The Humane Society of the United States thanks the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration for ordering Lebanon, Tenn.-based Three Angels Farm to immediately cease all transportation services due to serious safety violations. The government’s action comes after two major accidents involving the company’s drivers resulted in the deaths of several horses this year.
In June, a trailer from Three Angels Farm carrying 37 horses collapsed on a highway in Tennessee. One horse was so badly injured that the animal needed to be euthanized, while the rest were put on another truck and sent back to Lebanon. In February, a trailer from Three Angels Farms crashed while carrying 36 horses, and three horses died as a result. In both cases, the trailers were destined for Presidio, Texas, a border town where horses are kept at a holding facility until they are sold for slaughter in Mexico.
“These accidents are examples of the many animal welfare and human safety issues involved with the horse slaughter pipeline,” said Keith Dane, director of equine protection for The HSUS. “The Humane Society of the United States is grateful that U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is taking the necessary steps to prevent Three Angels Farm from causing more catastrophic accidents while transporting horses to slaughter.”
Every year, more than 120,000 horses are transported across the U.S. to be slaughtered in Canada or Mexico. These are show horses, race horses, former companion animals, carriage horses and even wild horses. Driven by profit, the killer buyer will cram as many horses as possible onto a livestock trailer for the long journey to a feedlot or slaughter plant. In the crowded, cramped confines of the trailer, fighting, serious injury and even death are frequent occurrences. Horses may remain on trailers for days at a time, with no food, rest or water. Once they arrive at the slaughter plant, the kill process is fraught with terror, pain and suffering.
In addition to the multitude of animal welfare issues involved with the transportation and kill methods of horses in the slaughter pipeline, American horse meat may be hazardous to human health and should not be consumed. Because Americans do not raise or intend them to become food, virtually all horses in America have been administered numerous drugs throughout their lives that are outlawed for use on animals intended for human consumption. Consequently, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Food and Drug Administration should classify all meat from American horses as adulterated unless American horses sold for slaughter are accompanied with lifetime medical records.
The HSUS urges Congress to pass the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act (S. 1176 / H.R. 2966) which will ban the barbaric slaughter of American horses for human consumption, including the export of live horses across our borders for slaughter.
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