Victims in the shadows;... And they’re off!
An Animal Rights Article from All-Creatures.org

FROM There's an Elephant in the Room blog
October 2019

Did you know that globally, in a single year (2017), 4,772,355 horses were slaughtered to be eaten?

Tom Regan: ‘The fundamental wrong is the system that allows us to view animals as our resources, here for us – to be eaten, or surgically manipulated, or exploited for sport or money. Once we accept this view of animals – as our resources – the rest is as predictable as it is regrettable.'

Image by Aitor Garmendia of Tras los Muros

Today I’d like to offer some points to ponder, as outrage rocks social media about the slaughtering of Australian racehorses whose lives have been used, broken and discarded by the horse racing industry. [WATCH "The Dark Side of the Horse Racing Industry" as aired on Australian Broadcasting Company, October 17, 2019...]

Like all other institutions grounded in our abuse of our fellow earthlings, horse racing is a supply industry that works from the bottom up. Bear in mind that it’s not just the wealthy and glamorous wanting to be seen and to socialise with the ‘right people’ in their designer gear, who drive this vile industry. Every bet or ‘flutter’ (‘Just a pound each way’), every ‘office sweepstake’ (‘Go on – there’s just a couple of numbers left!’) on the latest race, no matter how harmless they seem, are ways that ordinary people everywhere endorse and approve the bloodbath and ensure that it will continue. There was a time that I was complicit. Be honest with yourself and search your own conscience.

And horse use is a global issue although to listen to the howls of outrage one would be forgiven for thinking only one country is involved. The horrors we inflict on this species are not confined to the ‘entertainment’ industry; they are ‘only’ a contributor to an overall obscenity. Did you know that globally, in a single year (2017), 4,772,355 horses were slaughtered to be eaten?

That’s 13,075 individuals every single day, who are trucked to our slaughterhouses, their broken beauty and neglected grace electric-prodded and manhandled into line to meet terrifying and gory deaths with blades and saws wielded by members of our species whose wages we pay.

The countries contributing to these statistics are listed below* and include every part of the world. Just because a country does not appear on the list, nothing can be assumed. Many countries export horses to facilities in neighbouring countries. As an example the majority of those trucked to one European slaughterhouse in a single year were found to have travelled long distances by road from other European countries.

As with other species, slaughter occurs by the cutting of both carotid (neck) arteries which results in their bleeding to death. In some cases horses are hanged by the neck from chains until they suffocate; just one method of subduing the power of a large creature whose utter terror – even in a wounded and depleted state – makes their desperate fight for life dangerous to their killers and a financial risk to their plant and equipment. It is violent, gory and agonising. Like all our victims, their fear is simply off the scale.

And the reason this atrocity happens? Once again this is the manifestation of the ugly prejudice called speciesism, apparent in our use of these creatures for their dead flesh, as unpaid labourers, as commodities in entertainment industries. And it doesn’t end there, they are used as laboratory test subjects and as imprisoned producers of hormone replacement drugs (using pregnant mares – Google premarin).

In the words of the late Tom Regan:

‘The fundamental wrong is the system that allows us to view animals as our resources, here for us – to be eaten, or surgically manipulated, or exploited for sport or money. Once we accept this view of animals – as our resources – the rest is as predictable as it is regrettable.’

It’s not the legislation that needs to change; we don’t need more of it, or better enforcement. Every single use that we make of others stems from the mistaken idea that their lives are ours to use and ours to take. And we need to stop that. Completely. No exceptions. This is what needs to change – this arrogance, this ignorance, the sheer brutality of thinking we have the right to ‘own’ other individuals and use them for our interests.

I beg you to look at the individuals behind the brutality of our species. All it takes is a moment to decide that no more innocents will be so afraid that their legs can hardly bear their weight; no more innocents will stand defeated in a slaughterhouse queue in sickened horror on our account.

Make that decision today. Say, ‘Not in my name’ and decide to be vegan. It’s simply the right thing do do.

*Albania, Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Canada, Chad, Chile, Colombia, Croatia, Cuba, Czechia, Denmark, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mali, Malta, Mauritania, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Norway, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Moldova, Réunion, Romania, Russian Federation, Senegal, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States of America, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Viet Nam, China

All statistics via FAOSTAT Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

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