Introduction:
The Horse Transportation Safety
Act of 2008 (H.R. 6278), a strong bipartisan bill sponsored by
Representative Mark Steven Kirk (R-IL) and Representative
Stephen Cohen (D-TN),
amends title 49, United States Code, to prohibit the
transportation of horses in interstate transportation in a motor
vehicle containing 2 or more levels stacked on top of one
another.
Background:
On October 2007, a double-deck tractor trailer
carrying 59 Belgian draft horses through Wadsworth, IL “blew through a stop
light at Route 41 and Wadsworth Road and struck another vehicle” according to
local police on the scene of the accident. The crash, so severe, resulted in
more than 5 hours of suffering before authorities could free the horses from the
mangled truck. Sadly, nine horses died on the scene with another six dying
later because of injuries sustained during the tragedy.
Accidents such as this are not uncommon. Only
one year earlier, a double-deck truck hauling 41 horses to
slaughter at the Cavel International slaughterhouse in DeKalb,
IL crashed (pictured). This tragic incident resulted in the
death of 16 horses. Similar scenarios have occurred elsewhere
in the United States.
Not only is it unsafe to haul horses in
double-deck trailers, but it is inhumane, a point on which
humane organizations, veterinary associations and even the U.S.
Department of Agriculture (USDA) agree. According to the USDA:
Double-deck trailers do not provide adequate
headroom for equines, with the possible exception of foals and yearlings. We do
not believe that trailers that have two or more permanent levels that are not
collapsible can be adequately altered to accommodate adult equines, especially
tall equines. A tall equine can be 8 feet tall to the top of its head when
standing on all four legs and close to 12 feet tall when rearing.
We acknowledge that double-deck trailers can
carry more equines and other livestock than single-deck trailers.... We do not
believe that equines can be safely and humanely transported on a conveyance that
has an animal cargo space divided into two or more stacked levels. (9 CFR Parts
70 and 88).
While horses are not currently being slaughtered in
United States, the middlemen known as “killer buyers” working for Cavel
and Beltex continue to
buy horses from across the US. The horses are shipped to Mexico and Canada for
slaughter. The preferred method of transporting horses to slaughter
remains the double-deck truck, a two-tiered trailer designed for other livestock
such as cattle and hogs. Use of the conveyances to transport horses is cruel
and dangerous.Facts:
- Double-deck trailers are designed
for livestock such as cattle and hogs, not horses.
- The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) has “reviewed
limited data within the scientific literature that suggest increased rates of
injury associated with the use of double-decked conveyances for transporting
horses.”
- Again, according to the AVMA “sources, such as the National
Agriculture Safety Database and various manufacturers producing trailers
specifically for horse transport recommend heights of 7 to 8 ft as being
necessary for the safe and comfortable transport of horses (i.e., adequate
headroom for the horses to stand comfortably with their heads in normal
position); it appears difficult, if not impossible, to meet such recommendations
via the use of currently configured double-deck trailers, particularly for
taller horses.”
- The US Department of Agriculture opposes the transport of horses
on double-deck trailers and is currently in the process of prohibiting their
use completely under the agency’s regulations governing the transport of equines
to slaughter.
- Killer-buyers continue to use these trucks while passing throughout
the U.S. on their way to slaughterhouses in Canada and Mexico.
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