Signatures Needed To Stop Horses From Being Slaughtered For Pet Food In Australia

When Queensland, Australia native Regina Pandurovic realized her health was declining she knew she could no longer be the best pet mother for her 19-year-old mare named Darling. So she made the difficult decision to give her up. She posted a photo of her beloved horse on Facebook to try to find him a good home.

That’s when a mysterious woman named Sarah Reynell got in contact with her. Sarah told her she thought Darling would make a great companion mare for her young horses. After talking, Regina was convinced and one day Sarah took Darling away. Although it was sad, she knew Darling would be going to a loving forever home. At least that’s what she thought.

One night, while scrolling through Facebook she came upon a post by a local dogger. As explained by the Sydney Morning Herald, a dogger is a colloquial term for a person who sells horses on to a knackery. The horses are then slaughtered and processed, often for pet food. There, in one of the photos was a picture of Darling.

Regina rushed to save her horse before it was too late. She paid $550 dollars and picked up a battered and bruised Darling to take her home.

They were lucky. Regina’s horse escaped death, she would have been butchered and rendered and turned into pet food. Unfortunately, up to 30,000 Australian horses a year aren’t so fortunate. They are sent to one of the thirty-three knackeries that process  horse meat. Much of the meat is sold fresh as pet food. Feeding one abused animal to another provokes quite disturbing images.

One way to halt the massacre is to pass legislation that bans this practice, that’s why banning the sale of horses as pet food could be so monumental in helping to protect Australia’s horses.

Horses are companion animals. It is horrifically cruel to slaughter these beautiful animals for pet food and it needs to stop!

Please sign this Care2 Petition telling the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources to ban the sale of horse meat as pet food! SIGN HERE!