Last year, 94,000 horses were slaughtered–a number that seems to be increasing for 2006–and another 100,000 were euthanatized. With horse slaughter on the edge of extinction in the United States and the practice of carcass rendering on the endangered list, horse owners will need to look at other environmentally friendly ways of carcass disposal. That solution might be composting.

Researchers at West Texas A&M have recently perfected a technique or “recipe” to compost large carcasses, including horses. They said composting could provide an alternative means for horse-carcass disposal if the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act is passed.

The concept of large-carcass composting had grown to be a more accepted practice among feed yards and dairies in recent years. Researchers contend that composting provides an environmentally friendly way of carcass disposal in addition to burial, rendering, landfill disposal, or incineration, which can sometimes be costly to the owners or unfriendly to the enviornment.

“If they don’t go to slaughter, they will have to go somewhere else,” Lance Baker, PhD, MS, West Texas A&M University associate professor of animal science, told AgNews.

Last year, Baker, along with Brent W. Auvermann, PhD, MS, assistant professor of Agricultural Engineering, and Laurie Brown, a Texas A&M graduate student, conducted trials in an attempt to refine the process