Stop the Brutal Horse Slaughter! Demand Strict Regulations NOW!

HORSE SLAUGHTER IS BRUTAL

I woke this morning (January 8, 2017) to a distressing image on my newsfeed of a horse, still moving, being tossed into a grinder to be used as "pet" food. I have not been able to trace the origin of the video, the year, or confirm the country. Not that this matters, whenever and wherever it happened it is barbaric and unacceptable!

Slaughter or murder – "humane" you say? There is nothing "humane" about slitting the throat or skinning a live animal. The terrified, struggling animal senses & sees what is about to happen..... The men and women doing the killing don't care. Some make a joke out of it, some delight in prolonging the suffering the poor animal is subjected to.

Granted, some abattoir "killers" aren't like this. Why though do they stand by and allow it to continue? Accepting by ignoring is as bad as committing the action yourself!

This petition is solely to address the barbaric cruelty and needless suffering horses endure because they are deemed "wastage".

Sadly for a large majority of horses, they face cruelty issues from birth until death. From whipping, shackling and constant stabling, through to neglect, inadequate or failure to supply feed and water. Most are sold, ending up as "doggers".

* CCTV cameras MUST be installed in ALL abattoirs, slaughterhouses, kill centres, etc.
* Horses must be stunned by workers who are trained to correctly use all equipment and they must legally ensure every horse is unconscious before slaughter.
* No horse is to suffer or be subjected to any actions that cause it unnecessary or needless pain or suffering.
*Any animal that is injured, suffering broken legs, unable to walk or distressed must be euthanised immediately.
*Laws & regulations MUST be changed and implemented NOW.

Some excerpts from research material are as follows;
(links are provided for full stories)

..." It is hard to imagine a more dispiriting place than the Echuca Saleyards, known as "the doggers". Here, the horses that are not sold as riding horses, or not rescued, go to the kill pens - to be sold as dog meat.
Among the depressed, neglected horses with swollen legs, protruding bones and bad hooves are young, beautiful thoroughbreds and yearlings who were not good enough. Distressed and frightened, the whites of their eyes rolling, neither well fed nor cared for, the horses sense that something is very wrong. "They know it is the end of the line," says Georgie Purcell from the Coalition for the Protection of Racehorses."...

..." "This is what they are reduced to," says Young. "After the glory, fame, adulation, they end up on a windy plain at a knackery waiting for a bullet in the head." As the horses huddle together outside, it is possible to see thoroughbred brands on some of them. "They communicate with each other," says Young. "They suffer, they quiver, they shake, they mourn. There is absolutely no dignity for horses who have kept people employed and made them money."...

..."But while allegations levelled by animal-welfare people and defended by the racing industry go back and forth, no one denies that horses do continue to fall through the cracks - even if they disagree on how many.
In the meantime, more and more horses face a miserable fate at best, and a horrific fate at worst, no matter how hard saviours like Saunders and Brodie try to give a lucky few a better life.."
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/animals/they-shoot-horses-dont-they-20130922-2u8nh.html

..."Unwanted horses are being beaten, neglected and savagely slaughtered at a Victorian knackery that kills horses for pet food.
An undercover investigation by Animals Australia member society the Coalition for Protection of Racehorses has found these noble animals being disposed of like rubbish and in the most horrendous way imaginable.
The terribly cruel and sad end these horses endure will shock Australians"...

..."Nature's Child was shot in the head in front of her equine companion who had fearfully rushed into the 'killing box' behind his friend. While still alive, she was dragged by a tractor onto the slaughter room floor where a worker proceeded to slit her throat and cut off her tail. In another paddock, a brown stallion stands tall but looks ill. He is shot in the head — a shot that by law should render the horse dead or at least immediately unconscious — it does not. He is is hooked up to a tractor by one leg and dragged 60 metres, across gravel and concrete, into the slaughter room, where he is shot for a second time.
It is her final few moments that bring shame on the industry that abandoned her and that should force the closure of the knackery in Laverton that slaughtered her.
It isn't just the killing methods at Laverton knackery that are cause for alarm. Investigators documented horses being beaten with pieces of poly pipe; animals being transported while injured; foals, small horses and mares kept in the same un-shaded yards as stallions; sick and injured horses left untreated; and in one case a dead horse being left in the holding yard while others stood around him"...

http://www.animalsaustralia.org/take_action/stop-knackery-abuse

..."Horses are killed for human consumption in the same way cattle are, however, the horses skull is structured differently with the brain situated further back in the head. So when a Captive bolt hits a horse is it not killed immediately. The horse is then strung up and bled while its heart is still pumping. This process has been proven to cause extreme pain to the animal and in the USA it violated the Humane Slaughter Act and horse slaughter was banned over there. The RSPCA have a policy in regards to humane killing which states

"An animal must be either killed instantly or instantaneously rendered insensible to pain until death supervenes" however, the captive bolt does not kill instantly or instantaneously and causes the horse extreme pain before death. We have been informed by the Western Australia Government that they will not take into consideration the USA study because it was not conducted on Australian soil even though the process is exactly the same"...

https://nohorsemeat.wordpress.com/horse-slaughter-in-aus/

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** Photo credit - Pixabay