The Path to Slaughter at a Horse Auction


The Rail - The Race for the Triple Crown
May 20, 2009, 6:10 pm
The Path to Slaughter at a Horse Auction
By Alex Brown

I was coming off the racetrack this morning at Woodbine, and Nancy, assistant trainer for Roger Attfield, hollered at me, “Alex, if you need space to stash a horse for a few months, I have a spot for you.” It was a gesture triggered no doubt by the knowledge that I attend a “livestock” horse auction once a week about an hour west of Woodbine. Tuesday was that day.

I attend auctions primarily to study the behavior of the kill buyer, whose main client is a slaughterhouse, and to provide more transparency to this aspect of the horse industry. Occasionally I buy a horse.

While there is currently no horse slaughter in the United States, auctions like this exist all over North America. They are part of the clearinghouse for animals that eventually wind up in on dinner tables around the world. But, as I have come to learn, not just any horse will do for slaughter. Kill buyers prefer healthy horses of medium size. Consequently kill buyers often end up bidding against those looking for a horse for their daughter or their farm. As for the horses that receive no bids, they are sometimes picked up by rescue farms, or are euthanized.

With about 60 horses for sale, Tuesday’s auction was similar in size to those I have attended on recent Tuesdays. In recent weeks two to three kill buyers have attended. This week, only the main kill buyer attended. Because of that he was able to buy horses almost at will. He bought about 40 of the horses (most were standardbreds, owing to the many trotting tracks in Ontario), paying from as low as 15 cents a pound to as high as 49 cents a pound. He bought three of the five thoroughbreds sale.

The odd thing about his most expensive horse is that it is not the type of horse he typically buys for kill, at that price. I have come to learn the types of horses and conditions of horses that are ideal for kill. This was a big black percheron. At 25 cents it would have made sense. The best conclusion I could draw is that this horse was bought for someone else. He did pay 43 cents a pound for another horse, a gorgeous and healthy-looking one. That price made sense and is what I would consider his top price for a meat horse yesterday. In recent weeks the top price paid had been about three or four cents higher. On Tuesday we had the same number of horses, fewer bidders, and therefore lower prices all around. The median price was down about five cents a pound.

What becomes clear at these auctions is that kill buyers pay a premium for healthy-looking horses. On Tuesday the kill buyer paid as low as 15 cents a pound for a couple of underweight horses. And there were other horses, which were worse off, that the kill buyer simply did not bid on. The point is that kill buyers are not simply buying up horses that have no other demand. They are bidding on healthy horses, paying more for those horses as they outbid private buyers and other dealers. A healthy horse bound for slaughter will provide a better-quality meat, and more of it, to the meatpacking company I assume.

Last year I bought a horse, for $300 from a kill buyer. He was perhaps the slowest racehorse in Ontario. Beaten about 50 lengths in his final start. A week later I let Magic Flute go to slaughter. Magic Flute was a winner three times in six starts in Canada. He was second in the other three starts.