Horses are purchased throughout the United States for pets, riding, livestock purposes, and so many other things. The purchase of the horse is said to be the easiest part of horse ownership, and most owners never consider the inevitable time when a horse comes to the end of its life. This responsibility is where the argument starts. It can be a sad topic to most owners and is often not discussed, if at all, until it happens. There are truly only a few methods to get rid of a horse in today’s society. The most popular choices consist of sending them to slaughter, burial on the owner’s property, calling a rendering vehicle or service, and cremation. While slaughter is the cheapest means, it cannot be done if it is banned, and the other options
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In most countries horse meat is considered a delicacy or a “higher cut” of meat. In Europe, the Middle East, and Asia this meat is the second most popular meat consumed by humans. In early 2001 there was an outbreak of Mad Cow Disease, also known as hoof and mouth disease. This caused a substantial drop in the amount of cow meat available for consumption. Horses are immune to this terrible disease and it caused a very large increase in the demand for horse meat. Slaughter houses at the time were paying as much as $800 for a horse, and now such horses are free to good homes, when overall the whole sale price per pound was about 75¢ (Worden). To get a bigger picture according to Worden; horses weigh on average 1000 pounds and at 75¢ that would be $750 a horse. There were about 60,000 horses slaughtered and exported that year (Worden). These figures are astounding and doing some simple math with these figures tells us that at $750 a horse multiplied by the 60,000 horses that were sent to slaughter we come to over $45,000,000. This money is “pre-taxed” as well, if we were to implement a tax all this money could easily be used by the United States as a whole to aid in paying off the National Debt and boosting the economy. The ban on horse slaughter has created many more problems for horses themselves. The number of horses that are neglected, abused and …show more content…
According to the AVMA, as of Dec. 20, 2007, 44,475 horses had been shipped to Mexico for processing for human consumption compared with 10,783 shipped at the same time in 2006—a 312 percent increase. "The reality is, proponents of this legislation have done nothing to address the real issue here, and, in fact, by seeking to ban horse slaughter, they have made things significantly worse," said Dr. Mark Lutschaunig, director of the AVMA Governmental Relations Division. (Nolen, 2008) Many people that are currently in favor for horse slaughter are rallying and saying that government officials need to instead be focusing some of their energy on the horses that are abandoned every year to slaughter for a variety of reasons.
The answer to all these problems is easy, the United States needs to take some action for these horses and make horse slaughter legal. Regulations need to be set into place and enforced with some federal funding. With some federal funding treatment of these horses could increase ten-fold. These horses would be able to have access to more humane practices, sanitary conditions, and better transport conditions with shorter trips within the United
In most countries horse meat is considered a delicacy or a “higher cut” of meat. In Europe, the Middle East, and Asia this meat is the second most popular meat consumed by humans. In early 2001 there was an outbreak of Mad Cow Disease, also known as hoof and mouth disease. This caused a substantial drop in the amount of cow meat available for consumption. Horses are immune to this terrible disease and it caused a very large increase in the demand for horse meat. Slaughter houses at the time were paying as much as $800 for a horse, and now such horses are free to good homes, when overall the whole sale price per pound was about 75¢ (Worden). To get a bigger picture according to Worden; horses weigh on average 1000 pounds and at 75¢ that would be $750 a horse. There were about 60,000 horses slaughtered and exported that year (Worden). These figures are astounding and doing some simple math with these figures tells us that at $750 a horse multiplied by the 60,000 horses that were sent to slaughter we come to over $45,000,000. This money is “pre-taxed” as well, if we were to implement a tax all this money could easily be used by the United States as a whole to aid in paying off the National Debt and boosting the economy. The ban on horse slaughter has created many more problems for horses themselves. The number of horses that are neglected, abused and …show more content…
According to the AVMA, as of Dec. 20, 2007, 44,475 horses had been shipped to Mexico for processing for human consumption compared with 10,783 shipped at the same time in 2006—a 312 percent increase. "The reality is, proponents of this legislation have done nothing to address the real issue here, and, in fact, by seeking to ban horse slaughter, they have made things significantly worse," said Dr. Mark Lutschaunig, director of the AVMA Governmental Relations Division. (Nolen, 2008) Many people that are currently in favor for horse slaughter are rallying and saying that government officials need to instead be focusing some of their energy on the horses that are abandoned every year to slaughter for a variety of reasons.
The answer to all these problems is easy, the United States needs to take some action for these horses and make horse slaughter legal. Regulations need to be set into place and enforced with some federal funding. With some federal funding treatment of these horses could increase ten-fold. These horses would be able to have access to more humane practices, sanitary conditions, and better transport conditions with shorter trips within the United