Say No To Horse Abuse and Slaughter!

Horse slaughter is the practice of slaughtering horses for meat. These animals come from auctions, private sellers, and from wild herds. Sometimes these horses are sick and injured but they can also be for sale by their owners.

Most are brought to the slaughterhouses by contract buyers who collect horses from all across the country, also known as kill buyers. Horses that are killed for reasons other than human consumption go to the renderer's(US) or the knacker's yard (UK) to make food for pets, carnivorous animals in zoos, etc.

In most countries where horses are slaughtered for food, they are processed in a similar fashion to cattle, i.e., in large-scale factory slaughterhouses (abattoirs). The animals are rendered unconscious by being shot in the brain with a metal rod, using a captive bolt stunner - pneumatically or cartridge driven. In the UK a captive bolt is rarely used. They are usually killed using a free bullet from a bell gun.

The skull is too hard to use a captive bolt the bell end to the gun prevents the bullet ricocheting and injuring the slaughterman. They are then killed by being exsanguinated ("bled out") by severing the jugular vein or carotid artery while suspended by the rear leg by a heavy chain shackle.