The Government Accountability Office conducted a government study that shows the unintended consequences of a de facto federal ban on horse slaughter. According to the study, as the domestic market for unwanted horses shrinks, more are being neglected and abandoned, and roughly the same number - nearly 140,000 a year - are being killed after a sometimes grueling journey across the border.The study's findings have been fiercely contested by animal welfare groups, which argue that most of the problems stem from the economic downturn and the high price of feed.
According to John Schoneberg, a Nebraska horse breeder, "when they closed the plants, that put more of a hardship on our horses than the people who wanted to stop the slaughter can imagine."
Wayne Pacelle, the president and chief executive of the Humane Society of the United States, stated that, "horse owners should commit to providing lifetime care for the animals. Horses are different than cows and pigs in one very important sense, in that they are not raised for slaughter."
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Posted 10/24/2011
