Kill pen bail-outs are deceitful operations that cause great suffering as horses are bought and sold for profit with no concern for their wellbeing. Kill pen buyers acquire horses then market them to the public as crisis cases, claiming they will be sent to slaughter by a specified date if they are not “rescued” through payment of a fee, commonly referred to as bail.
Much like how purchasing a pet-store puppy who was bred in a puppy mill sustains the market for cruelly bred dogs, “saving” a horse from a bail-out scheme is well-intentioned, but it benefits bad actors, perpetuates a cycle of animal cruelty, and fuels a cruel industry—in this case, horse slaughter—that we seek to eliminate. Purchasing horses from equine kill pens through bail-out schemes also makes genuine humane interventions more difficult.
To truly help horses in need, we encourage you to utilize the resources shared by the ASPCA, adopt from our partner organizations, advocate to end slaughter, and support intervention long before horses are in the hands of kill buyers. Read on to learn more.
How It Works
International demand for horse meat drives the export of American equines into Mexico and Canada. Some horses are purchased by kill buyers and trucked immediately over our borders for slaughter. However, the path to slaughter may also involve horses changing hands several times with different brokers or resellers.
The system is rooted in manipulation. Kill pen bail-out operations post horses for sale, typically online, claiming they’ll send their horses to slaughter on a certain date to create a sense of urgency for consumers and potential rescuers to “save” the horses with high “bail” fees. These often-artificial emergencies are designed to prey on the public’s emotions. But despite their claims, kill pen bail-out operations do not always send horses to slaughter if they fail to be “rescued” via a bail-out. They often move them around from bail-out pen to bail-out pen, exposing these horses to diseases, injuries and illnesses and draining the resources of rescuers and horse lovers.
Payment of the inflated bail price provides significant profit for the kill buyer, which further funds their slaughter-brokerage business. As long as there is a profit to be made through deceptive bail-out schemes, more horses will fall victim and be shipped to slaughter.
The Danger of Bail-Outs
The bail-out operations’ high “rescue” prices provide significant income for kill buyers, who then purchase even more horses for slaughter.
“For every one horse bailed by an individual with good intentions to save that horse, a kill buyer may be able to buy several additional horses who are then sent directly to slaughter.”
-Meredith Hou, ASPCA Director of Federal Legislation
Bail out operations also endanger the health of every horse who enters the facility. Kill buyers rarely practice good horse health and disease management procedures at their facilities. Both healthy and unhealthy horses are acquired from auctions and other sources, and buyers often house horses from many different backgrounds together without medical checks or quarantine. It is common for individuals who purchase a bail-out horse to receive a horse who is sick, injured, stressed, capable of spreading disease, and/or in need of veterinary attention and isolation from other horses. Bail-outs not only lead to unnecessary suffering for the affected animals, but also put other horses at risk of disease and discomfort at any location to which these horses travel.
Additionally, horses in kill pens with injuries and lameness often don’t receive vital medical care, causing unnecessary pain and suffering. The high stress of kill pens also places these horses at higher risk for physical and behavioral challenges. In fact, another aspect of this predatory scheme is that kill buyers have little incentive to provide better care, because the horses who are suffering and injured will likely inspire more urgency in the appeals for a compassionate person to bail them out at inflated prices. Again, similar to those who buy puppy mill puppies, individuals or rescues who bail out horses from kill pens frequently must bear significant, unforeseen costs—beyond the bail price—to get the horses healthy.
Additional Information
Kill pens operating bail-out programs may refer to themselves as kill lots, bail-outs, rescue pens, or other related terms. They may be connected to legitimate livestock/equine auctions or may be standalone operations masquerading as livestock auctions. They understand the public’s desire to help horses and sometimes promote themselves as horse rescues to capitalize on that desire. They maximize their profit by misleading the public, so it’s important to carefully assess any new “rescue” group with which you interact.
Kill buyers that participate in bail-outs may or may not be registered as nonprofit organizations, so corporate structure alone is not a reliable indicator. The language used by, however, can be a telltale sign.
- Kill pen operators frequently publicize they will ship a horse to slaughter if he or she is not purchased or adopted by a given date, often using language, imagery and/or emojis that indicate an emergency. A reputable adoption group will never send their horses to slaughter or pressure an adopter to choose a horse who may not be suitable for them.
- They may refer to or encourage fundraising to acquire money for bail prices.
- Additionally, kill pen bail-outs may try to upsell medical services for an additional price—indicating that the horses are not already receiving proper medical care.
- Kill pens do not offer new horse owners support or safety-net services for the horse. This is contrary to how legitimate adoption agencies work.
A reputable rehoming group will prioritize equine care, provide healthcare-related services on intake, and accept horses back into their program should they ever need a safe place to land.
If you’re unsure of how to find a reputable adoption group, we suggest opting to adopt from one of the ASPCA’s Right Horse partner organizations, or organizations accredited by the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries. There are many horses who are looking for their next homes, and each adoption through one of these partners will help secure more opportunities for horses in need.
If you’re interested in equine adoption and have been tempted by a bail-out scheme, please know that we get it! We understand the emotion involved and how very difficult it is to resist trying to help the horses marketed through these bail-out schemes—no horse deserves to be in that harmful situation. We recognize that resources are limited, and the most effective way to help horses is to provide assistance before they land in a kill pen. There are plenty of horses in need who could use a helping hand before they enter the kill pen pipeline including horses who are in legitimate shelters and rehoming facilities around the country. By adopting a horse from one of these organizations, you are not only saving that horse, you’re also making room at the shelter for another horse to be saved. And, when you adopt from a reputable organization you are not contributing to the profitability of kill-buying and horse slaughter.
If you’re looking to help horses in your community, we commend you. We encourage you to avoid supporting these kill pens’ deceitful bail-out schemes, and to educate fellow equine professionals and advocates by sharing this information. Furthermore, we hope you will adopt directly from a reputable organization. When you choose to adopt, you support humane and sustainable efforts and help multiple horses by providing rehoming organizations with space, time, and funding to help additional horses in need. When you buy from a kill buyer, you essentially fund the very practice you seek to eliminate and put additional horses in harm’s way. Those additional horses may be invisible to you, but they do exist, and they need us to shut down these kill pen bail-out schemes.
If you’re an equine adoption group looking to sustainably help horses, we encourage you to find ways to help horses in your community before they ever end up in the hands of a kill buyer, and to direct your hard-earned financial resources to more ethical uses. Check out the resources ASPCApro has developed for equine shelters and rescues.
If you would like to help us advocate to end horse slaughter, join our Horse Action Team! We are actively promoting legislative solutions that will bring an end to the slaughter of American horses, and you can help us achieve that goal.
We must focus our collective resources toward groups that don’t inadvertently fund the slaughter pipeline and instead obtain their horses from pre-pipeline sources. Ideally, equines in need of a new home can go directly from the owner who can no longer keep the horse into the adoption facility that can rehome them. That way, the horse’s history is better documented, medical needs are met, and we can support their physical and emotional health during their transition.
