Willie Nelson Joins Protest Against Slaughtering Wild Horses

"If you’ve ever been around horses a lot, especially wild horses, you know they are part of the American heritage," Willie Nelson says. "I don’t think it’s right that we kill them and eat them." Nelson’s comments were in support of a news release this week where Nelson urges participation in a September 5 rally planned in Washington, where people will gather to support a bill sponsored by Rep. John Sweeney that aims to end the horse slaughters.

Nelson himself can’t attend the rally, but his daughter Amy will, along with other celebrities including Jennifer Pryor, wife of the late Richard Pryor, and actress Bo Derek, who regularly campaigns on behalf of animal rights. Nelson has owned horses for many years and has several buried on his ranches. "I do have a lot of respect for my horses," Nelson said, which explains his passion about supporting the bill that will ban the slaughters. The U.S. House is scheduled to vote on the bill, HR 503, on September 7.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management sells American horse meat mostly for consumption in Europe and Asia, although some goes to zoos in the United States for feeding wild animals. Congress has tried to address the issue in the past, due to dissention over the practice, but the controversy continues. "Horses are icons in American culture," said Wayne Pacelle, president of the Humane Society of the United States. "They took us into battle, provided us with transportation, and even carried our mail. They shouldn’t be sent to slaughter to be dismembered for overseas consumers."

Congress has debated the issue for years. In this year’s federal budget, lawmakers eliminated money for the salaries and expenses of horsemeat inspectors in the Agriculture Department. To counter that roadblock, three slaughter plants helped the Agriculture Department develop a fee system, which they financed. In response, the Humane Society filed a lawsuit in federal court, saying that Congress had eliminated the money in an effort to ban horse slaughtering, so the practice should be stopped. But a federal judge ruled in March that the slaughters can continue.

Defenders of the practice say that the criticism is misplaced, because slaughtering the horses is more humane that allowing wild horses to die of starvation. According to the Bureau of Land Management, there are more than 32,000 free-roaming wild horses and burros on public lands, which is about 4,000 more animals that those lands can support. "When you talk about a horse dying a natural death on the range, it’s not a pretty picture," said former Rep. Charlie Stenholm, who now acts as a consultant to the slaughterhouses. "Having a coyote or wolf eating a dying horse is not a pretty picture."

Stenholm said that horses are treated better at slaughter plants than other animals, such as chickens and cattle. But Pacelle strongly disputed that claim, arguing that because horses are skittish by nature, they are prone to thrash around when they are frightened. "They see other horses that are being slaughtered and they are terrified," Pacelle said. But according to Stenholm, the slaughter plants "do a pretty darn good job regarding the welfare of the animals that are going to be slaughtered."

Compared with beef, pork, and poultry industries in the United States, the horse meat market is a small business. According to the USDA, there were about 88,000 horses, mules, burros, and other equines slaughtered last year for their meat.