Horses slaughter is sick!!!

horses slaughter The cruelty of horse slaughter is not limited to the act of killing the animals. Horses bound for slaughter are shipped, frequently for long distances, and are not rested, fed, or watered during travel. Economics, not humane considerations, dictate the conditions, including crowding as many horses into trucks as possible. Often, terrified horses and ponies are crammed together and transported to slaughter in double-deck trucks designed for cattle and pigs. The truck ceilings are so low that the horses are not able to hold their heads in a normal, balanced position. Inappropriate floor surfaces lead to slips and falls, and sometimes even trampling. Some horses arrive at the slaughterhouse seriously injured or dead. Although transportation accidents have largely escaped public scrutiny, several tragic ones involving collapsed upper floors and overturned double-deckers have caused human fatalities as well as suffering and death for the horses In July 1991, they were unloading one of the double-decker trucks. A horse got his leg caught in the side of the truck so the driver pulled the rig up and the horse's leg popped off. The horse was still living, and it was shaking. [Another employee] popped it on the head and we hung it up and split it open. .... Sometimes we would kill near 390, 370 a day. Each double-decker might have up to 100 on it. We would pull off the dead ones with chains. Ones that were down on the truck, we would drag them off with chains and maybe put them in a pen or we might drag them with an automatic chain to the knockbox. Sometimes we would use an electric shocker to try to make them stand. To get them into the knockbox, you have to shock them ... sometimes run them up the [anus] with the shocker. ... When we killed a pregnant mare, we would take the guts out and I would take the bag out and open it and cut the cord and put it in the trash and sometimes the baby would still be living, and its heart would be beating, but we would put it in the trashcan. Dallas Crown Packaging is Belgian owned in Kaufman, TX and slaughters horses for Belgium, Italy, Japan, and France. Bel-Tex Corporation is a French owned horse slaughterhouse at 3801 N. Grove Street, Ft. Worth, Texas 76106. They export horsemeat to France and other European countries. It is a dirty secret of the horse industry that these two equine slaughterhouses are operating in Texas - the Beltex "Plant" and the Dallas Crown "Plant." A third plant, Cavel, in DeKalb, Illinois recently reopened. Many people think that the only horses that make this journey are those that are too old, too injured, or too sick to be useful to their owners or to anyone else except as dog food or as glue. This is not the purpose of these plants. Their purpose is to supply horsemeat to diners in other countries. Horsemeat is a delicacy in France, Belgium, and Japan, and tens of thousands of young, healthy American horses a year are brutally slain to supply this for them. The horses supplied to these facilities may be stolen (as occurred to a horse that belonged to a Texas Representative). They may have been a family pet that was purchased at auction. Killer buyers frequently misrepresent the sale of a horse by telling the sellers they are "buying their horse for a child" and "it's going to a good home". (Texas State Representative Charlie Howard (R-Sugarland) learned that his stolen horses ended up at a Texas slaughter plant. He said this on the floor of the Texas House of Representatives on April 23, 2003 during the debate over Bloody Betty Brown's HB 1324 to legalize the two Texas horse slaughter plants.) All of the horses are terrified and afraid as they wait for their turn to be forced into the killing pen. Under federal law, horses are required to be rendered unconscious prior to slaughter, usually with a device called a captive bolt gun, which shoots a metal rod into the horse's brain. Some horses, however, are improperly stunned and may still be conscious when they are hoisted by a rear leg to have their throats cut. In addition, conditions in the slaughterhouse are stressful and frightening for horses. Please contact your Congressional representatives in the House and Senate to urge them to vote for HR 503, which will prohibit the slaughter of horses for human consumption and stop the trade and transport of horseflesh and live horses intended for human consumption.

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YouTube | February 8, 2008