Disclaimer: Stolen Horse International does not and will not take a position on the horse slaughter pros & cons debate. That is not why we are here. Whatever our individual opinions may be, our purpose is to recover individual horses and return them to their owners. 

One of the very first questions we ask anyone requesting our services is-where are the auction houses in your immediate area? Have you been out there yet? 

Why is that you ask? Because in our experience, most horse thieves do not want to keep a stolen horse for any length of time. Not only is the horse "hot", but they have to feed, water, and hide it-and it is just awkward to hide a horse. In their eyes, the faster they can sell it, the better. 

Remember-just because Kandy Kane is worth $1500 to you that doesn't mean she is worth that at an auction barn to a kill buyer. Horses to a kill buyer are only worth so much a pound-and Kandy Kane is probably only worth $50 to him. Makes you angry? Sorry. This is the auction barn and kill buyer rates. 

Those are the horses that make it to the auction pens. There are others that don't. 

In south Florida and around Tampa especially, there is a booming market for horse meat. Illegal slaughter goes on in the back areas or sometimes even by the side of the road. Sometimes it is racehorses that just don't make the cut at the track, but it can also be backyard pets. 

These guys will set up roadside stands and sell to anybody. You can get any kind of meat you want-beef, pig, horse, lamb, chicken, snake-they'll get it for you for the right money. The problem is the fact that you don't know if the meat is clean or has been refrigerated. In the case of most of the animals, they have been stolen before slaughter. 

It doesn't even touch the safety of the meat itself. Horse meat, for example, is frequently contaminated with the residues of wormers and antibiotics that owners have given to the animals. None of these should be present in meat eaten by humans. 

There are many, many issues involved with horse slaughter. These are just a few. SHI endeavors to intercept the fate of horses who may be caught in this web and stop it before it is too late. We need your help and support to do so. Thank you.