The excitement of the upcoming third jewel of the Triple Crown highlights the shining careers of Thoroughbreds in their prime, but also conjures up the tender subject of what might happen to those runners once their careers have ended.

An astonishing figure of 70,000-100,000 horses are slaughtered each year and sent to foreign markets for human consumption, many without the knowledge of their former owners. On a conference call June 8, Chris Heyde, legislative representative of the National Horse Protection Coalition, revealed that about 17% of those horses are Thoroughbreds.

If passed, the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act (H.R. 503), will ban horse slaughter within the United States and prohibit the export of live horses for the same purpose. First introduced in 2002, the bill has failed to pass through Congress, but has continued to gain support, noted Heyde. This year, it has been picked up by three different Congressmen: John Sweeney (R-NY), John Spratt, Jr. (D-SC), and Ed Whitfield (R-KY).

The three slaughterhouses processing horses in the U.S. are the Texas-based Dallas Crown and Beltex Corporation, and Cavel International, which reopened two years ago in DeKalb, Ill. The horse meat from these facilities is exported to Belgium, Italy, Japan, and France