A humane option

The Gazette Editorial Board

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Years after the domestic slaughter of horses was effectively banned nationwide, two proposed slaughter facilities - including one in Sigourney - have generated considerable controversy.

Following a signal from Congress that the ban would be lifted, owners of the operations want to purchase and slaughter low-value horses, selling the meat to zoos in the United States and exporting it for human consumption abroad.

Proponents say commercial slaughter is an effective, humane way to deal with a growing problem of horse overpopulation and neglect. Animal rights groups argue it is inhumane and poses food safety risks.

After examining arguments from both sides, we see no overriding reason to block the opening of properly monitored and designed commercial horse-slaughter facilities. We also are pleased that the Sigourney operation would be locally owned and operated, which we believe will add more accountability.

But we do question the ethics of exporting meat for human consumption if it does not meet U.S. domestic safety standards. That's something for federal regulators to further explore.

A troubled history

Horse slaughter has been effectively outlawed in the United States since 2006, when Congress passed an agriculture appropriations bill that barred funding of necessary inspections.

At that time, there were only three remaining three slaughter facilities operating in the U.S., according to a Congressional Research Service report. Those foreign-owned plants slaughtered nearly 105,000 horses in 2006, exporting most of the meat to countries such as France, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, Japan and Mexico. The export value of horse meat that year was an estimated $65 million.

But the Congressional prohibition on funding was excluded from a FY 2012 bill, after the release of a 2011 Government Accountability Office report recommended action on the unintended consequences of ending horse slaughter.

The GAO found that since the end of domestic horse slaughter, nearly the same number of horses were being shipped from the U.S. to slaughter facilities in Canada and Mexico. In addition, there was strong anecdotal evidence for a noticeable increase in horse neglect and abandonment - a development many officials believed was a direct result of the ban.

Sigourney proposal

Sigourney-based Responsible Transportation LLC was one of the first U.S. companies to receive approval from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to begin slaughtering horses.

Owner Keaton Walker told us in an email his operation will sell the meat to zoos in the U.S. and abroad for human consumption.

The horses would be euthanized using a penetrating bolt, which causes immediate brain death, a method which, when properly used, has been deemed humane by the American Veterinary Medical Association and U.S. Department of Agriculture.

But a federal judge last week temporarily blocked the plant's opening in a civil suit brought by animal rights groups against the USDA.

The groups oppose horse slaughter on several grounds, but allege in the lawsuit that the department didn't conduct proper environmental studies before issuing permits to the plant in Sigourney and a similar plant in New Mexico.

Objections

One of critics' main objections to commercial horse slaughter is that horses are “prey animals” whose different awareness, skeletal structure and intelligence make it difficult, if not impossible, to humanely slaughter them commercially.

Bernie Lettington, board member of the Iowa Federation of Humane Societies, told us in a recent meeting: Horses are more sensitive, they spook easier, they can rear up, their heads are a lot more nimble than other livestock.

“The injuries are a lot more common and they're harder to stun,” he said.

Lettington called it a “false choice” to say that domestic commercial slaughter is a solution to the problem of sick, diseased and surplus horses, or to say that it would be more humane than shipping them to Canada or Mexico.

“There are plenty of more responsible ways of addressing the problem than just shrugging our shoulders and saying ‘well, this is the best we can do,'” he said.

We agree that better breeding practices and more responsible ownership can help mitigate the problem, but it's unlikely to be enough.

It can cost several hundred dollars for a veterinarian to euthanize and dispose of a horse. Rescue operations can handle only a fraction of this country's unwanted and neglected horses.

Compared with the alternative - neglect, abandonment and starvation or arduous journeys to slaughter facilities in other countries - commercial slaughter, when properly done, can be more humane.

Safe to eat?

We are concerned, though, about the export of horse meat for human consumption abroad.

Horses in the U.S. are not raised as food, or with food safety in mind.

Critics say there are more than 100 medications routinely administered to horses that have no defined safe residual levels or withdrawal periods and that without a record of all drugs and substances given to a horse, there's no way to determine whether its meat is fit to eat.

The USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service reviewed a petition to that effect last spring, but ruled that existing regulations will be enough to make sure horse meat is safe to sell as human food.

As they must for other North American slaughterhouses, sellers to the slaughter facility will be required to fill out an Equine Information Document listing any recent health issues and medications administered to the horse. On-site inspectors will examine the horses before and after slaughter and test some of the meat for substances.

This is standard procedure, and in keeping with USDA rules, so we see no justification in blocking the Sigourney facility, or others, from operating so long as they're in compliance.

Still, objectors make a strong case for reviewing these rules to make sure they're strict and thorough enough to ensure that no adulterated meat makes it into the food supply, even if it's not our own.

Comments: editorial@thegazette.com or (319) 398-8262

MORE ONLINE

l Iowa Federation of Humane Societies

http://iowafedhumane.org/

l Government Accountability Office report

http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d11228.pdf

l Responsible Transportation LLC

http://www.responsible-transportation.com/

l Humane Society of the United States

http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/horse_slaughter/