Team 4: State Ranks High In Equine Slaughter
WTAE's Paul Van Osdol Reports
POSTED: 7:30 pm EDT April 27,
2001
Pennsylvania is a national leader in a dubious category -- the number of horses sent off for slaughter.Every year, more than 60,000 horses are slaughtered nationwide, but several thousand come from Pennsylvania.
A growing number of critics are calling the practice inhumane.WTAE-TV investigative reporter Paul Van Osdol reports that horse meat is popular in Europe -- and, with foot-and-mouth disease, the price is going up.That means a lot of business at horse auctions -- and the biggest auction on the east coast is in Lancaster County, Pa.Team 4 went undercover there and at another nearby auction. We learned many of these horses come from a place you might not expect.
It's the sport of kings -- but after the racing is done, some horses have a fate that can hardly be considered royal.At Mountaineer Park Race Track in West Virginia, Dick Rudibaugh is known as the meat man. Several times a week he picks up horses from the track and takes them to a horse auction in Sugarcreek, Ohio, It's a two-hour drive from Pittsburgh.Some horses are sickly. Some may have worked on the farm, others may have raced at the track or even carried kids at summer camp. But now they all share the same fate -- and that's why the vehicle is called the killer pen.These horses are auctioned off to so-called killer buyers, who ship them to slaughterhouses in Canada and Texas.Horse meat ends up on dinner tables in the Far East and Europe and hoof-and-mouth disease has caused the demand and price of horse meat to soar.But some groups say killing horses for meat is inhumane."If we were to start butchering our dogs and cats here and sending them to other parts of the world, we'd have a revolution here," said Susan Wagner of Equine Advocates."I don't have a good answer for it, but if they like 'em so good we own a big farm and there's a lot of other farms for sale, let them buy one," said Leroy Baker.That's exactly what horse rescue groups are trying to do: Buy horses at slaughter auctions and keep them on farms, like one near Harrisburg.Even some people who are not opposed to slaughtering horses say the way they're handled at auctions is inhumane.At the biggest slaughter auction on the east coast, at New Holland in Lancaster County, a hidden camera captured post-auction images of horses being packed tightly into a trailer, a handler whipping them in the face to get them into the trailer and a pony being kicked.State Representative Jim Lynch of Warren, Pa., is pushing a bill to ban the use of double-decker trailers to ship horses.Double-decker trailers are built for cows, not horses, and critics say there's simply not enough room for horses to ride in one without getting injured. And that means their final journey is often a very painful one."Some go all the way down to Texas and they don't stop, they don't water them, they don't feed them," said Julie Kopper, a horse farm owner. "It's a one-way ticket to hell, basically."Renee Nodine, a veterinarian, testfied in favor of Lynch's bill."Horses that aren't able to walk certainly should not be placed in a trailer with 20 other horses and forced to stand for 24 hours," she said.New York banned double-deck trailers years ago and some horse dealers who frequent the Pennsylvania auction have been convicted of violating the New York law.Arlow Kiehl has three convictions in three years. He's also been convicted of animal cruelty in Pennsylvania -- a charge he's appealing.He says he doesn't see a problem. "It (the trailer) was built to haul horses and I can't seem to persuade 'em this is what the trailer was built for," said Kiehl.But critics say a trailer built to carry horses would not allow such little head room."It's impossible to build a trailer with two levels stacked on top of each other and give horses the required height," said Christine Berry, a horse rescue leader."It's time for this to come to an end."
The bill to ban double-deck trailers passed a key committee in the House this week. Its passage is by no means certain -- farming groups have lobbied against it for five years.The effort to ban horse slaughter is a long shot, although California passed such a ban three years ago.The manager of the New Holland auction said that he's just the middleman and he can't control what the buyers or truckers are doing.Team 4 tried to talk to officials at Mountaineer Park, but they declined to comment.Related Links:
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It's the sport of kings -- but after the racing is done, some horses have a fate that can hardly be considered royal.At Mountaineer Park Race Track in West Virginia, Dick Rudibaugh is known as the meat man. Several times a week he picks up horses from the track and takes them to a horse auction in Sugarcreek, Ohio, It's a two-hour drive from Pittsburgh.Some horses are sickly. Some may have worked on the farm, others may have raced at the track or even carried kids at summer camp. But now they all share the same fate -- and that's why the vehicle is called the killer pen.These horses are auctioned off to so-called killer buyers, who ship them to slaughterhouses in Canada and Texas.Horse meat ends up on dinner tables in the Far East and Europe and hoof-and-mouth disease has caused the demand and price of horse meat to soar.But some groups say killing horses for meat is inhumane."If we were to start butchering our dogs and cats here and sending them to other parts of the world, we'd have a revolution here," said Susan Wagner of Equine Advocates."I don't have a good answer for it, but if they like 'em so good we own a big farm and there's a lot of other farms for sale, let them buy one," said Leroy Baker.That's exactly what horse rescue groups are trying to do: Buy horses at slaughter auctions and keep them on farms, like one near Harrisburg.Even some people who are not opposed to slaughtering horses say the way they're handled at auctions is inhumane.At the biggest slaughter auction on the east coast, at New Holland in Lancaster County, a hidden camera captured post-auction images of horses being packed tightly into a trailer, a handler whipping them in the face to get them into the trailer and a pony being kicked.State Representative Jim Lynch of Warren, Pa., is pushing a bill to ban the use of double-decker trailers to ship horses.Double-decker trailers are built for cows, not horses, and critics say there's simply not enough room for horses to ride in one without getting injured. And that means their final journey is often a very painful one."Some go all the way down to Texas and they don't stop, they don't water them, they don't feed them," said Julie Kopper, a horse farm owner. "It's a one-way ticket to hell, basically."Renee Nodine, a veterinarian, testfied in favor of Lynch's bill."Horses that aren't able to walk certainly should not be placed in a trailer with 20 other horses and forced to stand for 24 hours," she said.New York banned double-deck trailers years ago and some horse dealers who frequent the Pennsylvania auction have been convicted of violating the New York law.Arlow Kiehl has three convictions in three years. He's also been convicted of animal cruelty in Pennsylvania -- a charge he's appealing.He says he doesn't see a problem. "It (the trailer) was built to haul horses and I can't seem to persuade 'em this is what the trailer was built for," said Kiehl.But critics say a trailer built to carry horses would not allow such little head room."It's impossible to build a trailer with two levels stacked on top of each other and give horses the required height," said Christine Berry, a horse rescue leader."It's time for this to come to an end."
The bill to ban double-deck trailers passed a key committee in the House this week. Its passage is by no means certain -- farming groups have lobbied against it for five years.The effort to ban horse slaughter is a long shot, although California passed such a ban three years ago.The manager of the New Holland auction said that he's just the middleman and he can't control what the buyers or truckers are doing.Team 4 tried to talk to officials at Mountaineer Park, but they declined to comment.Related Links:
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