Oct 3, 2009, World-Herald Bureau ... Nebraska could rein in neglect and abandonment of horses and spur on economic development by welcoming a horse slaughterhouse to the state, a panel of lawmakers was told Friday.
Such a facility could give horse owners a way to deal with injured, dying or unaffordable animals, members of the Agriculture Committee heard.
“Slaughter is not pretty, but it is a humane, economical way for an owner to dispose of an unwanted horse,” said Debby Brehm, Nebraska director for the American Quarter Horse Association.
Banning horse slaughter has led to greater suffering for horses and to problems with people abandoning horses, she said.
Brehm told of friends who transported two horses to a local sale barn and took them inside, only to find that two other horses had been left in their trailer, abandoned.
However, a Humane Society of the United States spokesman said problems concerning unwanted horses need to be resolved without returning to the “cruel and inhumane” practice of killing horses for meat.
“We should be able to find common ground short of having a slaughterhouse in Nebraska,” said Don Wesely, the group's lobbyist.
He acknowledged there have been problems, such as more than 200 dead and starving horses found at an Alliance ranch last spring.
He said gas prices, drought and the nation's economic woes are more to blame for people abandoning horses than the closing of the nation's horse plants.
The last three U.S. slaughtering plants — two in Texas and one in Illinois — closed in 2007.
A state law closed the Illinois plant. The Texas plants were shut down when the U.S. Department of Agriculture stopped inspecting horse meat, a requirement for meat processing in the United States.
Before the plants closed, a total of more than 90,000 horses a year were slaughtered at the three plants. Most of the meat was exported to Europe and Asia for human consumption.
U.S. horses still are purchased for slaughter at plants in Mexico and Canada.
Larry Henning, a Gretna veterinarian, said the Nebraska Veterinary Medical Association supports humane slaughter and transport because there are few alternatives for unwanted and unusable horses.
“Death is not inhumane,” he said. “Starvation and neglect are.”
Wesely disputed claims that the horse plants largely handled old, sick or lame horses. He said 92.3 percent of those slaughtered were in good condition.
State Sen. Annette Dubas of Fullerton questioned whether the attacks on horse slaughter are a prelude to efforts to shut down slaughter of other livestock.
More than a decade ago, North Platte, Neb., was home to one of eight U.S. horse plants.