In a shocking but thorough article, "Horse Slaughter on the Border", Lisa Sandberg describes the fate of American horses in Mexico's slaughterplants, and talks to a killer buyer, plant owner, veterinarian, and others involved in the horse slaugher industry.

This year U.S. courts upheld state bans and closed two horse slaughtering plants in Texas. The final plant in Delkab, Illinois was closed Sept 21.

As a result, 15,000 fewer US horses were slaughtered this year. However, killer buyers are now shipping horses across the border to slaughterplants in Mexico. This year 30,000 horses were shipped to Mexico, a rise of 370%.

The long haul, a trip of 700 or more miles in packed trucks, isn't the worst part. Many horses suffer injuries or die on the way. Those that survive the journey face a cruel death-- Mexico plants have few regulations and use primitive killing methods compared to US plants.

The Ciudad Jarez slaughterplant, for example, does have a few captive bolt guns, but they often don't work and employees are not trained how to use them. The majority of the time, they use the "puntilla" method of killing; Horses are loaded into a "kill box" and repeatedly stabbed by a worker in the spine until paralyzed. They are then hung upside-down-- still alive-- and bled to death.

Lisa Sandberg, a reporter for the Houston Chronical, described the method used in Mexico as she watched a roan mare be killed:

"A worker jabbed her in the back with a small knife seven, eight, nine times... Eyes wild, she lowered her head and raised it as the blade punctured her body around the withers, again and again. At the 10th jab, she fell to the floor of this Mexican slaughterhouse, bloodied and paralyzed but not yet dead." - Source: Houston Chronical : Horse Slaughter Ban article

The mare lay paralized for two minutes before she was hoised by a rear leg upside-down and her throat slit to bleed to death. The owner of the plant and the vet on hand describe the process in the slideshow, Scent of Death (warning: contains graphic content).

In the US, the killing method is to use a captive bolt to the head. Opponents of horse slaughter say such methods are cruel because bolts often only stun and don't kill the horses, and often horses are bled alive. Horses, they say, should be euthanized by vets just like cats and dogs are, not slaughtered for human consumption. However, in Mexico, horses face a more gruesome death.

Some American horses also find their end in Canada, where two slaughterplants in Quebec and Alberta use .22 shot to the head to kill the animals prior to butchering.

Horse slaugher opponents are pressing for a federal ban that will prevent horses from being exported from the USA for slaughter. Once that is in place, killer buyers won't have the incentive to buy auctioned horses and owners will have to find more humane methods to dispose of unwanted animals.

More Information:

9/30/07: Link: Horse Slaughter on the Border:
A shocking exposure of horse slaughter in Mexico, written by Lisa Sandberg, photography by Jerry Lara. *Graphic*

10/2/07: Horse Slaughter Evokes Outrage by Lisa Sandberg

What can you do to help?

Call and write to your Senator or Representative.

Ask them to cosponsor and vote YES for the American Horse Saughter Prevention Act, S311 (Senator) or HR 503 (Representative)

You may think you can't make a difference, but each call DOES. Many people who care about an issue don't take the time to write or call, so each person that DOES contact them is counted as the opinion of 10 people.

For more info on the strategy and what to do to protect horses, see Alex Brown Racing's Anti-Slaughter Page.