the history of horse slaughter

The slaughtering horses started in the early 1970's. Americans don't eat horse meat we consider horses to be favored animals.. The idea of eating horsemeat is cruel to us americans. It was foreign interests that first built equine slaughterhouses in the United States and by the 1990's, there were at least sixteen of them operating all across the country. At that time, most Americans were not aware that this industry even existed. It was a secretive business that operated through "killer buyers" (middlemen for the slaughterhouses) and other "insiders," including horse dealers and a group of "meat men" who paid cash for Thoroughbreds who became injured or were just not fast enough to compete any more. Over the years, the industry grew largely as a result of indiscriminate and over-breeding by some people who began to use slaughter as a convenient way to get rid of their unwanted horses quickly, rather than take responsibility for them by either taking the time to place them or by paying a licensed veterinarian put them down humanely. Over 140,000 Quarter Horses are born every year, often "puppy mill style" with the ones that are "not just right" in terms of color and/or conformation being scrapped conveniently for slaughter.

By 2006, there were only three horse slaughterhouses remaining in the US, all foreign-owned and operated. That year, H.R. 503, the House version of The American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act passed easily, but was blocked in the Senate by Larry Craig (R-ID) and other lawmakers representing pro-horse-slaughter special interests. The bill died and has not reached the floor of either House since.

The two Texas facilities shut down after the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a 1949 Texas law prohibiting the sale of horsemeat. In 2007, the State of Illinois enacted a ban on horse slaughter, shutting the slaughterhouse there, the last one operating in the US. http://www.equineadvocates.org/issueDetail.php?recordID=2
http://www.animalrescueunit.com/horseslaughter.htm
http://animalconnectionac.wordpress.com/2012/04/25/usa-ask-your-senators-to-ban-horse-slaughter/
sometimes people need to be shown the worst of things to realize