Equine Slaughter Plants in America
There are three foreign owned Equines slaughterhouses in America. Beltex and Dallas Crown slaughterhouses are in Texas and Cavel slaughterhouse is in Illinois. Statistics are estimated at 50,000 horses slaughtered in these plants for the exportation of horsemeat for human consumption in Europe and Asia. Most of the horses killed are purchased at auctions around the US by people known as “ Killer Buyers” Horse owners for the most part are un-suspecting contributors to the horror of horse slaughter. When they take a horse to any auction in America, as they don't realize their horse will most likely end up on a plate for dinner for a European or Asian. At present there are no laws mandating that auction houses post this information. Killer buyers scour the nation and buy every horse they can to haul to Texas for slaughter, they are paid by the pound for their delivered animals.There is a lot of mis-information amongst people, believing that only the old, crippled, and useless horses are slaughtered, nothing could be further from the truth, the young, healthy , sound horses are purchased first by the killer buyers to make more money.
In the Thoroughbred-racing world, the killer buyers come to the various racetracks and acquire horses that owners and trainers sell to them unknowingly and knowingly they are going to slaughter. Many thoroughbreds are sent to auctions where killer buyers bid on them there and then ship them to slaughterhouses.
The practice of eating horsemeat is foreign, not American, the foreign slaughterhouse owners, the French and Belgians have advantage by slaughtering American horses, as there is no tariff on horsemeat. They pay a pittance for the horses here to slaughter and reap millions in profit in Europe. Recent figures indicate both countries import over 100 tons of horsemeat from the United States. The misery that befalls horse that are slaughtered is unspeakable. It is not necessary to continue to allow the foreigners to slaughter our horse for their culture and profit. It is a travesty to provide the means to allow foreigners to slaughter horses in America, we can make a difference with the RACE Fund, we can save lives of perfectly good horses who can live out their lives in service to man in other ways after their racing careers are over.
