GAO Report on Horse Processing Released

The demise of the horse processing industry in the U.S. has not prevented horses from being sold for slaughter and has contributed to a rise in equine neglect and abuse incidents, according to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report issued Wednesday (June 22). The GAO is an independent nonpartisan agency established to provide Congress with objective, fact-based information intended to improve performance and accountability of federal agencies. In its report released on June 22, the GAO concluded that from 2006 to 2010 the number of horses exported to Mexico for processing rose 660%. The number of horses exported to Canadian processing plants increased 148% during the same time period. "As a result, nearly the same number of U.S. horses was transported to Canada and Mexico for slaughter in 2010--nearly 138,000--as was slaughtered before domestic slaughter ceased," the authors reported. Meanwhile, the number of horses involved in animal cruelty and abandonment investigations in some states increased since processing plants closed in 2007, according to the authors. In Colorado cruelty investigations increased more than 60% from 975 in 2005 to 1,588 in 2009, the authors noted. Officials in California, Texas, and Florida also reported an increase in the number of animals abandoned on private property since 2007. "State, local, tribal, and horse industry officials generally attributed these increases in neglect and abandonments to cessation of domestic slaughter and the economic downturn," the report authors explained...more