Investigators struggle with horse slaughter law

The American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act prohibits the shipping, transporting, moving, delivering, receiving, possessing, purchasing, selling or donation of horses and other equines to be slaughtered for human consumption and for other purposes. Not everyone sees the after affects of the Horse Slaughter Law like we do,” explained Andrea Soliz, director of the Amarillo-Panhandle Humane Society. “Most people, who invest in livestock, invest in them for work purposes. When an animal could no longer work, they were usually sent to the slaughter house. Now there’s nowhere to send them. “They’re put out to pasture . . . That’s not a good thing if you’re an old horse that doesn’t have any teeth.” With the Horse Slaughter Ban, Soliz and Steele are receiving more calls. Soliz, shaking her head, said, “What baffles us is how can you let things get in this condition?” In the past, when a working animal could not do its job, it was sent to the slaughter house to be humanely killed. What the Horse Slaughter Ban has done, especially in western states like Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas, is to perpetuate unwanted horses. Many horse owners cannot afford the $600 fee to euthanize an animal, and then pay someone to haul off the carcass. Owners are resorting to putting these equines out to pasture, where there may not be good grass until a rain. Steele sees horses that have been dumped on the highway. Some horses have been let loose on ranches without the rancher knowing they were there, until he was investigated for neglect. Steele advised, “(Landowners) need to understand they become the responsible party.”...ag journal