Slaughter is for human consumption.

Rendering is for pet or animal food or fertilizer

Slaughter

• Slaughter horses must arrive alive at slaughterhouse.
• Slaughter Plants for Horses- 3 in the United States and 4 or 5 in Canada.
• Horses are collected through several auctions until a load is filled.
• Horses transported hundreds or thousands of miles over a period of days with no food, water, or rest.
• Injured horses are given no vet care.
• Slaughterhouses pay for horses.
  

Rendering

• Rendering plants handle dead horses.
• Rendering plants by law cannot haul anything alive.
• Several located in each state in the United States.
• Dead horses are transported only a few hours or less to a rendering plant
• Rendering Plants generally do not pay for a carcass.
• Owner is usually charged a fee to have the body removed.

EUTHANASIA PROCEDURES

By law, horses cannot be used for human consumption if drugs are used to kill the horse.The body must be buried, rendered, composted, or cremated.

Don't be fooled.

Recently the American Veterinary Medical Association, AVMA, has defined the method used by slaughterhouses to slaughter large animals as humane euthanasia. In other words, the use of the captive bolt to knock a horse unconcious and then cut the horse's throat is defined by the AVMA as "humane euthanasia".

When was the last time you knew a vet to humanely euthanise an owner's horse by using a captive bolt to knock the horse unconcious and then proceed to bleed the horse out by cutting the horse's throat?

Would you want your vet to "humanely euthanise your horse this way??

There have been previous attempts in the PA Legislature to define slaughter as "humane euthanasia".

We need more vets like late Dr. James Herriot, author of:

• All Creatures Great and Small;
• All Things Bright & Beautiful
• All Things Wise & Wonderful
• The Lord God Made Them All

RENDERING

• The body can have any medications, illness, or disease. The temperature in the vats is so hot, that any potential contaminants are supposed to break down, rendering disease causing organisms and/or chemicals and/or drugs harmless.

• Standards for giving rendered products to animals are much lower than giving rendered products to humans.

• The products which come from the rendered body are as follows:
  
  
  • Bone and blood meal- feed or fertilizer (it is high in nitrogen and calcium).
    
  • Stearic acid - goes to car tires.
    
  • Cartilage, tendons, hooves - produce a gelatine, and is used in products such as Jell-O, camera film, and canned ham gel.
    
  • Feathers and hide (known as "dry matter") - make up a protein mass at the rendering factory. It is turned into pellets to for animal feed.
    

SLAUGHTER PROCEDURES

Horse Slaughter Procedure

• By law horses must arrive alive at slaughterhouses to be used for human consumption.
• Horses must be free of disease, drugs and chemicals.
• Horses proceed through a lineup where they can hear, smell and see horses dying & dead.
• Horses are forced with electric cattle prods into the knock box.
• Horses are stunned with either a stun gun, the captive bolt, or a rifle
  
• This does NOT kill the horse.
• The purpose is to make the horse unconscious.
• The horse is then shackled by a hind leg and hung.
• The horse's throat is cut, and the horse bleeds to death.

Undercover Investigations Tell a Different Story

Recent 7 Month Investigation By the Washington Post & Dateline:

March 2001

Revealed animals in US slaughterhouses, "die piece by piece."

After viewing some of the video, Dr. Temple Grandin agreed that there was,

"live beef on that rail.".

• Undercover investigations have uncovered downed horses' being dragged off trailers.
• Horses searching for water in storm drains.
• Horses urinating & defecating over themselves in the lineup.
• Horses violently shaking all over.
• Horses rearing & trying to jump out of the knock box.
• Slipping & falling on the blood, urine & manure covered floors of the knock box.
• Horses being hit with the captive bolt more than once, because the operator missed.
• Horses being shackled & hung while still conscious.
• The use of electric cattle prods to force the horses into the "knock box".
• Horses with broken legs, eyes gouged out, full term pregnant mares, stolen horses.
• Live full term foals falling onto the killing room floor when their mother's belly is cut open.
• Foals with their hearts still beating, thrown in the trash.

DEFINITIONS

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary

Merriam-Webster Dictionary

Slaughter: Main Entry: 1slaugh·ter

Main Entry: 2slaughter

Main Entry: 1butch·er

Main Entry: 2butcher

Main Entry: 1ren·der

Legal Definition According To The PA Domestic Animal Act

AGRICULTURE (TITLE 3)
SUBCHAPTER A - GENERAL PROVISIONS
CHAPTER 23 - - DOMESTIC ANIMALS
§ 2303. Definitions.

• "Rendering." The cooking or heating of dead domestic animals or parts of such dead animals until all such cooked or heated material is incapable of transmitting dangerous transmissible disease.
• "Slaughter." The killing and processing of domestic animals for food production purposes.
• "Slaughterer." A person regularly engaged in the commercial slaughter of domestic animals.

"Dead domestic animal disposal plant." A facility where the body or parts of the body of a dead domestic animal is received and processed for the purpose of salvaging useful material, including, but not limited to, hides, bones, fat and proteins.

Dealer." A person that buys, receives, sells, exchanges, negotiates or solicits the sale, resale, exchange or transfer of domestic animals or dead domestic animals for the purpose of transfer of ownership or possession to a third party.

"Hauler." A person responsible for the transportation of domestic animals or dead domestic animals into, within or from this Commonwealth, but the term shall not be construed to mean any of the following:

1. A person who transports a domestic animal which he owns or raises under contract on behalf of a third party between farms which that person owns or operates. (2) A person who transports a domestic animal from a farm which he owns or operates to a location where ownership or possession is to be transferred to another.
   
   (3) A person who transports a domestic animal which he has purchased or taken possession of at another location from the point of purchase or possession to a farm which that person owns or operates.
   
   (4) A person who transports a domestic animal which he owns or raises under contract on behalf of a third party to and from places of exhibition.
   
   (5) A person who transports a domestic animal which he owns or raises under contract on behalf of a third party to a slaughter or processing facility.
   
   

"Humane method of slaughter." Either:

1. a method of rendering a domestic animal insensible to pain by mechanical, electrical, chemical or other means that is rapid and effective before being handled for slaughter; or
2. a method of ritual slaughter.

"Packer." A person engaged in the business of slaughtering, manufacturing or preparing meat, meat products or domestic animal products for sale, whether by such person or others.

"Rendering." The cooking or heating of dead domestic animals or parts of such dead animals until all such cooked or heated material is incapable of transmitting dangerous transmissible disease.

"Ritual slaughter." A humane method of slaughter which is in accordance with the ritual requirements of the Jewish faith or any other religious faith whereby the domestic animal suffers a loss of consciousness by anoxia or hypoxia of the brain caused by the simultaneous and instantaneous severance of the carotid arteries with a sharp instrument.

"Slaughter." The killing and processing of domestic animals for food production purposes.

"Slaughterer." A person regularly engaged in the commercial slaughter of domestic animals.

SUBCHAPTER E - DISPOSAL OF DEAD DOMESTIC ANIMALS AND ANIMAL WASTE

§ 2351. General authority.
§ 2352. Disposal of dead domestic animals.
§ 2353. Disposal of animal waste.
§ 2354. Licensure requirement of dead domestic animal disposal businesses.
§ 2355. Licensing procedure.
§ 2356. Conditions of licensure.
§ 2357. Denial, suspension or revocation of license.

§ 2351. General authority.

The department shall have the authority and the duty to cause the sanitary and safe disposal of dead domestic animals, domestic animal products and domestic animal parts, tissues, excrement and other wastes to prevent the spread of transmissible diseases or dangerous transmissible diseases or the spread of contamination by hazardous substances. This subchapter shall not apply to the disposal of carcasses of domestic animals slaughtered for human food nor TO the premises or the rendering operations on the premises of a licensed slaughter establishment subject to official Federal or State inspection, provided that such inspection includes inspection of the rendering operations.

§ 2352. Disposal of dead domestic animals.

(a) Requirements.The following requirements shall be met regarding the disposal of the bodies of dead domestic animals:

(1) Persons owning or possessing domestic animals that they know to have died of dangerous transmissible disease shall report the occurrence of the disease to the department and dispose of the domestic animals under the supervision and instruction of the department.

(2) Persons caring for or owning domestic animals that have died shall prevent exposure of the carcasses of such dead domestic animals to other living animals, domestic animals and the public and shall dispose of the carcass within 48 hours after the domestic animal dies. Disposal shall be accomplished in accordance with the requirements of this chapter.

(3) Dead domestic animals, parts of dead domestic animals, offal and animal waste may not be transported on public highways for any purpose unless such materials are transported in a manner that precludes contamination of the environment or danger to animal or public health.

(4) Dead domestic animals, parts of dead domestic animals, offal and animal waste shall be disposed of only in accordance with one of the following methods or a method hereafter approved by the department:

(i) Burial in accordance with regulations governing water quality.
(ii) Incineration in accordance with regulations governing air quality.
(iii) Processing by rendering, fermenting, composting or other method according to procedures and product safety standards established by the department.

(b) Feeding restricted.No uncooked dead animal or uncooked dead domestic animal parts, including offal of any description, shall be fed to domestic animals unless processed in accordance with regulations adopted by the department.

(c) Importation restricted.No dead domestic animal, offal or parts of dead domestic animals may be transported into this Commonwealth unless transported directly to a diagnostic laboratory or consigned and delivered to a dead domestic animal disposal plant licensed by the department.

§ 2353. Disposal of animal waste.

Animal waste known or suspected to have been exposed to a dangerous transmissible disease or hazardous substance shall be disposed of in accordance with regulations attendant to this chapter.

§ 2354. Licensure requirement of dead domestic animal disposal businesses.

Any person who purchases or receives for disposal a dead domestic animal, domestic animal part or potentially infectious animal waste shall be deemed to be in the business of dead domestic animal disposal and shall be licensed by the department to engage in and conduct such activity.

§ 2355. Licensing procedure.

(a) Applications and fees.Any person intending to operate a dead domestic animal disposal business within this Commonwealth shall, prior to the commencement of business, file an application with the department for the issuance of a dead domestic animal disposal business license. The application shall be made on a form provided by the department. A license fee of $100 shall be submitted to the department for each dead domestic animal disposal plant to be operated by the applicant within this Commonwealth. This license fee may be changed by the department through regulations.

§ 2356. Conditions of licensure.

(a) Inspections.As a precondition to the issuance of a license under this subchapter and as a continuing condition of such licensure, the department shall inspect an applicant's or licensee's dead domestic animal disposal plants, facilities, equipment or vehicles for compliance with this chapter and its attendant regulations.

(b) Disposal methods.All carcasses, domestic animal parts, offal or other animal waste received or generated by a licensee under this subchapter shall be processed in accordance with such time limits, sanitation standards, personnel requirements and biosecurity standards as are necessary to prevent the spread of transmissible disease or dangerous transmissible disease. The department may formalize these limits or standards through regulation.

§ 2357. Denial, suspension or revocation of license.

An application or license under this subchapter may be denied, suspended or revoked if the department determines that any of the conditions of licensure set forth in section 2356 (relating to conditions of licensure) have been violated or if the department determines that a deficiency or violation on the applicant's or licensee's part had not been corrected within the time limit set forth in a written notice of deficiency or violation issued to the applicant or licensee by the department.

SUBCHAPTER F - SLAUGHTER AND PROCESSING OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS

§ 2361. General authority.
§ 2362. Humane methods of slaughtering domestic animals.

§ 2361. General authority.

The department shall have authority to regulate the destruction, slaughter or processing of domestic animals in order to assure the proper treatment of domestic animals and the safety and quality of food of domestic animal origin. The department may:

1. Establish standards for the humane SLAUGHTER of domestic animals.
2. Regulate the slaughter and processing of domestic animals for human or animal consumption and may require the licensure of slaughter and processing establishments.
3. Establish minimum standards regarding the health and quality of domestic animals permitted to be processed for human consumption or animal feed.

§ 2362. Humane methods of slaughtering domestic animals.

(a) Humane methods required.

1. Humane methods shall be used in the handling of domestic animals for slaughter and in the actual bleeding and slaughter of domestic animals.
2. The use of a manually operated hammer, sledge or poleax by slaughterers, packers or stockyard operators during slaughtering operations is not a humane method of slaughter.

(b) Ritual slaughter.Subsection (a) shall not apply to the operator of a commercial establishment with respect to the positioning and ritual slaughter of cows, poultry and sheep until one year after the department finds and notifies the operator that there is available at reasonable cost a ritually acceptable, practicable and humane method of handling or otherwise preparing conscious calves, poultry and sheep for slaughter.

(c) Exception.Subsection (a) shall not apply to a farmer or other person slaughtering domestic animals owned by the farmer or person.

(d) Construction of section.This section shall not be construed to prohibit, abridge or in any way hinder the religious freedom of any person or group.

(e) Review.Determinations made by the department under authority of this section shall be subject to review in the manner provided by 2 Pa.C.S. Ch. 7 Subch. A (relating to judicial review of Commonwealth agency action).

(f) Applicability.Where the slaughtering operations of slaughterers, packers or stockyard operators who would otherwise be subject to the requirements of this section are subject to inspection by the United States Department of Agriculture, applicable Federal law shall control; and the determination of whether slaughter is conducted by humane methods shall be made by the United States Department of Agriculture in accordance with Federal authority on the subject of humane methods of slaughter.

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