Some slaughter-house rates of horses.

Nowdays horses are raised and used almost only for sport and recreation and, of course, for meat production. With the possibility of buying fresh horse meat and products based on horse meat, new eating habits have been acquired. The number of horses in the Republic of Croatia has been decreasing continually, which can result in import rather than in export of horse meat, unless a proper and a good breeding plan for horse meat production is made soon. In existing small private slaughter-houses, together with other animals, horses are slaughtered but in a very small number (just to meet the needs of the market). As those horses are of different genetic bases, (mostly cold blooded and cross-bred) as well as of different age, sex and lameness horses are killed coercively as to gain minimal profit. In distinction from other animals where the percentage of carcass yiels is very high, sloughter-house yield of horse carcass is not high due to a small number of killed animals.