By A. G. Sulzberger, The New York Times, October 23, 2011
LINCOLN, Neb. — The
closing of the country’s last meat processing plant that slaughtered horses for
human consumption was hailed as a victory for equine welfare. But five years
later just as many American horses are destined for dinner plates to satisfy
the still robust appetites for their meat in Europe and Asia.
That shift is one
of the many unintended consequences of a de facto federal ban on horse
slaughter, according to a recent federal
government study. As the domestic market for unwanted horses
shrinks, more are being neglected and abandoned, and roughly the same number —
nearly 140,000 a year — are being killed after a sometimes grueling journey
across the border.
“When they closed the plants, that put more of a hardship on our
horses than the people who wanted to stop the slaughter can imagine,” said John
Schoneberg, a Nebraska horse breeder who recently took in three horses from a
nearby farmer who said that he was unable to pay for feed and would otherwise
turn them loose.
The study’s findings have been fiercely contested by animal welfare
groups, which argue that most of the problems stem from the economic downturn
and the high price of feed. The study also breathed new life into the
long-smoldering battle over whether to allow the resumption of domestic horse
slaughter or, alternatively, to prohibit the animals from being shipped abroad
for their meat.
In recent weeks lawmakers have pushed Congress to take action in both
directions. The Government Accountability Office, which
conducted the study, concluded that either option would be better than the
status quo, but advocates on both sides, while hopeful, said a resolution did
not appear imminent.
“It’s just a hot political issue,” said Dr. Whitney Miller, a lobbyist
for the American
Veterinary Medical Association, which supports allowing horse
slaughter. “It’s hard to see something definitive happening.”
The effect of the standoff has been deeply felt in rural states like
Nebraska. Horse breeders and the owners of livestock auctions say that
eliminating slaughter basically removed the floor for horse prices, allowing
the market to collapse and forcing many out of the business. One reason, they
say, is that owners are now forced to pay hundreds of dollars to euthanize and
dispose of unwanted horses when they used to receive about that much to sell
them to slaughterhouses.
This year, Nebraska became one of a number of states — along with
Arkansas, Montana, North Dakota and others — that have pushed to resuscitate
the dormant horse slaughter industry, which produced meat valued at an
estimated $65 million a year before closing. Gov. Dave Heineman of Nebraska, a
Republican, signed a law to take steps to regulate horsemeat at the state level
that passed the single-chamber legislature, the Unicameral, with only one
dissenting vote.
These efforts have been fiercely opposed by animal rights groups,
which rejected as ridiculous the argument that horses would be better off if
they could be killed for meat. Pointing to their own research, they say any increase in improper
care for horses can be connected to the economy, rather than to the elimination
of slaughter. And if prices have declined, they say, that is because the ban
removed an incentive to overbreed horses.
Wayne Pacelle, the president and chief executive of the Humane Society
of the United States, said that horse owners should commit to
providing lifetime care for the animals. He said surveys had found widespread
opposition to killing horses for their meat.
“Horses are different than cows and pigs in one very important sense,
in that they are not raised for slaughter,” he said.
But there is an enduring chasm in how horses are viewed.
“A horse, to me, is a livestock animal like a cow, sheep or a goat,”
said Orbie Bonnett, a Nebraska rancher who stopped selling horses after prices
plummeted. “A lot of folks nowadays look at a horse like a pet, like a dog or a
cat. When you have a lot of money folk looking at this that way, well, there
goes your slaughterhouses, there goes your market and there goes your horse
folk — they just can’t make it anymore.”
The United States, much of it settled on horseback, has never really
taken to eating horse except in times of need. But elsewhere, the meat — lean
and protein-rich — is prized as a delicacy. Selling to a slaughterhouse has
long been a way to make some money, to get rid of an old or unwanted horse no
longer able to perform at a racetrack, show ring or ranch.
The last
slaughterhouses for horses, in Texas and Illinois, closed after Congress
stripped financing for federal inspections of horse slaughter in 2006, a move
that effectively banned the sale of the meat. That year, only 105,000 horses
were slaughtered domestically; 33,000 from the United States were slaughtered
abroad. Last year, 138,000 or more were slaughtered abroad, according to
government figures. (The population of horses in the United States is about
nine million.)
“It’s slightly
hypocritical to allow these horses to be slaughtered anyway up in Canada or
Mexico and not allow people here to get the income or serve the meat,” said
Hugue Dufour, a chef in New York who cooked horse while working in Canada.
Now owners have to pay to get rid of horses. Debby Brehm, director of
the Nebraska
Quarter Horse Association, spent $200 last month to euthanize a sick
horse and $150 more for it to be hauled to a rendering plant. Other owners keep
them but are unable to bear the thousands of dollars a year it can cost to feed
and care for them. As a result, the sight of malnourished animals is familiar,
Ms. Brehm said, and stories abound of horses abandoned on public and private
land and even, in one audacious case, in someone else’s horse trailer.
“You see a lot of malnourished and abandoned horses that probably
would have been humanely slaughtered before,” said Windy Allen, a horse trainer
in the state.
Others say the ban is costing them money, too.
The Southeast Nebraska Livestock Auction used to sell about 100
horses every month, but now that may be the total for a year, said Dale
Steinhoff, the owner. At Central Nebraska Packing, which used to slaughter
horses but now buys more than one million pounds of horsemeat a year for sale
to zoos, the meat is far more expensive when imported from Canada, said Lloyd
Woodward, general manager.
And, even as they pay less, those who buy the animals for slaughter —
a group known as “kill buyers” — say they are struggling to cover their costs.
“The
Mexicans are getting rich off us,” said Derry Mayfield, who buys about 40
horses a month and sometimes has them given to him for no cost. “They’re buying
these horses cheap because they can. We have no other options.”
No comments:
Post a Comment