This guest article from YourTango was written by Faith Deeter.
On November 18, 2011, it became legal to slaughter American horses for human consumption in the United States. What?! Americans don’t eat horses. We ride them, groom them, love them, use them in therapy, and make movies about them. Imagine sitting through two hours of War Horse, only to watch “Joey” get slaughtered after his brave and heroic service. Unthinkable? Think again.
During a closed-door-session, a few members of Congress slipped language into an appropriations spending bill which reversed a five-year ban on horsemeat inspections. With the pressure of a government shutdown looming, and despite his 2008 campaign promise to ban horse slaughter and the export of horses for slaughtering, President Obama signed it. There was no media coverage until ten days later.
How could this happen?
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I share your respect for horses and agree that horse ownership should include a plan for caring for an aging animal. That said, where I live we saw the unintended consequences of disallowing the slaughter of horses. It is absolutely true that animals were abandoned and left to starve. A humane solution will have to include a discussion between all parties involved.