Protecting New York Horses: Legislation to Prohibit Slaughter and Sale for Consumption

2023-11-24 10:07:26

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A staggering 83 percent of Americans oppose the slaughter of horses for human consumption. While Congress has acted to shut down slaughterhouses in the U.S., a legal loophole still allows tens of thousands of American horses to be shipped to Canada and Mexico each year to be slaughtered for their meat.

Gov. Kathy Hochul can help change this fate in New York by signing legislation (A.5109-A/S.2163-B) that will prohibit the slaughter or sale of horses for human or animal consumption.

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This legislation is a follow-up to a 2021 law enacted by Hochul, which outlawed the sale or transport of thoroughbred and standardbred horses for the purpose of slaughter. This prohibition was an urgently needed first step. However, current law makes it difficult for officers stopping a horse trailer headed to the border to determine what breed each equine is. The follow-up legislation would make the existing law more just, and more effective, by protecting all horses, not just racehorses. It also will still allow for humane euthanasia, a far cry from commercial slaughter.

Most horses bound for slaughter are crammed into crowded trailers without access to food, water or rest, and many suffer serious injuries or death in transit. Once they arrive at the slaughterhouse, their death is even more gruesome. Horses are difficult to stun effectively, and they frequently require repeated blows and may even remain conscious during dismemberment.

The slaughter industry also creates a public safety risk, as American horses are not raised as food animals and are treated with products prohibited in our food system. Additionally, owners must worry that their own horses might be stolen or fraudulently purchased by kill buyers, who contract with foreign slaughterhouses and outbid legitimate horse buyers at auctions, sending healthy horses to a cruel death.

There is no reason to continue enabling horse slaughter. Research by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals shows that 2.3 million Americans have both the interest in adopting a horse and the resources to do so, demonstrating that there are more than enough homes for the approximately 20,000 American horses who were exported for slaughter last year. This means that every horse who has been sent to slaughter might have had a home waiting, if given the opportunity to find it. America’s equine adoption community works to match the horses in their care with foster and adoptive families, increasing the number of adoptions every year, but as long as the financial incentive for slaughter exists, it will continue to hamper the lifesaving efforts of rescue and welfare groups to provide humane care to horses.

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New York has been a longtime leader in outlawing animal cruelty. We don’t want our state to be part of the funnel for exporting horses to slaughter. We urge the governor to sign this critical bill into law, protecting New York horses and finally putting an end to this barbaric practice.

Bill Ketzer is senior legislative director for the Eastern division of the ASPCA.

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