EXPORTS OF HORSES FOR SLAUGHTER SURGE

[Guest human_*]

Hummm? I wonder what horse tastes like? They eat it in london.

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http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=15105

 

A surge in exports of unwanted horses across the border for slaughter has horrified animal-welfare advocates, who helped facilitate inhumane practices by successfully suing the only three American horse-slaughter plants, says the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

 

Consider:

 

More than 100,000 U.S. horses were slaughtered last year for overseas consumption, according to government figures.

 

Since January, buyers who purchase horses at auctions have shipped 48,000 from the United States to Canada and Mexico for slaughter.

 

Overall, about 15,000 fewer horses overall have been slaughtered this year, but exports to the foreign slaughterhouses are way up; U.S. exports to Mexican slaughterhouses are up by 369 percent.

Particularly worrisome for advocates is the gruesome way in which the horses are slaughtered. According to the San Antonio Express-News, horses at a plant in Juarez, Mexico, are stabbed in the spine until they are disabled, and then strung up from a hind leg, and their throats are slit.

 

Some say the advocates are the ones to blame for the treatment. Lobbyists who unsuccessfully tried to keep horse-slaughter plants open in the United States say those conditions would not exist here, where a more humane procedure using captive bolt guns is practiced.

 

Source: "Exports of horses for slaughter surge," Fort Worth Star-Telegram, October 4, 2007.

[Guest Marissa]

The British have the worst food.