Although horse slaughter is not currently legal in the United States, every year tens of thousands of American horses of all breeds are shipped to other countries for slaughter. The great majority of those horses are healthy and under 15 years of age, including foals over 6 months old, pregnant mares or mares that have just given birth, horses from kids’ summer camps, racehorses that couldn’t run quite fast enough, Amish workhorses that can no longer pull heavy loads, and young horses that just don’t have the attributes the breeder was looking for.
Some of the horses sold to the people who do business with the slaughterhouses (known as “kill buyers”) are stolen, some are wild horses that are supposed to be protected from slaughter by the Bureau of Land Management, and still others have been purchased or otherwise acquired through fraudulent means, via sites like Craigslist. Even Kentucky Derby winners have been slaughtered for their meat.
- Educate yourself, your friends, your family, and your doctor.
- Call or write your representatives in Congress. Become an advocate for horses.
- Make your voice heard.
There are many organizations that are working hard to educate the public, and to change the laws so that it will be illegal to ship horses out of the country to slaughter them for human consumption. There’s a bill before Congress called the Safeguard American Food Exports (SAFE) Act that would outlaw shipping equines for slaughter for human consumption. Most horse meat is contaminated with chemicals such as bute and wormers that are poisonous to humans.
You can learn more about the SAFE Act and see if your representatives are sponsors of the bill on the Animal Welfare Institute’s website:
https://awionline.org/content/safeguard-american-food-exports-safe-act
You’ll find additional information on horse slaughter, Premarin, and much more at these websites:
Premarin: https://www.lcanimal.org/index.php/campaigns/other-issues/horses
https://horsefund.org/pmu-fact-sheet.php
Wild horses: https://americanwildhorsecampaign.org/
About Premarin
Pfizer, the giant pharmaceutical company, uses the urine of pregnant mares to manufacture Premarin®, PremPro®, PremPhase®, and Duavee® —hormone replacement products for peri-menopausal and menopausal women. It’s a terrible industry.
Mares are artificially inseminated, and then are tied, standing in straight stalls 24/7 for 6 months or more as their urine is collected. In order to make the urine more concentrated, their water intake is restricted. The foals are considered “byproducts,” and most are fattened up, slaughtered, and sold for horsemeat or turned into dog food. Most women are horrified to learn that this is how Pfizer’s hormone medications are made, and many don’t know that there are safe, bioidentical products that can be used instead.
Do everything you can to educate yourself about HRT alternatives. And share that information with your friends—and your gynecologist.
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