Читать книгу Beyond the Track - Anna Morgan Ford - Страница 31

Currently in the United States, there are no slaughter plants that process horses operating legally. However, there is still a demand for horse meat on the international market, so horses form the United States are shipped illegally across the border into Canada or Mexico to be processed and sold overseas.

Slaughter is a grim reality in the horse industry. It is a possibility for any unwanted equine. With so many Thoroughbred foals born each year and only a limited number of people willing and able to take them when their racing career ends, it is difficult to find them safe and caring new homes. While plenty of buyers are people with good intentions, there are many horse dealers who frequently visit racetracks to buy horses at low prices—sometimes only a few hundred dollars—and then send them to an auction to make a quick buck. Owners, too, sometimes send retired horses to be sold at auction, which I discussed on p. 31. There, horses are sometimes purchased by private owners but more often are bought by horse dealers who ship them directly to the slaughterhouse.

Trainers often sell a horse unaware of its future. Perhaps they need to move the horse to make room for another horse in training, or they just need the money; dealers typically offer cash and can take the horse away on the day of purchase. Sadly, though, horse slaughter is not always the result of “crooked dealing”; too often a trainer gives a horse to a family or person who lacks the skills needed to transition the horse to “normal” life. The new owner gets frustrated with the horse and the difficulties he may have as a result of his race training, and start to look for someone—anyone—to take the horse off their hands. Some horse dealers seek out such opportunities, and invariably good horses end up going to slaughter for no reason other than they are misunderstood.