Horse Slaughter Bill Is Back Again

[ponto]

U.S. Rep. Ed Whitfield introduced a bill yesterday to restore the 34-year ban on the commercial sale and slaughter of America's wild, free-roaming horses and burros.

Similar legislation was passed unanimously in May as an amendment to the House Interior Appropriations bill, but stripped from the final bill in a House-Senate conference committee.

A bill to permanently ban the sale and transport of all American horses for slaughter passed the House 263-146 last September, but failed to get a vote in the Senate.

Legislation to ban horse slaughter is expected to be introduced soon in the House and Senate.

This whole thing is going to the dogs.....................

[snowtiger]

Ponto do you have a website where you can sign a petition against this? Usually I get sent those and they send them to the Senate or whoever needs to read it. I haven't been sent this one lately.

[Chuck]

It is past the petition stage. Was a Bill. At this point you would want to contact state senators that did not vote for the bill and ask them WHY.

This is a bill I do not support so I hope you don't contact the senators.

[ponto]

According to the USDA, the two slaughter plants in Texas killed 49,235 horses in 2003 for human consumption and about twenty thousand horses were transported to Canada and Mexico for slaughter.

Together, these numbers represent about 1% of the total number of horses in the U.S., and the entire industry is only .001% the size of the U.S. meat industry.

It is entirely foreign owned, and pays no corporate taxes or export tariffs.

The horse slaughter industry is economically insignificant.

What types of horses are being slaughtered? Aren't these old, sick horses?

According to 2001 field studies conducted by Temple Grandin, 70% of all horses at the slaughter plant were in good, fat, or obese condition; 72% were considered to be "sound" of limb; 84% were of average age; and 96% had no behavioral issues.

Slaughter plants do not want old, sick horses for obvious reasons.

Isn't the transport of horses to slaughter regulated by the federal government?

Yes, and it is currently legal to transport horses in low clearance double-decker cattle trailers; legal to transport horses more than 24 hours without food, water or rest; and legal to transport horses without separating the stallions from the mares and foals.

Approximately 30% of horses are injured from fighting and transportation.

How are horses killed at the slaughter plant?

According to federal law, horses must be rendered unconscious prior to slaughter, usually by captive bolt. However, some are improperly stunned, even with repeated blows, and are still conscious when shackled, hoisted by a rear leg, and cut across the throat.

The USDA specifies that 10% live vivisection is acceptable!

With their long necks and aversion to anything approaching their foreheads, many horses require multiple strikes.

photos: www.animalsvoice.com

video: www.horsekillers.com


Link to copy and paste letter (http://www.justsaywhoa.org/FormLetter.asp)

[ponto]

Residents of Kentucky are represented in Congress by 2 Senators and 6 Representatives.


Senator Mitch McConnell (R- KY) 202-224-2541 202-224-2499 http://mcconnell.senate.gov/contact_form.cfm

Senator Jim Bunning (R- KY) 202-224-4343 202-228-1373 http://bunning.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.Email

Representative Edward Whitfield (R - 01) 202-225-3115 202-225-3547 http://www.house.gov/formwhitfield/IMA/issue.htm

Representative Ron Lewis (R - 02) 202-225-3501 202-226-2019 http://www.house.gov/writerep/

Representative John Yarmuth (D - 03) 202-225-5401 202-225-5776 None Currently Available

Representative Geoff Davis (R - 04) 202-225-3465 202-225-0003 http://geoffdavis.house.gov/Contact.aspx

Representative Harold Rogers (R - 05) 202-225-4601 202-225-0940 http://halrogers.house.gov/Contact.aspx

Representative Ben Chandler (D - 06) 202-225-4706 202-225-2122 http://www.house.gov/writerep/

[lone wolf]

Many years ago, while I was in the military, I remember questionsing my food served to me. Not an uncommon issue, since just about all military food at that time bore questioning. But in this case, we were being served a treat, chicken.

As I stood in the chow line all of us laughing and kidding each other, eager to get a real meal instead of instant, freeze-dried, egg shell grinded, onion flavored milk, beans from a can and the added treat of having some form of meat of unknown origin. To looking at this 4th of July meal treat before me and again wondering what kind of chicken this was on my platter. This old country-boy only knew of chickens with feathers, but since food for the military comes from all sources, including overseas sources, you never knew for sure what you were getting. In this case, you had to wonder what country had chickens with all gray meat and fur. After one bite it no longer mattered, the taste was worse than any can ration I had to date placed in my mouth. So the great 4th of July meal was a bust. The once eager troops for a real meal, tossed the food aside and dug out replacement rations for dinner.

Later we all received word that the officer in charge of securing our food had purchased horse meat from a local food supplier and had tried to pass it off as good old fried chicken. The military was out-raged, as were the troops, to find this out. The officer was brought up on various charges, but before I could find out his fate, I got orders to transfer out.

Being raised on a farm, which included having horses, I couldn't believe that the human race had stooped low enough to kill a noble beast and serve it on a platter. If we lived during the old west time period, snowed in or stranded without food, then you have to survive. But in this day and time, that's not the case. To slaughter horses in the numbers mention in this thread is unreal. To think that they are allowed in the human food chain is another major concern.

The horse, just like dogs, are a part of our heritage. You do not serve up your heritage on a dinner platter and ask for the A-1 sauce. You do not grind up your heritage, mix it with grain and feed it to your livestock. I believe that it has been determined that the mad cow disease has been linked to such a practice. If this practice is allowed, then are we slowly but surely setting the stage where it will some day be allowed to grind-up Uncle Bob, mix in a few grains and additives, then press him into a wafer for dinner?

In 1973, a movie called Soylent Green brought such issues to light. Are we slowly moving in that direction? If so, the movie was based on the time line of 2022, it is now 2007.

[Foxy]

My concern is that the sale of horse meat will become another item on the black market, making horse theft reports rise.

[ponto]

A federal appeals court says slaughtering horses for meat is illegal in Texas, where the animals symbolize the Old West and where two of the nation's three processing plants are located.

The decision, issued Friday by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, overturns a lower court's ruling last year on a 1949 Texas law that banned horse slaughter for the purpose of selling the meat for food.

The lower court said the Texas law was invalid because it had been repealed by another statute and was pre-empted by federal law.
However, a panel of three judges on the 5th Circuit disagreed, saying the law still stood and was still enforceable.

The 5th Circuit decision also cited more than the law.

?The lone cowboy riding his horse on a Texas trail is a cinematic icon. Not once in memory did the cowboy eat his horse,? wrote Judge Fortunato Benavides.