Libertarian Vegan

Recently the U.S. Department of Agriculture released 906 pages of documents related to horse slaughter in the United States.  Included are almost 900 photographs showing the horrible treatment of horses.  The documents were released under a Freedom of Information Act request, which took them three years to comply with.

Equine cruelty investigator Julie Caramante worked with Animal Angels  to get the documents, and is now working with the Animal Law Coalition to go through all of them.  Caramante said  “I’ve been an equine cruelty investigator for a number of years, and I’ve witnessed many incidents of animal cruelty but nothing could prepare me for these images.”

The horrors include conscious dismemberment, open fractures, blinding and battered faces.  All indications show long term abuse and neglect.

Horse slaughter ended in 2007 with the closing of the final plants in Texas and Illinois.  A federal bill is pending that would prevent states which do not have laws against horse slaughter from building any plants.   Currently, thousands of horses are sent across the borders to Mexico and Canada to be slaughtered, primarily for human consumption in France and Belgium.

Information -

Press Release Newswire - FOIA Request Uncovers Unprecedented Evidence Horse Slaughter is Inhumane December 4, 2008

 Horse Channel - How Humane is Horse Slaughter? December 5, 2008

For anyone who actually wants to see the horrors committed, the above stories include links to the photographs.  I do not need to see the treatment in order to be disgusted by this practice.  At least Americans can generally agree they don’t want to slaughter and eat horses.  Now if they would begin to see cows, pigs, chickens, turkeys, ducks and the rest of the animals slaughtered for food as living, breathing, creatures that want to be eaten just as much as the family cat and dog.