The Horse Slaughter Conundrum

Abstract

The debate over whether or not to slaughter horses for human consumption has become a controversial issue in agriculture in the past decade. Horses were slaughtered in the United States until a 2007 appropriations bill—the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2006—withheld the federal funding necessary to inspect horsemeat, creating a de facto U.S. ban on the industry (U.S. Congress, 2006.) In 2011, the withholding was left out of the appropriation, causing potential industry entrants to mobilize and seek federal inspection, effectively rekindling debate around the issue. Although funding has been left out of the fiscal year (FY) 2014 bill (Horse Channel, 2014), the industry is continuing to seek its reestablishment while lawsuits from animal welfare activists attempt to hinder their attempts (Geyer and Lawler, 2013). The market for American slaughter horses shifted after the 2007 cessation of domestic slaughter, leaving Mexico and Canada as the only buyers and the United States as just a supplier (Table 1). This led to the current system where American horses are exported across borders to be processed and then the end product—horsemeat—is sold on the international market to consumers with relatively stable and consistent demand. Although a handful of U.S. zoos purchase horsemeat for their animals (Luby, 2014), the vast majority of the meat is sent overseas.