The following is an except
from a conversation between Chris Heyde of the Society for Animal Protective
Legislation and Dr. Tom Lenz President-elect of the American
Association of Equine Practitioners regarding his misperception (which had
been stated in a newspaper article) of what will be done with the bodies of
horses if slaughter were stopped.
Chris
Heyde Question (Q):
What would you say the horse population is in the US?
Dr.
Lenz Answer (A):
About 6.9 - 7 million horses (this is the generally agreed number
established by the American Horse Council.)
Q:
As an equine vet what is your estimate for the number of horses that die
naturally or are euthanized each year in the US?
A:
About 10%
Q:
So from these numbers we can assume that about 700,000 horses (10% of
population) are disposed of each year in the US without problems? Then
how can you say that MAYBE, another 10-20 thousand would all of the
sudden be a problem (or cause a bunch of holes to be popping up all over)?
Horse theft will decrease, wild horses will not be slaughtered and the
Premarin industry will not have a quick and easy outlet to dispose of the
foals that are born as a byproduct of their industry.
A:
(silence - he had no answer)
Another important item I clarified for Dr. Lenz is that the
federal bill to ban horse slaughter (American Horse Slaughter Prevention
Act) would prohibit the transport of live horses to Mexico and Canada for
slaughter. He has been quoted as saying his group is concerned that if
slaughter were banned here the horses would just be sent to Canada or
Mexico. They wouldn't!