the beat goes on....
What’s new at the dinner
table: “Pass the horse, please.”
by Peter
Stern
The U.S. Congress just approved
the sale of horsemeat for human consumption, thus opening the doors for the
increased slaughter of horses to sell horse meat here and
abroad.
There are big bucks in the selling
of horse flesh and big money also drove Congress to approve the measure, finally
even after years of anti-slaughter lobbyists and horse protection sentiment
prevented various similar bills during the past decade from being
approved.
I am providing below the article I
wrote against horse slaughter 4 years ago and why it is still a bad idea to
remove protection of our horse population in the name of capitalism and
profiteering
.
By Peter Stern, Driftwood, TexasOriginally Posted 5/21/2007
9:17:15 AM
Well, the battle goes on here in
Texas for most people to protect the honor and status of the horse. State
Senators and House Representatives are trying to sneak in “end around”
legislation that is generated for their special interests to circumvent the
recent Federal ruling that closed the two horse slaughterhouses in North Texas.
Horse slaughtering may be the new terrorism that Americans need to
battle.
Bel-Tex of Fort Worth; Dallas
Crown of Kaufman, Texas, and Cavel International of Dekalb, Ill. are the only
horse slaughterhouses inside the U.S. Because of basic economics and special
interest contributions, most legislators have opted NOT voting to close the
horse slaughterhouses. Let’s face it, horse slaughterhouses are good business.
Horse meat is sent overseas for human consumption to France, Belgium and other
countries, where they are willing to pay top dollar for their horse
flesh.
Slaughterhouse owners and their
legislators tell Americans that they are providing a needed and humane service
of eliminating unwanted, old and sickly horses. The truth is far from that
point. There is little distinction made of these categories and of healthy
horses. Furthermore, the slaughtering of horse is NOT a humane process as may be
seen below. We’ve lost our horse-sense when we let this creature die such
horrific deaths.
Sen. Glenn Hegar, R-Katy, inserted
an amendment into a bill on the duties and regulations of the Texas Animal
Health Commission. It said animals tested by the commission would be exempt from
the part of the state agriculture code banning the sale of horse meat for human
consumption. Passed around under a veiled amendment to another bill, apparently
neither Hegar or other legislators seem to care to make this amendment more
public for fear of public outcry.
The provision that Hegar added to
Senate Bill 911 before colleagues actually approved that it would allow the sale
of horse meat for human consumption, if the animals are tested by the
commission. There was no debate before passage of the bill, which was carried by
Sen. Craig Estes, R-Wichita Falls. Only Democratic Sens. Leticia Van de Putte of
San Antonio and Kirk Watson of Austin registered votes against Hegar’s
amendment.
THE TERRORS OF HORSE
SLAUGHTER
Before shipping American horses to
slaughterhouses in Texas, Illinois and as far away as Canada, the horses are
placed into over-crowded holding pens often standing in disease-infested muck.
Often sick, the horses are crammed into double-decked cattle trucks. Without
sufficient room to hold their heads upright, they travel for 36 hours through
summer heat or brutal winter cold without stopping for rest, food or
water.
At the slaughterhouse, the horse
is electrically prodded into the “kill box” to be repeatedly bludgeoned in the
skull by a dead-bolt gun with a four-inch nail. Alive, and often conscious, the
horse is then shackled by a rear leg, hoisted into the air, its throat slit and
body dismembered.
No horse is spared this ordeal.
These hungry, dehydrated, fatigued and terrified horses include not only the
old, sick, blind and crippled, but the young and healthy, our children’s pets,
mares with helpless foals standing at their side, and our wild
mustangs.
A positive example: During 1998
California’s Save the Horses Prohibition of Horse Slaughter and Sale of Horse
meat Initiative, Proposition 6 makes it illegal for anyone to “possess, buy,
sell or export from California any horse where that person knows – or should
have known – that any part will be used for human
consumption.”
The actual photos of horses being
slaughtered are not for everyone’s eyes. To see some of the telling photos and
get a real perspective that slaughtering these noble creatures is NOT in their
best interests as the pro-slaughtering lobby tells us, go
to:
Again, this is nothing more than
abuse and it is being inflicted upon an animal that has never historically been
considered a food animal in the U.S., but rather a working partner and friend to
man. An animal used primarily for pleasure, work, recreation and
sport.
The lies of the horse slaughterers
can’t stand up to the graphic footage of the
realities.
Help expose horse slaughter and
help expose the people like Rep. Hegar who secretly support it for profiteers!
This is NOT a humane treatment of horses as is
claimed.
Horse slaughterhouses are vile and
contemptible options for destroying the horse population by inhumane methods.
The pro-lobby for horse slaughterhouses has bought the support of many
legislators. Only the voice of the American people can put an end to the torture
and murder of these noble creatures.
Texans must contact their Senators
and House Representatives to ensure that this anti-horse legislation never gets
approved and that the state honor and enforces the ruling handed-down by the
federal court.
Say “Nay” loudly and clearly to
elected officials. Horse slaughterhouses must go the way of the dinosaurs and so
should killing horses in the U.S. for human consumption abroad. It is
interesting that two of the three horse slaughterhouses are based here in Texas,
where historically cowboys only ride and work their horse partners — NOT eat
them.
