Closing of Slaughterhouses Depresses Horse Market

Scuorzo and other horse ranchers said the horse market declined after the United States closed its slaughterhouses. Three slaughterhouses killed unwanted horses and shipped the meat to foreign countries, including Japan and France. The last one closed in 2007 after Illinois banned processing horse meat for human consumption. Horses like Charlie could be euthanized or shot, but euthanasia and burial can be expensive, said Betty Jones, Arkansas Horse Council president. Increasingly, owners are abandoning horses or selling them for next to nothing at auction houses. Businesses in Canada and Mexico slaughtered more than 84,000 American horses last year, said Nancy Perry, U.S. Humane Society government affairs vice president. She expects that number to be closer to 95,000 when all the numbers are tallied. Transporting horses to foreign slaughterhouses can be difficult for horse owners who can no longer afford to care for them, said Robert Seay, Benton County extension agent at the University of Arkansas. Horse owners also have trouble selling or auctioning horses because prices are so low, Seay said. A horse from a better blood line that would have brought $2,500 three years ago now sells for about $250, Scuorzo said. A mid-grade pleasure horse will bring between $90 to $250, and some horses aren’t selling at all. Horse owners sometimes lose money at auction, said Gary Thompson, who runs the London Sale Barn in London, near Russellville. That’s because the auction price won’t cover auction fees, mandatory disease tests and the costs for transport, he said...The Morning News (Arkansas)