The French Eat Horses

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Horse Slaughter Prevention Act
(HR 503, S. 1915)

06/23/06 UPDATE

Horses are beloved companion animals, admired for their beauty, strength, and speed, but every year thousands of these sentient creatures are slaughtered for human food.

Americans don't eat horsemeat, but American horses are slaughtered every year to please the palates of the French, the Belgians and the Japanese. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, 65,976 equines were slaughtered in the U.S. in 2004 and 91,757 were slaughtered in 2005 at foreign-owned slaughterhouses, and the meat was then sent abroad for human consumption.

The three foreign-owned plants in the U.S. that butcher horses for export to Europe, Japan and Mexico, are: Dallas Crown in Kaufman, Texas, Beltex Corp. in Fort Worth, Texas, and Cavel International (being rebuilt) in DeKalb, Illinois. Often, the transport of these animals to their deaths is extremely inhumane - as are the slaughter methods. Horses suffer particularly during slaughter because, as “flight” animals who experience tremendous fear when crowded together in places that smell of blood, they are difficult to contain during the actual slaughtering procedures. The captive bolt pistol, a device used to stun the horses prior to their slaughter, often misses its mark and inflicts horrible agony on the horses, leaving them thrashing and writhing in pain before their deaths. In addition, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of horses are stolen each year for the horsemeat trade. Their carcasses are then frozen and shipped overseas.

Horses have been our trusted companions throughout history, and they deserve a more humane and dignified end to their lives than being slaughtered and served as dinner.



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