Amidst all the excitement over Michael Phelps’ Olympian medal haul and the buzz surrounding Usain Bolt’s dramatic sprint victory, the London Olympics’ so-called minor sports—canoeing, table tennis, Greco-Roman wrestling, for example—seem to take place well outside the spotlight.
Such is the case with equestrian events. Although competition on horseback has been part of the Olympic Games since 1900, other than political sniping over the competition-related costs of Mitt and Anne Romney’s high-priced show horse, dressage (kind of like ballroom dancing for horses), show jumping and something called equestrian eventing—a combination of jumping, cross-country competition and dressage—all take place in relative anonymity, as far as the sporting media is concerned, anyway.
(One question, though: When the competitions are concluded, shouldn’t the horses receive the medals, rather than the riders? Seems to me that the four-legged athletes are the ones doing all the work).
Back on this side of the pond, however, horses are back in the news, for reasons that remain controversial, but depending on the outcome, potentially positive for animal agriculture.
Unwanted and abandoned
In New Mexico, a group of horse owners and equestrian clubs is urging the state’s governor to support a proposed new horse slaughterhouse in Roswell, N.M., arguing that the closure of domestic packing plants that handle horses five years ago has caused “needless suffering under the cruelest of conditions.”
The New Mexico Horse Council, which claims to represent more than 200 horse owners and 30 horse clubs, told Republican Gov. Susana Martinez that an informal survey of its members showed 94percent in favor of humane slaughter.
“Horses deserve better than to be abandoned, starved, or transported long distances in overcrowded trucks to slaughter in foreign countries,” council President Rusty Cook wrote in a letter, noting that rescue facilities are unable to care for all the unwanted horses.
Martinez, along with a number of equine and animal humane groups, have been vocal opponents of a plan by a businessman to open what could be the first horse slaughterhouse in the country since Congress restored funding for inspections in such plants. Another application is pending for a plant in Missouri, USDA officials have noted.
Scott Darnell, a spokesman for Martinez, said the governor received the letter but her opposition has not changed.
Meantime, Rick de los Santos, the owner of Valley Meat Co. in Roswell said he’s hired an attorney and is working with Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) and Republican Rep. Steve Pearce to push USDA to approve his application to convert his former cattle slaughterhouse into a horse slaughter plant that would package meat for sale in foreign markets.
De los Santos told the Associated Press that USDA initially said it would move quickly on his application, but he has since been told that because of the controversy over domestic horse slaughter, the agency won’t make a decision until after the November presidential election. His business is now sitting idle because horses cannot be slaughtered in the same facility as other livestock, he noted.
“They have turned it into a political game,” he said.
The Food Safety and Inspection Service is currently reviewing the applications from both de los Santos and the Missouri group.FSIS officials said in a statement that “despite the congressional decision to lift the ban, the agency will require a significant amount of time to update its testing and inspection processes and methods before it is fully able to develop a future inspection regimen.”
None of that will deter the animal activists from campaigning against the “abuse” they claim is inherent in the very concept of processing horse into meat and other products.
“Horse slaughter for food is a national disgrace, given the iconic nature of American horses and the especially brutal methods used to kill them,” the Front Range Equine Rescue organization stated in a news release. “Valley Meats and any other horse slaughterhouses must be stopped.”
New Mexico Horse Council’s Cook estimated that about a thousand horses are shipped through New Mexico to Mexico every month for slaughter south of the border.She said the proposed slaughterhouse in Roswell should be supported.
“Not only would [a horse plant] help to solve the current overpopulation of horses, but it would provide considerable economic benefits to our state in the form of jobs and production of usable products such as meat, dog food and glue for sale in both domestic and foreign markets,” she wrote.
That statement came despite the council’s newsletter statement, acknowledging that “everyone finds the thought of horse slaughter repugnant.”
Should FSIS approve the application for a plant in New Mexico—which makes sense if only for the fact that the state is now serving as trans-shipment hub for horses headed to slaughter south of the border—it would be a triumph for the industry.
Slaughter is not something that anyone in the industry wants to showcase, but it’s as much a part of animal agriculture as breeding and feeding.
Death comes to all animals, wild or domestic, and few of them are as planned, controlled and humane as the ones that are integral to modern livestock production.
One can only hope that a bunch of gold medals won’t be the only victories associated with horses this year.
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Dan Murphy, a veteran food-industry journalist and commentator.
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