Horses and the Law
THE AMERICAN HORSE SLAUGHTER PREVENTION ACT: SHOULD HORSE SLAUGHTER BE BANNED?

Disclaimer - This article is intended as general discussion and information on the topic covered, and is not to be construed as rendering legal advice. If legal advice is needed, you should contact an attorney. This article may not be reprinted or reproduced in any manner without prior written permission of the author.

“We should all be concerned about the future because we will have to spend the rest of our lives there.” Charles Franklin Kettering, Seed for Thought, (1949)

On February 13th, 2003, “The American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act,” H.R. 857, was introduced in the United States House of Representatives and referred to the Agricultural Committee. This Act would make illegal the slaughter of horses in and from the United States for human consumption. The horse industry needs to take a close look at the Act and the issue of horse slaughter for the future.

Before analyzing the proposed law we should understand some basic facts about horse slaughter in the United States. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, 55,776 horses were slaughtered last year in the United States and thousands more transported to Canada and Mexico for slaughter in those countries. The horse meat is intended for human consumption and is exported to Europe, Asia and the Caribbean where some countries treat horse meat as a delicacy.

There are only three active horse slaughterhouses for human consumption in the United States and all are under European ownership. Dallas Crown Packing, Inc. and BelTex Corp. are located in Texas and Cavel International, Inc. is based in DeKalb, Illinois. These plants have seen an increase in business recently in large part because horses are not carriers of mad-cow disease or foot-and-mouth disease, which devastated Europe’s cattle herds thereby increasing the demand for horse meat.

The proposed law would make the slaughter of horses for human consumption illegal. There is no doubt the foreign-owned horse slaughter industry would be greatly impacted by the proposed legislation, but, the more important question is how will the United States horse industry be impacted? With this in mind let us review the highlights of the proposed legislation.

Section 5 of the Act defines prohibitive acts and states that it shall be illegal to:

1. 1. Slaughter a horse for human consumption;
2. 2. Import or export U.S. horse flesh for human consumption or live horses intended for slaughter for human consumption;
3. 3. Sell, purchase, transport, deliver or receive horse flesh for human consumption or live horses intended for slaughter for human consumption; or
4. 4. Solicit, request or knowingly cause any of the prohibited acts set forth above.

Section 6 defines the penalties and provides both criminal and civil penalties. The criminal penalty provides for fines and imprisonment for up to one year. The civil penalty mandates a fine for each violation of not less than $2,500 and not more than $5,000. In addition, all horses must be confiscated and the violator can be barred from importing, exporting, transporting or selling horses in the United States if that person has engaged in a pattern of such actions.

In order for the owner to have the horses returned he must post a bond to cover the temporary placement cost of the horse for 60 days. If a bond is not filed, the horses will be permanently placed with an animal rescue facility.

The Act, in essence, bans the slaughter of horses in the United States. Although the Act limits the slaughter “for human consumption” the handwriting is on the wall and it is only a matter of time before proponents will seek to remove “for human consumption” thereby banning all slaughter of horses in the United States for any reason. The legislation is well funded and backed by the Doris Day Animal League, the Society for Animal Protection Legislation and various other animal rights and welfare groups. Those in favor of the law point to inhumane transport methods to the slaughterhouses and the cruel and inhumane treatment of the horses once there. The groups in favor of the law argue that slaughterhouses need to be abolished. The supporters of the law further argue that horses are not raised in the United States for food and therefore should be protected from all slaughter.

However, there is a flip side to this coin, which must be analyzed. The “horse meat market” has been and is one of the only methods to dispose of unfit, unmanageable and unwanted animals. It also, from an economic standpoint, allows the owner some return on the animal. Without the “horse meat market” many of these unwanted animals will be starved or turned loose to be wild horses or die. This could create disease and other health associated problems. There simply is no place for all of these unwanted animals without the horse meat market.

The other consideration which comes to mind is the cost of an expanding horse rescue business which will be created by the proposed law. The legislation will create a new welfare system—welfare for unwanted horses. Who, in the end, will pay for all of this? (I’ll give you two guesses!)

Another thought is the effect on the horse business in the United States. There is a tier system to the horse business in this country. The bottom tier is made up of “meat” or unwanted horses. This bottom tier helps support and set the price for every tier above. If the “meat” horse is all of a sudden worth nothing, what measure will be used to determine the price of the common horse? The meat market provides a method to dispose of the unwanted horse thereby making room for others. In addition, it helps keep prices up because one must outbid the meat buyer to purchase a horse.

A final thought relates to whether or not it is appropriate for Americans to legislate what the rest of the world should eat. Although I may not want to eat horse flesh, what is wrong with Europeans and Asians eating horse flesh? Their history with the horse is far longer than ours and their customs and habits are, frankly, their business – not ours!

The draft horse industry is a major player in the horse meat market and each one of us should carefully analyze the proposed law and the effect it will have on our future.

Enough legal talk–it’s time to hitch horses.

Ken is a practicing attorney in Myerstown, Pennsylvania, where a good bit of hispracticein-volves negligence cases. Ken and his wife, Karen, own Sunny Hill Farm Belgians, and they have been exhibiting their six-horse hitch for the past few years at most major shows in the east.