To Slaughter or Not to Slaughter

To Slaughter or Not To Slaughter
One of the biggest controversies in the equine industry today, is the issue regarding horse slaughter. Two years ago, the last of the three slaughter houses in the United States, were shut down. Slaughter houses were shut down due to a lack of regulation and inhumane treatment to the horses (Horse). It provided a positive outlook for our fellow equine, but unfortunately started hurting the industry, causing drastic changes. These changes show us that with better regulation, horse slaughter houses need to be reintroduced, because without them the value of the horse is drastically low, there is no longer any place for unwanted horses to go, and it is hurting our national economy.
Slaughter houses were shut down because of the way, or way they weren’t, regulated. Bidders that slaughter houses would hire to bid on suitable horses for slaughter, would attend auctions and trailer up to 80 horses in a 50 horse trailer and haul them back to the slaughter houses that were up to 1,500 miles away (Pro). That is where the problems started, until laws started being passed, regulating how the horses were hauled in the double-decker trailers. The buyers of the auctioned horses going to slaughter would run all types of horses into the upper and lower decks of the trailers, made for cattle and hogs. The crowded conditions made it hazardous for sick, old, young, and crippled horses to make the 1,500 mile journey to death (Transport). When you put the unhealthy horses in with stronger horses, you make it hard for them to cope, stay standing for long periods of time, and come out unharmed. Often when the trailers from the auction would arrive and unload the horses for slaughter, there would be many that had fallen, gotten trampled, and either died or were severely injured (Transport). Once unloaded, the horses would be put in holding pens for weeks at a time. The problem with that is that all the horses waiting to be slaughtered can literally...