Welfare of horses during killing for purposes other than slaughter

Abstract

Horses of different ages may have to be killed on-farm for purposes other thanslaughter (where slaughter is defined as killing for human consumption) either in-dividually (i.e. on-farm killing of unproductive, injured or terminally ill animals) oron a large-scale (i.e. depopulation for disease control purposes and other situa-tions, such as environmental contamination, disaster management, etc.). The pur-pose of this opinion is to assess the hazards and welfare consequences associatedwith the on-farm killing of horses. The killing procedure is divided into Phase 1(pre-killing), which includes the processes (i) handling and moving the animals tothe killing place and (ii) restraint of the animals before application of the killingmethod; and Phase 2 (stunning and/or killing), which includes stunning and kill-ing of the animals (for methods that require one step for stunning and another forsubsequent killing) or killing only (for methods that simultaneously stun and killthe animals). Three stunning and/or killing methods for Phase 2 for horses wereidentified: (i) penetrative captive bolt followed by killing, (ii) firearms with free pro-jectiles and (iii) lethal injection. Welfare consequences that horses may experienceduring each process (e.g. handling stress, restriction of movement and injuries dur-ing restraint) were identified and potential hazards are listed for all phases, alongwith preventive and corrective measures. Animal-based measures (ABMs) to assessall identified welfare consequences were proposed. During the application of thestunning and/or killing methods, horses will experience pain and fear if they areineffectively stunned/killed or if they recover consciousness. A flowchart includ-ing ABMs for the assessment of consciousness and death to monitor stunning andkilling effectiveness is provided. Additionally, specific practices deemed unaccep-table on welfare grounds are listed