Slaughterhouses – Where Racehorses Go to Retire

Every year, hundreds of thoroughbreds from the US are sold to stables in Japan, where 90 per cent of all horses end up in slaughterhouses. In most Japanese slaughterhouses, horses meet a frightening end. They are killed and cut apart to be used as food for dogs or even humans.

During a PETA US undercover investigation inside Japan's largest horse slaughterhouse in Kumamoto, investigators captured footage of a thoroughbred's last minutes. The horse is sprayed with water before slaughter – frightened and uncertain about what is happening, the horse panics. At one point, just before being killed, the horse slips out of the halter and escapes inside the slaughterhouse, only to be caught and killed just minutes later. 

As many as 20,000 horses were slaughtered in Japan in 2008, partly because of the overbreeding of thoroughbreds in the US, where racehorses are exploited as disposable commodities. Tens of thousands of foals are produced each year for the greedy racing industry, but there is no plan for what to do with them once their racing days are over.

Even horseracing stars can end up in a slaughterhouse. American Kentucky Derby winner Ferdinand was sold to a Japanese breeder, and a few years later, when they were done with him, he was sold for slaughter. During the investigation in Japan, it was also discovered that other racing "winners" Charismatic and War Emblem are at breeding farms in Japan right now. With their useful breeding days winding down, where will they end up?

Please write to the Japan Racing Association and ask them to urge their members to end the export of horses to Japan and implement limitations on the breeding of racehorses.

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