According to Steve Kopperud, there are now 120,000 abandoned horses roaming the nation, and the Humane Society of the United States is to blame.
"This is a classic example of the Humane Society," stated Kopperud. "They constantly point a finger, say 'It's a problem,' and get legislation introduced, typically banning the practice. Then when the consequences come about, for example 120,000 abandoned horses, the Humane Society is nowhere to be seen."
Kopperud, senior vice president for a Washington-based advocacy and consultation firm that represents livestock interests, was a speaker at last Tuesday's general sessions of the National Institute for Animal Agriculture's National Conference in Indianapolis.
Although Americans have long considered the human consumption of horse meat to be a cultural taboo, in other parts of the world it is considered a delicacy. Up until about a year ago, three foreign-owned horse-slaughter plants, two in Texas and one in Illinois, exported horse meat to Europe and Canada. Now there are no horse slaughter plants operating in the U.S.
The American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act is legislation which was initiated by the Humane Society. It was passed by the House of Representatives, although it never made it through the Senate. But the House approved an amendment to the 2007 Ag Appropriations Bill that brought horse slaughter to a halt by stripping funds from federally-required inspections of plants that slaughtered horses. Following a U.S. District Court decision in March of 2007 which ruled against the industry, horse slaughter effectively ended in the U.S. According to Kopperud, we are now reaping the consequences of those actions.
"The new technique for getting rid of your horse now is to take it to a federal park and release it," said Kopperud. "The assumptions are that the animal can survive on its own, and the federal government will step in and take care of it. Also, livestock auctions are typically finding horses left tied up at their facilities, and ranchers are reporting increasing numbers of horses being dropped off. I heard one story from Illinois about a group that rode six horses into a state park, and brought two out."
Kopperud stated that the decision to cease horse slaughter in the U.S. was rooted in the changing view that many people have toward animals. Specifically regarding horses, he said that the horse slaughter legislation made two ethical judgments: that horse slaughter is morally wrong, and that the horse transcends other species—that it has progressed from being a beast of burden to a noble beast, a pet.
"But in making these judgments, we ignored the consequences," noted Kopperud. "We now have 120,000 abandoned horses which in no way can be legitimately or compassionately euthanized, which is what horse slaughter did. This compassionate animal well-being organization (Humane Society) has no solution to that problem. Now to have a horse euthanized, a horse owner has to pay a veterinarian to do it, then turn around and pay to have it removed. And they've lost the total value of the animal."
In an afternoon presentation, Dr. Robert Stout, Kentucky State veterinarian, related that the state of Kentucky is in a "real dilemma" over the increasing number of abandoned and neglected horses in the state. He cited a number of reasons for the current problems, including: general economic decline; adverse weather conditions, including extended, widespread drought; decreased hay and alfalfa yields; and land being converted from pasture to more profitable crops. But he indicated that the closing of horse slaughter plants had significantly exacerbated the problem.
Despite the difficulties arising from the horse slaughter ban, one expert on animal rights, Wes Jamison from the University of Florida, sees essentially no chance of that decision being reversed.
"I think that it (the possibility of reversing the horse slaughter ban) is off the table," said Jamison. "I'm not aware of any situations in the last 100 years where once an animal has achieved a protected status, that decision has been reversed."