Horse slaughter

[TB-Herefords]

No one has commented on the new changes in horse slaughter. Looks like indians are ready for a plant. Who ever takes the risk to open a plant will be rolling in money as long a thing dont get shut down by September. Yakima tribe (my grandmother is a enrolled trible member) has huge issues, along with some other tribes. Curious to see comments.

 

[3waycross]

Can you explain that a little more.

 

[TB-Herefords]

Preventing Horse slaughter was a bill that stopped all funding for USDA inspection of slaughter plants. The tribes have long been able to slaughter but not being USDA inspected they have no where to sell the meat. Just prior to thanksgiving congress passed the same bill but pulled the stop of USDA inspection. With a lot of support from tribes and PETA. Now every thing is a go. All they need is investers to start buisness. IMO a risky investment; but who ever does will make a lot of money. Risky in the sense that come september of next year things could change. Or a horse slaughter specefic bill between now and then. It seems to me though there is too much support for it. I wouldn't dought there will be over 20,000 head or more wild horses ready to go a few months or less after opening. Any opinions or has no one followed this?

 

[3waycross]

Yakima tribe (my grandmother is a enrolled trible member) has huge issues,

I meant this statement!. What are their issues?

 

[Isomade]

Heard on the radio yesterday that a plant will be reopening and expects to be up and running in the next month in Texas.

 

[TB-Herefords]

extreamly over populated with wild horses and not just them. No one wants to adopt them and no where to take them. What happend to the previous plants? I believe texas has a state law banning horse slaughter. There are 4-5 states that have passed there own laws banning horse slaughter.

 

[chippie]

Heard on the radio yesterday that a plant will be reopening and expects to be up and running in the next month in Texas.

Do you know which one? I have read that it may be years before horse slaughter will return.

USDA: Horse Slaughter Not Expected to Resume Soon

http://www.thehorse.com/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=19285

 

[Isomade]

Heard on the radio yesterday that a plant will be reopening and expects to be up and running in the next month in Texas.

Do you know which one? I have read that it may be years before horse slaughter will return.

USDA: Horse Slaughter Not Expected to Resume Soon

http://www.thehorse.com/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=19285

No Chippie, I can't remember. I was driving to the airport and listening to a country radio station. The announcers gave the name of the town and said they were expected to be open by the end of January. Now, that's if I heard em right. Who knows they might have been talking about the end of January 2013?

 

[Isomade]

I searched online and couldn't find anything on it either. Probably just a rumor.

 

[Anonymous]

Heres the problem the way i see it:
Too many people bred horses period. There was a market for em. Every tom dic and harry had horses. If they got tired of em they just sent em to slaughter. Alot like cattle.
Then the economy tanked and it was expensive to keep horses. Then the gvt shut down the slaughter. Now theres a glut of horses that people cant afford to feed. Most arent worth a dang because veryone and their brother weas breeding em.
Its going to be a few years before the excess is off the market.
Imaging if slaughter of catle was banned but on a smaller acale

 

[JSCATTLE]

The state didn't ban slaughter . The animal rights activist lobbied and the funding for USDA to inspect the meat was revoked. I'm pro slaughter . I have a old horse that needs to go he can't be ridden and he's mean . He's actually on his 3rd strike with me if it wasn't for my boys I'd have shot him 2 years ago . About half of the horses that were slaughtered in Texas go to Mexico now . Long trailer ride and they aren't treated nice down there . They cut thier throats to kill them and hang them to bleed them before they are dead. In the US they were killed like cattle.

 

[dianab]

Heard on the radio yesterday that a plant will be reopening and expects to be up and running in the next month in Texas.

Not likely. Texas is one of the few States that has a State law banning horse slaughter.

 

[dianab]

The biggest problem with getting investors to open a plant is that the market for the horse meat will be cut severely by July 2013. The EU put laws in place in 2008 to make sure they are only buying meat from horses that are raised under meat animal protocols. The interim regulation allows the seller to sign an affidavit that the horses have been drug free for six months and have never had certain banned drugs in their life. Kill buyers are signing these now even though they have only owned the horse for a matter of days. By mid 2013 the final regulation takes effect and they will only accept meat from a system as strictly controlled as their own. Any horse not having a complete drug record from birth cannot be used. The US isn't even attempting to start this kind of system and EU is negotiating with other countries that will raise horses for slaughter to fill the void when US horses are no longer available.

You may see horse slaughter as a convenient disposal system for excess horses, but the people on the other end of the equation are looking for a safe food supply. That isn't quite what we have to offer.

 

[Crazy Farmgirl]

I for one hope they do go forward with horse slaughter. Pet mentality has been allowed to overrule the fact that they are livestock! Horse owners need to be able to have the option to send a horse for slaughter if that's their choice, in many cases it is the most "humane" option.

 

[TennesseeTuxedo]

Out of curiosity, how does that work? Do the slaughter houses pay you for the horse or are they performing a service to rid you of the carcass since you don't want the horse anymore?

 

[dianab]

The way it usually works is that the owner sells the horse at auction, or he may advertise him for sale cheap or "free to a good home." The kill buyer gets your horse for next to nothing and pretends he is going to a good home. Then the kill buyer sells him to the plant and provides paper work showing the horse's supposed "drug history."

If the horse is too skinny, too sick, has ticks or the plant rejects him for some other reason, the horse may end up abandoned because the trucker has a back haul lined up.

 

[dianab]

Out of curiosity, how does that work? Do the slaughter houses pay you for the horse or are they performing a service to rid you of the carcass since you don't want the horse anymore?

The service is provided by the kill buyer. Very few owners sell directly to the plant. The kill buyer has orders to fill. He will fill his order with cheap or free healthy horses where ever he can get them. He delivers them to the plant and gets paid for the ones they don't reject.

Most owners tell you they would never send their horse to slaughter but want that option open for other people.

 

[B&M Farms]

The way it usually works is that the owner sells the horse at auction, or he may advertise him for sale cheap or "free to a good home." The kill buyer gets your horse for next to nothing and pretends he is going to a good home. Then the kill buyer sells him to the plant and provides paper work showing the horse's supposed "drug history."

If the horse is too skinny, too sick, has ticks or the plant rejects him for some other reason, the horse may end up abandoned because the trucker has a back haul lined up.

Most folks around here used to haul them to the kill plant and sell them by the pound. I have owned a few through the years and sold a few to the plant when they got too old. I have a 15 year old now I have had for 9 years. He's roped and penned cattle for a long time and is still a good horse. He mostly rides the kids around nowdays. The day will come and I will have to dig a hole. What a waste.

 

[dianab]

True a few owners lived close enough to a plant to haul their own horses in. Most horse owners don't live anywhere near a plant that would kill horses. The small shops and multi-species plants usually don't have a high enough rail to process horses.

 

[oscar p]

There are 2 horse sales, close to us. Theres a killer buyer every month. Prices vary month to month.Depends on how many killer buyers are there. Every horse Jan 7, that was fat the killer buyer would start it off at $125, and most often get it.Unless it was a really good rider. He gave up to $200 on some but never saw him give over that. But I never saw him bid on any thing that was crippled or thin. Out of 82 horses at that sale I bet he bought over half. The highest horse at the sale brought $550. He was a good kid broke horse that sold with a stockyard guarantee. so if you figure 1000lb horse brings $125, What's that 0.12 1/2 cents a pound. WOW.