HORSE TRADE
By GEORGE GODWIN
ACENTURY ago the horse was a valuable animal. It is a valuable animal still. But with a distinction. In 1848 a horse was valuable alive ; in 1948 it is most valuable dead. In 1848- a lean year—the horse was the engine of the food-producing farm. The tractor has changed all that. Farmers, being highly mechanised,
today can dispense with their horses, and so, on the land as on the road, the horse is a back number. Even so, there is a very large demand for horses today, for hunters, yearlings, ponies, colts, shire harvesters, for mares in foal. This demand is to supply the great black market in horse flesh that has sprung up since the end of the war and, in particular, during the last eighteen months.
It is not possible to give the total number of horses that are being put down week by week in the slaughter-houses throughout the country, because it is not incumbent upon any authority to make such return. But all estimates made reach the same conclusion, namely, that if the present rate of destruction is allowed to go on, the survival of the species in the British Isles will be in jeopardy.
Mr. H. Sutcliffe, speaking in the House of Commons on October 281h, said that since January 1st, 1945, 162,654 horses, many good animals, some mares in foal, some just-born foals, have been put down to supply this great market. The National Union of Farmers last August expressed alarm at the seasonal shortage of farm horses, and called for a special investigation and report upon the present drain to the slaughter-yards. Up and down the country farmers 'and breeders have expressed the same fears, and condemned in round terms the great traffic in useful and young horses, many with years of working life in them. No other commodity offers to the black-market operator so few obstacles. It is perfectly legal to buy for putting down horses of all descriptions, not excluding mares in foal, so long as the provisions of the Export of Horses Act, 1937, and the Knackers Act of 1786 are complied with. Thus there is no legal impediment to unlimited slaughter of the nation's horse stocks, and the present tendency is towards the intensification of the process as profits soar.
The sale of horse-flesh for human consumption is subject to price control and to inspection as to fitness for consumption. The whole- sale price of horse flesh legitimately dealt in is Sid. ; the retail price is one shilling. On the black market the price soars to three-and- sixpence a pound ; and the flesh of foals, treated to pass as veal, to even more. The buyer for this market operates mainly in two 'ways. He buys direct from the farmer (often arriving with car and horse-box trailer) or he buys at auction. The farmer is seduced by the artificially high price offered him. He regards the deal as good if the proceeds secure for him a tractor ; while the auction- buyer for use is knocked out of the bidding by the same method.
Horses whose value for use would be in the neighbourhood of £25 to £30 change hands at k6o for putting down ; and even at that high price the buyer makes a profit. The value of a horse is said to be around Ltoo, that is for the flesh, hair and hooves.
• Animals thus bought at places scattered throughout the country are transported by road and rail to central points for slaughter.
The road journeys are often unduly long—for example, from Don- caster to London—and those by rail also, since, owing to shortage of rolling-stock anti other factors, horses are shunted into sidings without proper provision for water and feed. This is not to suggest that British Railways are callous. There is no evidence of that. But it is clear that tile enormous increase in this type of traffic is difficult to handle without delays. There have been cases, too, such as that at Temple Mills Station, Leyton, where much suffering has been caused by overcrowding in the yards under conditions suffi- ciently bad to bring the local police into the picture.
In Rochdale, a large centre receiving mainly horses from Ireland, they are commonly led in droves through the town to the abattoir, and this practice is causing considerable local feeling. Elsewhere, too, incidents have been reported that suggest a growing public feeling against the holocaust of horses clearly in good condition and of economic value. Last year 2,975 horses were put down in this town, where, before the war, there was but one horse-flesh shop whereas today there are three. In passing, it is worth noting that a horse-flesh shop in a good locality makes profits up to k600 a week. A distinction, however, must be kept in mind between the legitimate trade in horse flesh for human consumption and the black-market traffic. According to Mr. Ernest Upton, former chair- man of the Licensed Horse Slaughterers' Association, this illegal traffic has sprung up because of the limited supply of rationed meats, and is operated by men not previously connected with the reputable trade.
This association has been very active in combating the black market, and has put before the Ministry of Food suggestions for stamping it out—suggestions not as yet acted on. These proposals include the following safeguards and provisions: (a) Slaughtering of horses for human consumption only in those establishments licensed before the recent war. Licences issued since 1939 to be withdrawn ; (b) price-control of horses per live cwt.; (c) veterinary supervision of slaughtering, especially for horse-meat for human consumption. All these are proposals from men who know this trade from the inside and know, also, something of the deplorable state of affairs which has developed with the mushroom growth of the black market. Before the war there were, throughout the country, 179 licensed establishments ; today there are over four hundred.
Veterinary supervision is highly desirable for two purposes—to prevent the destruction of sound horses, mares in foal and new or recently-born foals and to stop the slaughter of diseased animals and the sale of diseased flesh for human consumption_ There is evidence that today the black market, which consists mainly of certain hotels, restaurants, cafés and sausage-manufacturers, is hand- ling horse-flesh quite unfit for human consumption.
There is good reason to suspect that the whole illegal traffic in horses is today in the hands of a small group of operators. They are highly organised and adroitly covered. These men have come into this trade since the war, and are in no way connected with its legitimate aspects. They are making large profits by putting down horses without any sort of discrimination. In one recent case— and there are doubtless many others—a hunter, ridden by a veterinary surgeon at a local show, was later sold and put down for this illegal market. It is hard to believe that beautiful horses, fine brood mares and promising foals are bid for for the slaughter-house. Yet so it is. Mr. Sutcliffe has put forward a suggestion to remedy this state of affairs. He advocates the veterinary inspection of all horses before slaughter and certification by a qualified veterinary surgeon that they are unfit for further agricultural or economic uses. Such inspection might halt the present drain upon our stocks ; but only a full official investigation by the Government by way of public inquiry can lay bare the extent and the ramifications of this illegal trade.
Because we are machine-minded today the fate of the horse is of small account. Because many crave meat the official eye is closed. For centuries the horse was an integral part of our national economy. It is so no longer. Even so, it may become of vital importance again. But you cannot have your horse and eat him.
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