As with the past several years, there has been another significant decrease in the number of U.S. horses shipped to Mexico for slaughter. In 2021, approximately 18,000 U.S. horses died in Mexican slaughter plants. This number is a substantial drop from the over 29,700 horses who were killed there in 2020.
As tragic as slaughter is, decreased numbers of horses being killed is a good sign, especially when compared to prior years like 2014 when over 108,500 US horses endured brutal deaths at Mexican slaughter plants.
More positive news is that fewer horses shipping to slaughter have led to a decrease in the number of U.S. horse slaughter shippers and a decrease in Mexico’s active shippers too.
Per Animals’ Angels, the two largest shippers remaining in the U.S. are Dennis Chavez and Rio Grand Classic Livestock. Both sent close to 60 shipments of slaughter horses to Mexico in 2021, and both earned well over a million dollars off the backs of the innocent horses in these shipments.
The records Animal’s Angels obtained for Rio Grand Classic Livestock indicate that many horses in their shipments had injuries and open, infected wounds. The records also noted that stallions had been carelessly mixed in with geldings and mares.
What You Can Do To End Horse Slaughter
Contact your two U.S. Senators and your House Rep to support and co-sponsor the S.A.F.E. Act (Save America’s Forgotten Equines). Contact your elected officials via www.senate.gov and www.house.gov. Or call 202-224-3121 to go thru the Capitol switchboard.
Do NOT participate in online scams run by kill buyers or their associates who claim to be “saving” horses in their pens from slaughter. These horses are NOT destined for slaughter but are part of fake rescue efforts and have made kill buyers hundreds of thousands of dollars. Kill buyers have quotas to meet; they cannot buy up any number of horses they choose and then ship them. But they will outbid each other (and rescues or individuals) at auctions to sell off these excess horses at high prices online with false advertising meant to create emotional knee-jerk reactions by those reading the posts.
Give your hard-earned money to legitimate rescues where horses need ongoing care; don’t fall prey to the “adrenalin rush” offered by online scamming making you believe there are just minutes left until “that” horse will ship.