When obeying the law breaks your heart
When legislators try to appease special interests by criminalizing necessary practices, unintended consequences often ensue.
A little history: In 2007, Congress ended the killing of horses for human consumption, essentially closing equine slaughterhouses. This created another problem by forcing horses destined for slaughter to endure long hauls to abattoirs in Mexico and Canada.
In response, the National Horse Protection League supported an amendment to the Horse Protection Act prohibiting the “shipping, transportation, moving, delivering, receiving, possessing, purchasing, selling or donation of horses and other equines to be slaughtered for human consumption and for other purposes.”
The wording in this amendment (particularly “for other purposes”) was so loose as to criminalize just about every effort to humanely dispatch old, crippled and otherwise useless animals. The upshot was an enormous increase in the illegal dumping of domestic horses on public lands where they compete, albeit at a disadvantage, with wild mustangs for limited feed. Starvation is their sad fate. Nevada, where the number of abandoned horses soared from 12 in 2006 to hundreds in 2009, became the poster child for this sorry practice.
For the past few years, a weak economy and escalating hay prices have forced many horse owners into an untenable position. With so many people losing their jobs, the price of euthanasia by a veterinarian and fees for hauling to a rendering plant (several hundred dollars) put humane disposal beyond the reach of most horse owners.
The Bureau of Land Management stages periodic roundups when wild horse populations exceed rangeland capacity. This program, which BLM chief Robert Abbey calls rare and necessary, was decried as ineffective and costly by advocates on both sides of the debate at the Summit of the Horse Jan. 4 in Las Vegas.
United Organizations of the Horse, which has petitioned Congress and the Administration to oppose any attempt to criminalize selling horses for salvage value or to prevent the reopening of U.S. horse processing facilities, hosted the event at Southpoint Casino. Ranchers, horsemen, animal rights advocates and agriculture industry representatives debated the issues of wild horse management and domestic slaughter.
Animal rights activists protested efforts to revive the equine slaughter industry and to overturn the 2007 law that closed the abattoirs. A U.S. representative from Wyoming and a former senator from Montana were among speakers in favor of those efforts.
Rep. Sue Wallis, vice president of United Horsemen, said horse processing is the humane and ethical solution to controlling horse populations. The federal government’s policy of rounding up excess horses and storing them amounts to public welfare for horses, she said.
The BLM spent more than $66 million last year on feed and care for horses rounded up and confined to corrals.
Ranchers and agriculture industry representatives criticized the BLM program as a “job killing” solution that undercuts the West’s tradition of ranching and meat processing.
Former U.S. Rep. Charlie Stenholm (D-Texas) said the Chinese and the Russians are “champing at the bit to buy our horses. Why can’t we sell it to them?”
While consumption of horsemeat is not traditionally accepted in this country, as it is in Europe and Asia, it was promoted here during World War II when beef, lamb and pork were rationed. I remember a neighborhood butcher shop displaying a sign “USDA Inspected Horse Meat.” My sister and I were horrified when mother bought some. Our European cook prepared it but we refused to eat it. As I remember, most of it went to our Great Danes who devoured it, hungry as they were for fresh meat. We would have been content with a diet of potatoes and cabbage, or macaroni and cheese.
Now, in a slowly recovering economy, animal shelters and rescue organizations are overwhelmed by the demand for equine refuge. They are doing their best, but donations upon which they rely are still inadequate to meet the need.
The business of legislating against culture and tradition, or criminalizing long-held practices, often forces people to make painful choices. When it comes to humane disposition of animals, it’s hard enough without being prosecuted as a criminal for taking what seems to be the ethical position; heartbreaking as it is.