# Horse slaughter houses may re-open



## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

Congress has lifted a 5-year ban on horse meat inspections. Horse slaughter houses could open again.

http://bottomline.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2 ... n-the-menu


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## Clarq (Jul 21, 2011)

I wonder if I would even see horse meat in the grocery store if a slaughterhouse did open. I wouldn't have a problem eating horse meat if the price was right and the taste was good, but it looks like a lot of people don't like the idea. I don't see why people have such a problem with slaughtering horses for food.


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## NHS (Sep 7, 2007)

"I slaughtered this horse last Tuesday, I'm afraid it's starting to turn."


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## pkred (Jul 9, 2009)

I wonder, if this has anything to do with the BLM's wild mustang program that no longer has a budget. The government has got all those horses and nothing to do with them... So, now they are putting equine back on the table, maybe equine should have never left?


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

pkred said:


> I wonder, if this has anything to do with the BLM's wild mustang program that no longer has a budget. The government has got all those horses and nothing to do with them... So, now they are putting equine back on the table, maybe equine should have never left?


I'm sure this new ruling will impact the BLM's wild and feral horse programs. I understand that these programs have been sort of "on hold" because the cost of taking horses to slaughter houses in Canada or Mexico was too costly.


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## GaryFish (Sep 7, 2007)

Mustangs are strictly forbidden from going to meat processors. So even with horse beef processing opening up, the mustangs are off limits. The Wild Horse and Burro Act is pretty explicit on that one. 

The argument against eating horse beef is purely emotional though. For whatever reason, the emotional attachment to horses makes it hard for people to eat them. For me, I see horse beef as an expensive way to get meat. The conversions of feed for meat production are exponentially different than the critters we usually eat like pigs, cows and chickens. It just doesn't make economic sense. Then again, we've spent hundreds of years breeding horses for utility instead of food production. I guess if that shifted, we could breed some horse strains that are slow, fat, and gain weight quickly.


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## OKEE (Jan 3, 2008)

Garyfish after a year you gain ownership of the mustang and is no longer considerd a free roaming animal.So Yes they could end up in the slaughter houses. I've never owned a mustang but that's been my understanding . They have a limit on how many you can buy and sell also.


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## GaryFish (Sep 7, 2007)

I thought the rules were two years ownership now, and that you had so sign some kind of waiver that says you won't turn it into horse burger. We adopted a couple when I was a kid, but I know stuff has changed since then. Back then, you had to have rail fencing, or combination of rail and wire - no wire only, and it had to be at least 5 feet high, and you had to own it for at least one year before actually "owned" it. That was in the days before they held them in a facility for a year, and halter-broke them before adopting them out. Back in those days, the horses were rounded up, sorted, vaccinated, and adopted out in the course of a week or two. BLM certainly wasn't in the business of running a horse rearing facility. Things have changed drastically over the last 30 years though. Too much emotion into it.


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## Ifish (Aug 22, 2008)

NHS said:


> "I slaughtered this horse last Tuesday, I'm afraid it's starting to turn."


 :lol: Oh, Brother! Great Movie!

Well, it didn't look like a two-horse town, but try finding a decent hair jelly. - Ulysses Everett McGill


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## bwhntr (Sep 12, 2007)

This is great news. IMO the ban on slaughter houses killed the horse market. Immediately the price of horses dropped and they haven't recovered since. There are so many reasons banning the slaughter of horses was bad. It is a completely emotional "treehugger" ban and actually is worse when considering the torture of horses. Sending a horse to Mexico to be slaughtered with no regulations is so much worse if you are worried about the treatment. Hopefully we will have a few slaughterhouses open up in the US and the market will get back to where it belongs.


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## OKEE (Jan 3, 2008)

I'm not 100% sure on that Garyfish . This will be a good thing for the horse industry no doubt. I don't think you will ever see someone raise horses for slaughter no profit in it. There are so many unwanted horses in the US they can buy and sell. I do think it has cut down on the back yard breeders. I'm a leader of a youth riding group . 10 years ago parents would buy the older horses to put their kids on until they learned how to ride then sell them for a younger one. Now days they are buying 3 and 4 year old horses because they do not want to get stuck with the older horses that are hard to sell. Then they wonder why their kids is not having fun on this young unbroke horse. I could always find a home for the old timers ,now days the older horses are a hard sell look on KSL it's full of them.


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## Homer (Sep 1, 2011)

This is the best thing to happen to horses in years. Values go up and hay prices go down. Before the ban hay could be bought at 3.75 a bale, today its 8.00. I realize this is not the only reason for the increase, but supply and demand with to many horses on the market not being killed helped get it up there.


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## bwhntr (Sep 12, 2007)

Homer said:


> This is the best thing to happen to horses in years. Values go up and hay prices go down. Before the ban hay could be bought at 3.75 a bale, today its 8.00. I realize this is not the only reason for the increase, but supply and demand with to many horses on the market not being killed helped get it up there.


Great point, I forgot about the price of hay being a factor.


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## elkfromabove (Apr 20, 2008)

Include the wild mustangs and you have a deal! On two occasions, I've missed chances at P&Y antelope because some mustangs drove them and their does off of waterholes before they presented a shot. Once in Hamlin Valley and once on Milford Flats. They're all over the SW Desert.


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## Critter (Mar 20, 2010)

It is bad on the SW desert. I saw more horses down there last deer season than I saw deer.


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## OKEE (Jan 3, 2008)

Critter said:


> It is bad on the SW desert. I saw more horses down there last deer season than I saw deer.


I would bet several are not wild mustangs but horses that have been dumped off.


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