WHAT HAPPENS TO “UNWANTED” HORSES IF SLAUGHTER ENDS?
CONTENT WARNING: The videos below include extremely graphic and disturbing footage of horse slaughter.
They are confronting by design.
Meet Our Horse Meat exists to show what the racing industry and its defenders work hard to keep out of sight.
The videos are not meant to shock for shock’s sake — they exist because when cruelty is hidden, it is allowed to continue without consequence.
If we look away, nothing changes.
WHY THIS MATTERS
One of the most common questions we hear in Australia is this:
What happens to all the unwanted horses if slaughter goes away?
The question itself reveals the problem.
Horse slaughter is not a welfare solution.
Horse slaughter is a disposal system — one that allows industries, particularly racing, to overbreed, exploit, and discard horses without taking responsibility for the consequences.
Ending slaughter does not create unwanted horses.
It forces accountability back where it belongs.
In Australia, that means breeders, owners, and industries that profit from horses — especially racing — need to be forced to plan for the entire lifespan of the animals they produce, not just their years of profitability.
Horses do not become disposable because they are injured, slow, or no longer competitive.
Oh wait, they do in the eyes of the racing industry – an industry that uses the term ‘wastage’ for unwanted horses – an industry that teaches new owners to ‘not get attached’ and for the ‘need for new blood’ and ‘fresh legs’.
In other words…
“Wastage” is not an accident.
It is the predictable outcome of overproduction.
RESCUE, SANCTUARY & THE COST OF INDUSTRY FAILURE
Across Australia, equine rescues and sanctuaries exist because racing and other horse breeders and owners do not take responsibility for the horses they no longer have a use for.
These organisations operate with limited resources, stepping in where industries walk away.
At any given time, Meet Our Horse Meat supports approximately 20 horses in sanctuary, the majority rescued directly from the racing pipeline.
These horses require long-term care: feed, farrier care, veterinary treatment, rehabilitation and shelter.
Rescues are not the solution to overbreeding.
They are the safety net catching horses racing leaves behind.
The financial and emotional burden of caring for these horses should never have to fall on charities and advocates.
If racing can afford breeding programs, prize money, wagering infrastructure, and marketing, it can afford meaningful aftercare — or it should breed fewer horses.
HORSES DO NOT EXPERIENCE SLAUGHTER “HUMANELY”
The videos below exist to dismantle the persistent myth that horse slaughter is a form of euthanasia or a “necessary evil.”
It is neither.
Horse slaughter is a commercial meat-processing operation designed for speed and profit, not animal welfare.
Documented failures in stunning mean horses are frequently not rendered unconscious before further processing begins.
Horses are prey and flight animals.
When frightened, their instinct is to flee — not to remain still.
Slaughter environments are filled with precisely the conditions that trigger panic: noise, confinement, unfamiliar smells, slippery floors, and the presence of blood and death.
This makes effective stunning unreliable and suffering unavoidable.
As a result, horses have been documented conscious while being hoisted by a leg, bled, dismembered, and in some cases skinned alive. NOT just in these videos – in Australia too.
No regulation can override a horse’s biology.
No system can make slaughter humane for an animal evolved to escape danger.
If slaughter were truly humane, it would not need to be hidden.
WHY WE SHOW THIS FOOTAGE
Although this footage was captured overseas, it reflects the same inherent problems wherever horses are slaughtered.
Geography does not change physiology. Regulation does not erase fear.
These videos exist to show what words cannot fully convey — and to shut down the lie that slaughter protects horses.
Slaughter does not protect horses.
It protects industries that refuse to take responsibility for the lives they create, use, and discard.
Ending horse slaughter is not radical.
Pretending slaughter is acceptable is radical.
If we bear witness, accountability becomes unavoidable.
IF YOU CARE ABOUT HORSES – SPEAK UP
Help us raise awareness.
Boycott horse racing – including saying #nuptothecup.
Please support our work if you can.
What do YOU think?
Join the conversation on our Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/@NoAussieHorseSlaughter
#MOHM THREATENED?
We’ve been threatened by those in the horse racing industry and those who benefit from horse slaughter more times than we can count.
But we are not going away.
We are going to persist until horse slaughter no longer exists for any purpose within Australia -- and until the horse racing industry makes drastic changes.
We are going to continue our hands-on work to offer lifelong sanctuary to as many horses as possible. We generally have 20 at just one of our locations - at any given time.
We have the acreage to take on more horses as financial support allows.
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