The Arkansas Horse Council wants U.S. lawmakers to bring horse slaughterhouses back to the U.S. They were outlawed last year. The council says there are too many horses in Arkansas and many aren't taken care of properly. They say slaughtering is the humane thing to do. But some say there's a better answer.
The Arkansas Horse Council says because horse slaughterhouses were banned in the U.S. last year, some horses are left to starve to death in back pastures or turned loose. And since some people can't afford to have them euthanized, they say slaughterhouses are necessary.
"When they passed a bill not to slaughter animals, the horses, there have been so many of them abandoned by other people. They can't afford to keep them, they can't afford to feed them," says Reva Kirkpatrick, horse council member of Pulaski County.
As a horse owner since 1987 Kirkpatrick has seen it all: horses that need to be put down because they're old, diseased, or dangerous. And she says these days with a surplus of horses, prompted by over-eager breeders among other factors, many are neglected.
"They would have been better off sent to the slaughterhouse than to starve to death and die with no attention," Kirkpatrick said. "I would prefer to euthanize them, but not everybody has the money. To dig the grave and euthanize them you're going to spend about $400 to $700."
One of the problems Reva Kirkpatrick has with the slaughtering process is the way the horses are transported to the slaughterhouse, packed into trailers without enough room and no food or water. She says she'd want that to change if slaughterhouses were allowed again.
"As far as Arkansas, I would oppose it with everything in my body," says Kay Simpson with the Pulaski County Humane Society.
She says euthanizing with a lethal injection is more humane than the process of slaughtering an animal with a nail gun and separating the parts of the animal for commercial purposes. But she says sterilizing animals is the best way to deal with population problems.
"If an animal can't breed you don't get an overpopulation of them," she said.
But Kirkpatrick says for the moment, people will keep allowing horses to die or transporting them to Canada or Mexico for slaughter. And she wants Congress to allow horse slaughter again in the U.S. so there's at least some control over the slaughter process.
Those with the horse council say people need to remember that horses are livestock but that doesn't mean they should be treated inhumanely during slaughter. They say the tactics used in Mexico can be exceptionally brutal. Ms. Kirkpatrick says here in the U.S she would like to see the elimination of nail guns because they can be very painful to horses.
