An unlikely coalition of ranchers, horse owners and animal-welfare groups is trying to bring back horse slaughterhouses:
Pressure from animal-rights groups and from undercover videos that circulated on the Internet and showed apparent cruelties in the horse-butchering process prompted Congress to shut off all funds for inspecting equine slaughterhouses in 2007. That dealt the industry a fatal blow, as federal inspections were required by law before the meat could be exported for human consumption. Most horse meat from the U.S. was sent to the lucrative markets of Europe and Asia, where the flesh is stewed, grilled or sliced thin and eaten raw.
Though horse lovers cheered when the last slaughterhouses were shuttered, some now say they may not have thought through the consequences.
The slaughterhouses disposed of the thousands of horses abandoned or relinquished each year by owners who find them too old or temperamental to be useful or who simply can no longer afford to care for them. Now, many of those horses are sold for $10 or $20 at low-end auctions and packed on crowded trailers to be slaughtered in Mexico. Animal-welfare experts say the horses often suffer greatly on the journey.
In 2006, just 11,080 U.S. horses were shipped to Mexico for slaughter. In 2008, after the American industry shut down, that number jumped to 57,017, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Animal-rights supporters have been lobbying Congress for a ban on exporting horses for slaughter. They’ve had no success—but even if a ban did pass, some activists say, it would do little to ease suffering, as owners desperate to shed responsibility for their animals might simply abandon them to starve. Hiring a veterinarian to euthanize and dispose of a horse can cost hundreds of dollars. Horse-rescue groups take in some unwanted animals, but they don’t have the resources to care for them all.
(Hat tip to Tyler Cowen, who titled his own post Equine ethics for a sub-Malthusian world carrying costs exceed liquidity premium.)