Horse Slaughter

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I suggest that your research is inadequate. Placing reliance on studies conducted by or funded by advocacy groups is going to lead to an exercise in confirmation bias. So while organizations like Vets for Equine Welfare might advocate for a ban on slaughter, this should be contrasted with the position of the Amercian Veterenary Medical Assocation which maintains that penetrating captive bolt is a humane method of inducing unconsciousness in slaughtering horses.

A properly placed captive bolt, if it does not immediately kill the animal, will induce irreversible loss of higher cortical function, and instantaneous loss of consciousness of more than sufficient duration for exsanguination to occur before the animal would be capable of recovering conciousness. This does rely on proper application, of course, but any well trained person, working in a facility properly designed for equine slaughter can effectively apply captive bolt. The misapplication of a penetrating captive bolt largely occurs because of attempts to use facilities designed for bovine slaughter, where the hold pens are too large for horses. The thinner frontal bone of the horse (as compared with cattle) means that different equipment must be used in order to properly render the animal unconscious, (or to inflict a lethal blow with the bolt). Again, the use of equipment and facilities designed for cattle is the primary cause of improper slaughter, and should be the subject of rigid enforcement.

You need to be careful with your terminology. The AMVA considers slaughter and euthanasia to be distinct activities. Processes to euthanize horses are generally not viable for slaughter because the drugs used in euthanizing animals are contraindicated where the animals are to enter the human or domestic animal food supplies.

You may confidently believe whatever you like. But the best scientific information does not support you.

Actually, scientific evidence as well as multiple video footages taken at slaughter plants supports me. First off, according to the AVMA Guidlines for the Humane Euthanasia of Animals, it says, "The Guidelines are designed for use by members of the veterinary profession who carry out or oversee the euthanasia of animals". The captive bolt CAN be humane, but it MUST be administered by a skilled professional. The fact is, the captive bolt is not being administered by a skilled veterinarians, but by minimally paid employees who receive minimal training. The AVMA also mentions that the captive bolt method is humane IF APPLIED PROPERLY. At slaughter facilities, however, it is not always applied properly.

I also suggest that you take a look at the plethora of videos available showing the conditions of horses at slaughter.

But that doesn't mean humane slaughter is impossible, only not being properly enforced.

Visagrunt is not claiming humane slaughter is being properly enforced, only that it is possible. You've gone back and forth from saying it is possible but not being done to saying it can't be done to saying it can again.

I never said it is possible to be done in slaughter houses. The use of the captive bolt can be humane if it is used by a skilled veterinarian on a single horse, but it is not humane in a slaughter setting and cannot be made humane in slaughter houses.

What a nonsense. Only because you dont know propper town butchers anymore and have replaced them with giant flesh factories, to receive cheap low quality flesh from no trained workers, that doesnt mean that there is no alternative. Our butchers are trained for at least 4 years to be allowed to work as butchers, and they are trained about anatomy, butchering, slicing the animal apart, creating food from it and so on. Sure it works, instead of one gigantic monster factory you simply need more propper working butcher companies. Dont know why you believe in that nonsense with "A great amount of horses cant be slain without cruelty." Most owners here let their horses slay. If the people you order to slay the horses dont know their job propper, then this is the problem and not slaying of horses itself.

If your house breaks down because the workers didnt know how to do their job, would you say that you should stop to live in houses and live in cages again, or build instead houses by people that know what to do? If you only have flesh factories anymore that cant deliver you quality, instead of real propper trained butchers with knowledge about their work, then maybe you should think about to change that. Instead of having a great flesh factory for the whole country, we have smaller butchers in every greater town, so most people bring the horses themselves to the butcher and stay so they can proof that everything was alright. Butcher is preferred by experiences, because every horse has another metabolism so even the best veterinary can give the horse too less medication, and then it suffers until the second medication is working. Sometimes the horses are beating with their legs, so the veterinary cant get to the horse to give it the second medication. So normally horses are killed from the veterinary if the animal cant be moved any more.

If your slaughter factories cant do their job as they are supposed to do, then maybe you should simply avoid them. This topic you could talk about endlessly, because its not only about horses but these flesh factories are no better for other animals as well, and simply shouldnt exist.

So you are suggesting that anecdotal evidence serves to prove your assertion that it is never possible to use captive bolt in a humane fashion in a slaughterhouse? That's intellectually lazy.

What anecdotal evidence does support is an argument that government is failing to live up to its responsibility to license, inspect and supervise the operations of slaughterhouses--a very different argument. (Which I would wholeheartedly support).

Reread your statement from the AVMA Guidelines. There is nothing that suggests that captive bolt must be administered by veternarians themselves. It says that the guidelines are for veterenarians who carry out or oversee the euthanasia of animals (and bear in mind the AVMA distinction between euthanasian and slaughter).

Furthermore, bear in mind the audience of the AVMA. It regulates members of the veternary profession. It does not regulate slaughterhouses, farms or other locations where animals are culled, slaughtered or euthanized. The AVMA is in no position to set guidelines for anyone but their own membership, so it stands to reason that the regulations are going to speak to the activities of veterenarians who are connected with these activites.

Its not that there are too many horses. from the horses prospective. there are probably too many humans. in some southwestern states tons of mustangs are rounded up each yr to be domesticated. if anything there are too many domesticated horses and not enough caring owners. I've always been and always will remain against slaughtering them.