Hmmmm....  "Approximately 55,000 horses are sent to slaughter each year......."  

 

SENT?  No, they are not sent to slaughter,  they are taken to slaughter,  purchased competitively by slaughterhouse buyers and middlemen and then taken to slaughter - big difference.

 

If slaughterhouses merely provided the service of horse disposal they would have no need to actively go out and purchase horses competitively at auctions, bidding against horse buyers and horse rescuers.  They would merely open their doors and let horses be brought to them.  They would establish feedlots across the country where horseowners could drop off horses to be "sent" to slaughter.  And they would advertise their services.

 

A landfill doesn't go to garage sales to buy items for it's landfill.  A horse slaughterhouse is a business, no more and no less.  It's in the business of turning a raw material into a marketable product for profit.  In their case live horses are manufactured into steaks. 

 

We don't see render companies competitively bidding at livestock auctions for their product.  Render companies provide a service,  horse slaughterhouses don't.

 

There are dead horse disposal options for every horse owner in every state so how does the AVMA explain what happens to all of the horses that are euthanized or die from colic, etc, in any given state?  What is done with all of the cows, pigs, and sheep that die before making it to slaughter?

 

The AVMA is ridiculous, what an terrible thought to think they've actually spoken with the Ag Committee.  One has to wonder what it is they have to gain from supporting horse slaughter, vets lose money to slaughterhouses when they are not providing euthanasia.  It's money out of their own pockets.

 

Please,  when anyone writes to the AVMA,  ask them how many millions of dollars worth of bute is administered to horses each year and ask if they are aware this is a prohibited drug in food animals, both in the US and the EU where horsemeat is exported to.  Ask why the AVMA ignores the labeling of the drugs they administer daily in their practices,  the drug labels that state "Not for use in horses intended for food" on Bute, Penicillin, and Ivermectin.  Ask them if it's ethical to supply other countries with adulterated meat with the potential of causing harm to the health of those consumers.  Ask them if they're aware that Phenylbutazone has been associated with aplastic anemia in humans. 

Ask them why the FDA tests beef for drug residues but not horsemeat, ask them if they're aware that excess drug residues in the edible tissues of animals causes the food to be adulterated under Section 402(a)(4) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. 

 

And ask them if they are held responsible by the FDA for knowingly allowing adulterated meat to enter the human food supply.  I'm going to.

 

Terry Watt
Lake Havasu City, Arizona