A Midwest Journal

Horses abandoned or sold for a pittance in weak economy - Congratulations, HSUS: " Hauck and many other ranchers blame the deflated horse market and the surge in abandoned horses, in large part, on California's ban on horse slaughter. The 1998 law made it illegal to buy, sell or export a horse to be slaughtered for human consumption. Along with bans in California and other states, Congress also imposed a de facto prohibition starting in 2007, when it stripped funds for federal inspections of the facilities that are required for slaughterhouses to operate. As a result, U.S. horse exports to slaughterhouses in Mexico increased by 600% and to those in Canada jumped 148%, according to a report by the Government Accountability Office. In 2010, nearly 138,000 U.S. horses were slaughtered in those countries, roughly the same number that were slaughtered in the U.S. before the bans. Closing domestic slaughterhouses also "negatively affected lower- to medium-priced horses by 8 to 21 percent," exceeding the 4% drop in horse prices caused by the economic downturn, the report found. Those unintended consequences are one reason Congress and the Obama administration quietly lifted the horse ban in November. " http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-abandoned-horses-20111211,0,3791949.story