MEET OUR HORSE MEAT
LEARN ABOUT THE GREEDY HORSE-KILLING TRADE FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION & HOW YOU CAN HELP HORSES ESCAPE THIS VICIOUS FATE DONATETHOUSANDS OF RACEHORSES ARE SLAUGHTERED IN AUSTRALIA EVERY YEAR
Many if not most Australians don’t know that thousands of racehorses are slaughtered in Australia each year for human consumption.
Some are horses who never make it to the track, others are horses who race, but only a few times, and even horses who have successful careers, winning tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands for their owners, trainers and jockeys, are not immune from ‘Going on the next truck’.
‘Going on the truck’ is an Australian euphemism for being sent to slaughter for human consumption.
These are the horses the racing industry callously refers to as ‘wastage‘.
Overbreeding
The business model of the breeding industry is largely driven by greed, the quick turnover of horses and exorbitant prices paid by buyers for yearlings in the sale-ring who are trying to buy a future champion of the turf who will later be successful in the breeding barn.
Until recently, 18,000 foals were bred every year, and on average, 7,800 did not get to race.
The industry now proclaims that this number has been reduced to 14,000 of which 9,000 get to race and 5,000 do not get to race and are therefore discarded to an uncertain fate.
Unlike most managed animal production systems, there is no systematic, industry-mediated genomic selection or population management for the thoroughbred.
There are several factors that contribute to overbreeding:
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- It is lucrative
- Any backyard breeder can breed a thoroughbred or standardbred, there is no licence required although to be a humble stable-hand you need a licence
- There are no caps on breeding
- There are incentives to breed
- It’s a lucky dip
- Breeding is a high-end form of gambling
- No systematic, industry-mediated genomic selection or population management for the thoroughbred.
- Obsession with breeding for speed has created behavioural, conformation and metabolic problems.
- Angular limb deformities (ALD) in foals with surgeries on big stud farms approaching 100%
- Current breeding practices unlikely to address problems caused by inbreeding
- Damage done to Thoroughbred breed is of existential proportions
Be the next person to make a difference...
"Undercover investigations have revealed at least 37% of horses who vanish each year from the racing industry are killed based on one slaughterhouse alone, without considering the other Australian slaughterhouse and approximately 30 knackeries - a far cry from the industry's claims of 1%."
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ANGULAR LIMB DEFORMITY IN THOROUGHBREDS
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Whistleblowers are invited to contact MOHM regarding violations occurring during horse slaughter or transport to slaughter. Are you an ex-slaughterhouse employee, a transport driver or a feedlot operator with knowledge of animal abuse, or other violations? Are you a track veterinarian who has evidence of horses “run” on phenylbutazone or other drugs, and then being shipped to slaughter? Do you have pictures/video of horses in transit to slaughter?
Anonymity guaranteed!