The HSUS Facts on US Horse Slaughter

***Which kinds of horses are slaughtered?

Horses slaughtered include (losing race horses) lame or ill, riding school, camp horses, pergnant mares, foals -"byproducts" of (PMU), drug Premarin®. Ponies, mules, donkeys as well.

HSUS investigators witnessed horses purchased for slaughter in good health, bought for a few hundred dollars. Horses of all ages & breeds are slaughtered, from draft to miniatures.
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***How many horses are slaughtered each year?

(Tens of thousands) of live horses are transported across the border to
Mexico and Canada for slaughter.
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***Who eats horse meat?
The largest markets are France, Belgium, Holland, Japan, and Italy.

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***How do unwanted, surplus horses end up at slaughterhouses?

Most horses destined for slaughter are sold at livestock auctions or sales. Often, terrified horses and ponies are crammed together and transported to slaughter in double-deck trucks designed for cattle and pigs. Some horses arrive at the slaughterhouse seriously injured or dead.
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***How are the horses killed?

Highly alert horses are stabbed multiple times in the neck with "puntilla knife" to sever spinal cords. The horse is conscious, is "not" stunning method. It paralyzes, leaving horses twitching on the ground, unable to move or breathe, death from suffocation or blood loss & dismemberment. With US export of horses to slaughter over 300%, undercover footage shows live horses dragged, whipped, crammed in trucks in 110 tmp to a horrific form of slaughter in MX & CN. Conditions in slaughterhouses—stressful & extremely frightening.
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***What is The Humane Society of the United States doing to protect horses?

The HSUS continues to assist states in passage of effective laws to govern treatment of horses sold for slaughter within their borders.
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More Facts on Horse Slaughter:
http://www.hsus.org/horses_equines/issues/get...