By Eric Miller, Staff Reporter This story appears in the Aug. 12 print edition of Transport Topics.
Legislation introduced in the U.S. Senate last week would make illegal the interstate transportation of horses in double-decker trailers.
That way of transport was deemed “inhumane and unsafe” by the bill’s sponsors, Sens. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), and Mark Kirk (R-Ill.).
The Horse Transportation Safety Act of 2013 is similar to failed legislation in 2010 and 2011. The bill would create civil penalties of up to $500 for each horse that is transported in the trailers.
“Double-decker trailers are designed for cattle and hogs, not horses,” Menendez said in a statement. “This legislation would put a much-needed end to the inhumane and unsafe practice of transporting horses in trailers with two or more levels stacked on top of each other, regardless of the purpose.”
Kirk sponsored the earlier bills after a 2007 accident in Illinois killed 18 horses.
“It is not only a cruel way to transport horses, but it also puts motorists’ lives at risk,” Kirk said in a statement.
Jon Samson, executive director of American Trucking Associations’ Agricultural and Food Transporters Conference, said the federation opposes the bill and has not supported the prior versions.
“While it doesn’t affect a lot of people, you get on that slippery slope of when they start going after horses, then the next thing you’re going to see them go after is similar-sized cattle, and then after that it’s going to be all animals — hogs and sheep,” Samson said.
He said that horses are an investment and livelihood for many ranchers. “The last thing you’re going to do is mistreat them,” he added.
Menendez and Kirk said a uniform federal law is needed to eliminate confusion from myriad state laws on horse transport.
For example, the U.S. Department of Agriculture since 2007 has prohibited the transport of horses to slaughter in double-deck trailers.
Before 2007, the majority of U.S. horses bound for slaughter were sent to three American facilities, where they were slaughtered in accordance with U.S. humane handling regulations, according to USDA.
When those slaughterhouses were shut down by state laws banning horse slaughter for human consumption, horse dealers began shipping slaughter horses to Canadian and Mexican facilities, which were not subject to the U.S. Humane Slaughter Act.
In order to reach these foreign slaughterhouses, horses must be taken a greater distance, which increases the risk for accidents and inhumane treatment during transport, according to USDA.
Jim Korkow, owner of Korkow Rodeos in Pierre, S.D., said that the modern trailers used to transport horses to rodeos nationwide protect the horses from injury and ensure they are ready to perform at peak standards.
Korkow Rodeos owns and transports some 300 horses to rodeos. Each of its four double-decker trailers can transport as many as 33 horses to a rodeo, he said.
He said banning their use would financially harm the family business his father started in 1947.
“These horses are athletes,” Korkow said. “They’re my bread and butter. Consequently, I’m going to take good care of them.”
Eight states have banned the use of double-decker trailers for horse transport. They are Arizona, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont.
