Horse Slaughter Research Paper: the Truth Behind Horse Slaughter

The Truth Behind Horse Slaughter

Although there are a number of reasons to support the slaughter of horses, more evidence stands against horse slaughter and proves that it should cease to exist. Horse slaughter is performed to reduce the issues that accompany the overpopulation of horses including neglect, abandonment, and starvation. Horses are magnificent creatures who are keen-minded, beautiful, and loving. They partner with humans to achieve unthinkable goals, and are incredibly loyal. What other animal can be groomed, ridden over enormous jumps, and ridden in the Olympics? These equines deserve to be treated like royalty and protected, not sent to a foreign country to be traumatized and destroyed. Horses are currently slaughtered mainly in Canada and Mexico, but there has been talk of slaughterhouse facilities opening up again in the United States. What happens to horses when their owners have decided that they no longer want to care for their four-legged friends? For a number of horses, the trip begins at a local livestock auction. Horses used in riding camps and lesson programs, old horses, young horses, pregnant horses, and all other varieties of horses are auctioned off locally. Most horse owners bring their horses to an auction with the thought that their horse will go to a loving home and be given exceptional care. Unfortunately, a number of these horses are purchased by kill-buyers (“Transport to Slaughter”). After a horse is purchased, it is crammed with a bunch of other horses in a large livestock truck, and the ghastly journey to a feedlot or slaughterhouse plant begins. Once horses are packed in and they depart for places unknown, they may remain in the same truck for days at a time without rest, food, or water. The scarcity of space allotted to each horse often causes severe injury, fighting, and death. While some state laws prohibit the use of double decker trailers that are designed for animals that do not have a neck as long as a horse’s neck,...