for human consumption as well as dog food.
This practice is very common and it’s not just
thoroughbreds that are being sent for slaughter.
Since 2007, when the United States banned
the slaughter of horses for human consumption,
an estimated 150,000 American horses a year are
shipped across the border to slaughterhouses
in Canada or Mexico with approximately 10,000
of them being thoroughbreds.
Many of those horses are bought by “kill
buyers” at the Shipshewana auction in Indiana’s
Amish country. These horses are considered
unfit for riding or working, so they are sold in the
“loose horse” auction, which takes place behind
the barn in the morning before the crowds show
up for the main auction of “sound horses,” that
are considered fit for riding and working.
The Safeguard American Food Exports (SAFE)
Act of 2013, which would ban the export of horses
for slaughter, while also permanently forbidding
the reestablishment of slaughterhouses in the
United States, did not pass and was reintroduced
in 2015 in the 114th Congress, which met from
Jan. 6, 2015 to Jan. 3, 2017.
The bill must be passed by both the House
and Senate in identical form and then be signed
by the President to become law. The SAFE act
was not enacted by the end of a Congress and
was cleared from the books.
In 2015, the European Union banned imports
of horse meat from Mexico. Since the government
isn’t doing anything to help these horses, it’s up
to the thoroughbred racing industry to protect
their retired horses and to set an example.
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