What. Is. This.
Congress has lifted the ban on horse slaughter in the United States, which means that they can be butchered for human consumption once again. As an avid equestrian and a horse owner, this makes me sick to my stomach.
Some people will say that slaughtering a horse for meat is no different than slaughtering cows, pigs, chickens, etc. for human consumption. Yes, this is true. When it comes down to it, there is nothing that separates a horse from other barnyard animals except their species. Can horses be eaten? Of course, though I’m not sure they’re the type I’d want to eat. I put horse in the same category as ostrich and kangaroo, i.e. “things I’d never even think of eating.”
The thing that makes me the most irate over the issue are the reasons people are giving for justifying this. One of the most common I’ve seen from perusing the articles is the increase in horse neglect and abandonment since the ban was enacted in 2007. If this is the train of thought we’re on, then it’s safe to assume that if we see a spike in canine or feline neglect any time soon, then it will be socially acceptable to slaughter dogs or cats for food as well. I’d blame the crumbling economy for the increase in equine abuse rather than a four-year ban on horse slaughter in the United States. Keeping horses is expensive, which is the reason why only the aristocracy could own them in medieval times. The neglect that horses experience is no different than the neglect other household pets endure; 98% of it can be traced back to a lack of education in animal husbandry. The other 2% is made up of financial troubles or plain stupidity. How many times have you heard the ASPCA say that people drop off dogs or cats at their shelters because it was no longer a cute puppy or kitten? Then there are the idiots who buy an animal for their child, and when the child loses interest, they let the animal stand around like a forgotten toy until it dies. Citing just one type of animal neglect is like saying “Well, we’re only going to deal with the babies who are dropped off in dumpsters. The other abused and neglected children in this country can wait.”
But, those are children! These are just animals.
Last I checked, animals were living, breathing creatures that live and die just like we do. Just because we happened to get lucky and develop sentience doesn’t make us gods. It makes us lucky.
The other common argument for horse slaughter is that opening slaughterhouses in the Midwest will create jobs and somehow magically bolster the drowning economy. This in and of itself is a ludicrous notion, as I’d say 97% of American citizens won’t want to take a job that involves cutting animals’ throats -horse or otherwise- every day, no matter how bad the economy is. Most people who are pro-slaughterhouse have never killed an animal before, and the closest thing they’ve gotten to butchering an animal is going to the meat counter at their supermarket and asking for some ground beef. I don’t know if you’ve ever cut into something that wasn’t a frog or a fetal pig preserved in formaldehyde, but slicing into a freshly-dead animal is messy and bloody and would probably make the majority of America lose their lunch. I know I couldn’t do it every day, no matter how much you paid me. Even the people who already work in slaughterhouses across the country say that their job is awful. Go ahead and read Upton Sinclair’s novel The Jungle or, if reading is too trifling for you, watch the documentary Food Inc.
I object to the mass-slaughter of animals for human consumption. I no longer claim to be a vegetarian or a vegan, but I’m willing to say that 97% of my diet is vegan. I don’t drink milk, I use vegan margarine in place of butter, and I consume only the smallest amount of meat. Why? Because meat is expensive, and as a broke college student working two minimum-wage jobs, I can’t afford it. Also, my time as a vegan/vegetarian forced me to explore other food options involving fruits, vegetables, legumes, etc. Am I going to stand on a soapbox and preach a vegan diet? No. The major reason I’m against these big-box corporation slaughterhouses is that a.) the food quality is awful and b.) the conditions these animals are in and the ordeals they are put through are horrific and unsanitary. Do some research on slaughterhouses sometime, and you’ll see that a lot of them resemble concentration camps.
What I’m trying to say is that lifting the ban on horse slaughter isn’t going to wave a magical wand and do much of anything for this economy. Americans aren’t going to eat horse, and if some do, horse will become like deer or elk or some other game meat that you can only find in specialty stores. Opening slaughterhouses isn’t going to fix the problem of equine neglect or overpopulation, either. If anything, it will just perpetuate it, because people will think, “Oh well, I can just sell this old nag to the slaughterhouse and get it off my hands.” Only a little thing called education will stop horse neglect. But, as my days as a tour guide have shown me, education is another thing that’s on a downward spiral in this country. But that’s a rant for another day.
I’m beginning to not like this planet any more.
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