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Horses Shipped to Grisly Demise

Banning slaughter in US has unintended consequences across borders
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 11, 2008 5:58 PM CST

A US ban on horse slaughter has had some gruesome unintended consequences, the New York Times reports. American horses are still sold for their meat, but they’re now shipped to Mexico or Canada, facing first a grueling transport, and then often a nastier death than they’d receive in better-regulated US slaughterhouses. “My worst nightmare has happened,” one veterinarian said.

Mexico is an especially unlucky destination—horses are unceremoniously hacked to death with a knife there. Advocates of the US ban are pushing a law that would forbid exporting horses for slaughter. But some argue that, too, would have unintended consequences, with owners abandoning unwanted horses, rather than paying the $140 or so required to euthanize and dispose of them. (More horse stories.)

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