Recently a lot of attention has been focused on the fact that slaughter houses in the USA will be one again allowed to slaughter horses for human consumption. To be clear there never was a ban on horse slaughter in the USA, however slaughter houses that killed animals for human consumption were not allowed to slaughter horses. This caused problems as some unwanted horses were left to starve to death, and others shipped to Canada or Mexico for slaughter. Now that slaughter houses in the USA will once again accept horses for slaughter the horse loving public is looking for ways to prevent this.

If you are passionate about horses, I will give you some real solutions because closing the slaughter houses did not solve anything (as mentioned horses were left to starve to death, or were sent elsewhere).

Stop Using Drugs Made from Pregnant Mare Urine

Many female hormone replacement drugs, such as Premarin, come from pregnant mare urine, foals are by-products of this industry, some are sold, many are sent to slaughter. Even when the foals are sold, it means a glut of extra horses on the market. The only way to stop this is by using other drugs or none at all. Alternative sources of estrogen can also be derived from Yams and other sources. If you are on Premarin or similar drug, talk to your doctor.

Support a Horse Rescue

There are many horse rescues that buy horses destined to go to slaughter, they work with the horses and try to find them new homes so they can rescue other horses. If you are a horse lover you can adopt from one of these places, you can make donations to help them, or you can spread awareness about horse rescue places in your area.

In the USA it is possible to adopt a horse from the BLM.

Discourage Bad Breeding

Many people buy horses, fillies and colts, they somehow forget to geld the colt and before long they have many poorly bred horses which they cannot afford to feed and cannot sell. People who are horse owners must take it more seriously and not just breed horses because they can. If you are a horse owner thinking about breeding your horse, you should only do so if your horse is registered and has attended shows to prove its worth as a breeding animal, and even then you should only breed if the horse market in your area is strong. Recognize that in most areas more foals are born than there are homes for and people rarely want to buy anything other than well trained horses.

Do Not Support Horse Racing

In the industry horses are bred for the race track with dreams of winning a Triple Crown, but not every horse is good enough to race, some are culled and sent to slaughter because they are not worth the expense, or because they are injured on the track, either in a race or in training.  The horse industry itself cannot support all the horses bred for the racing industry, so while a few might find homes with other owners, many are sent to slaughter.

Eat Less Beef

This one might be a bit more convoluted but feral horses are being rounded up from range lands because they are seen as grazing competition for cattle. If you reduce the amount of meat you eat, and particularly the amount of beef you eat, you reduce the need for more grazing land for cattle – this really is a group effort.

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Summary: The industry of slaughtering horses for meat is very different than most meat industries which operate on supply and demand. The horse slaughter industry in the USA is primarily the result of having surplus horses. These horses are often sold cheaply at auction to the highest buyer. When prices are low it is the meat buyers who take the horses. If you want to end horse slaughter, you must find ways to prevent “unwanted” horses.