thrash about the stall as much as its confines allow. The first horse whose deaths you witness is a sorrel mare. A mare, maybe seven or eight, mane freshly pulled, new shoes, and a coat that gleams from a curry comb, she is prodded into the killing stall, slipping and sliding on the blood, urine and feces from the previous victims. She strains frantically, futilely, and pathetically rearing towards the ceiling -- the only direction that is not blocked by a steel door. Death comes in the form of a pneumatic nail gun that is placed against her head and fired. The horse's bone fragments are driven into the animal's brain along with the nail.

The gun is designed so that the nail never completely leaves the gun, but simply is blown into the animal's head and then pulled out by the butcher as the animal collapses. Sometimes , it does the job on the first try but this mare struggles a good deal and collapse only after the third blow. After she has collapsed, the side of the killing stall is raised, and a chain secured to the right hind leg. The mare is then hoisted by that one leg, still alive, to a hanging position. At this point, the butcher drains the body of blood by slitting the mare's throat.

When the blood vessels are severed, an amazing torrent of blood so profuse that the butcher is unable to step aside fast enough to avoid being covered with it. This steaming torrent of blood lasts only about 15 seconds, the crimson flood mingling in the copper hairs of the mare's coat and spilling to the floor. The only task left to the man at the first station is to skin her and remove the mare's head. This he accomplishes rapidly. The air is thick with the acrid, salty odor of fresh blood, you can almost taste it in your mouth as you inhale the fetid air.

At the second station in the kill shed, the headless animal is dropped to the floor. The body is propped up on the back and relieved of hooves and milk sack and udder. At this time, any urine and feces that didn't drain from the body during the first few seconds of death now pour freely onto the floor. The body is then slit down the middle, and the hide is peeled partially away. A yoke is then hooked to the stumps of the hind legs, the body is lifted upwards, and the rest of the hide is pulled past a roller secured to the floor and peeled off, the once gleaming hide crumpled in a barrel with others to be "processed". The animal's body is now at the third station of the kill shed where it is gutted and then sawed in half, becoming two "sides of beef" or rather "sides of horse".

The sides of horse are sprayed down, to rinse the congealed blood from them and weighed at the fourth and final station. The sides are placed in the cooling locker where the residual warmth of life steams away slowly in preparation for the deep freeze storage locker. From the cooling locker, the meat goes into a main storage area where it is kept for as long as a week. This locker exits to a butchering area where the sides of horse are reduced to parts for the supermarket which end up on dining room tables.

The Slaughterhouse

In the last 10 years more than three million American Horses have been butchered in the U.S. for human consumption abroad.

Sadly, horsemeat is considered a delicacy in some countries. France and Belgium buy most of America's horsemeat, but Canada, Mexico, and Japan are also consumers, and all of America's Equine slaughterhouses are foreign owned.

Here's what they do

After being lead into the killing stall, a pneumatic bolt gun is placed against the head and fired. The horse's bone fragments are driven into the animal's brain along with the bolt, which then retracts back into the gun. Unfortunately, even after several applications, this torturous procedure often leaves them totally conscious.

Horses that are supposed to be unconscious at slaughter can be seen writhing - fully conscious - in terror as a conveyor belt carries them towards their gruesome death.

These still aware horses are then hung by their heels, their throats are cut, and they are bled to death. This live torture is executed in order to meet our United States Department of Agriculture's guidelines

All this is even more shocking when you consider that most American's consider the horse as a pet and companion animal. They have a status in our society comparable to dogs and cats. We believe they are not an agricultural commodity!

The pipeline that supplies the slaughterhouses is very clandestine. Typically, when owners give up a horse, they assume it will end up in good hands. But when that animal enters "the market" it goes into a different world, a world of price for pound and auctions, horse traders, and slaughter houses.



The women is pleaing for money or the horse goes- The husband is planning to buy another race horse, or will trade for a truck . How is that going to feed the baby??