Dear Mrs. or Mr. President,

I am writing to you to speak with you about an issue that is very close to my heart, horse slaughter. I have ridden and shown horses all my life and couldn’t imagine my life without them. I’ve learned that horses are gentle, elegant, smart, and loving. One of the events I show in is the ASPCA Maclay Medal. This is a class sponsored by the ASPCA to promote proper treatment of all animals and help participants to come up with action plans when animal cruelty is present. My horse is a very important part of my life and it breaks my heart to hear of any horse being slaughtered. The slaughtering of horses is taking away innocent lives just as much as abortion is. These horses have never done anything to harm anyone. This issue is not typically brought up because not everyone would understand the severity or the wrongness of this if they don’t work with horses. But something must be done.

Many people confuse slaughter with euthanasia. These two things are very different. “The term ‘horse slaughter’ refers exclusively to the killing and processing of horses for human consumption. While ‘euthanasia’ is defined as gentle, painless death provided in order to prevent suffering(aspca.org).” Slaughter is a horrifying way to end a horse’s life. Slaughter rarely involves a quick, painless death and in a lot of cases, horses will be dismembered while they are still conscious. Just imagine the fear and the pain that these horses experience during these gruesome times. Horses are shipped to slaughterhouses on “killer vans” which will be packed full, with barely any room to move and no food or water. Just as children who are aborted don’t have a say but still feel immense pain, horses are the same. They cannot speak to us to fight back but they are still innocent and don’t deserve to experience this unspeakable pain and suffering. I’m sure that no human would want to experience this pain, so why should an innocent horse have to?

Horse slaughter facilities in the United States have been shut down, but that hasn’t stopped anyone from shipping horses across borders which leaves no horse in America safe. “Every year, approximately 150,000 American horses are trucked over our borders to be slaughtered for human consumption (aspca.org).” It doesn’t matter that we have shut down the slaughter houses here, horses are still sent to other countries to come back as a piece of meat. Reopening slaughterhouses in America has been suggested as a possible way to lessen the cruelty because it might make it so less horses are slaughtered and the distance they have to travel isn’t as long. But this does not solve the problem. The cruelty will still exist and the pain will still be experienced. Slaughterhouses also pose environmental and economic problems. Slaughterhouses drain the economy of the surrounding areas and harm the environment because of chemicals released. Many places like Texas that have experienced these problems due to slaughterhouses have placed bans on horse meat intended for human consumption.

Almost 80% of Americans have voted in favor of banning horse slaughter. So why is there no ban in place yet? Congress has proposed the Safeguard American Food Exports Act. This would prohibit the slaughter of horses for human consumption and ban horse export abroad if this was their purpose. This act has not been passed yet but it needs to be to ensure the safety and well being of American horses. The ASPCA has many programs to help save horses on killer vans, but this is not enough. People are allowed the chance to live their lives and not be threatened with painful death unless they have committed a very serious crime and receive the death penalty. There is nothing to warrant a horse having to experience a death penalty so severe as slaughter especially as they have not committed a crime to deserve this. Please help to push for a ban on horse slaughter as these gentle giants do not deserve to lose their lives in such a painful and disgusting way.

Thank you,

Katie

Sources:

ASPCA. "Horse Slaughter." ASPCA. American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals,  

     30 June 2016. Web. 05 Nov. 2016