Alert! Horse Lovers and Taxpayers: Horse Slaughter is BIG in the news
Posted: Wednesday, November 16, 2011
by The Old Gray Mare
www.DressYourHorse.com
A Conference Committee of lawmakers is meeting to work out the versions of Agriculture Spending Bill for fiscal 2012. Thus far, differing versions have been passed in the House and the Senate – with grave ramifications for our horses.
Again, our horses are under siege. The powers-to-be are once more attempting passage of horse slaughter cloaked as “benefits” to the industry. Nonsense!
Per a spokesman, “One key issue to be decided is whether Congress will potentially add millions of tax dollars in new spending to allow foreign-owned horse slaughter plants to re-open on American soil.” Is everyone getting this picture? We are going to reopen the slaughter industry to bump off horses so that we can shrinkwrap the meat and send it to other countries for their dining experience. Good grief!
Each year since the slaughter houses closed, the appropriations bill includes a provision to allow inspectors into horse slaughter plants to approve horse meat for human consumption, and each year this slip onto the bill has not made it. Consequently horse slaughter has been prevented from recurring in the USA. Even Texas and Illinois were finally shut down. Thanks to Rep. Jim Moran of Virginia who successfully retained the language that kept the plants shut down due to lack of funding for inspectors. The bill passed in the House but the Senate did not pass it. So horses face this slaughter jeopardy again.
I spoke about the cost to taxpayers! Perhaps 5 and many more million dollars annually is a drop in the bucket in face of the trillions we are saddled with already. But really now. Do our taxpayers want to subsidize government inspections of horse meat? Do our taxpayers want to have foreign companies own horse slaughter plans on our soil? Do we all consider horses an American iconic animal – what is that worth to us? Do we really want to kill our horses to ship their meat overseas?
Lobbyists are at their very best during hot issues. They are “scurrying” everywhere on Capitol Hill seeking this expenditure and justifying it “because it is helping horses by killing them.” Please never offer me help. Good grief!
Does anyone reading my article believe that horses are treated humanely when slated for the killers? And, for that matter, do we believe other animals are treated well? Horses work closely and in partnership with humans, obey and perform, are docile and subservient in countless different ways than other slaughter animals. They certainly endure a lot just being horses but to have their fate end up on the dinner plate after cruel and oft-documented inhumane treatment at the abattoir???
“We've got a policy vehicle, the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act (S. 1176/H.R. 2966), to put a stop to this mistreatment of animals. Americans don't eat horses, and they don't want them inhumanely killed, shrink-wrapped, and sent to Japan or Belgium for a high-priced appetizer. It's time to stop the export of American horses for slaughter -- not add money to the cash-strapped federal budget to open more slaughter plants,” says the Humane Society of the US spokesman.
We simply must take action. Contact your US Senator or Representative and tell them you support the House position on the defunding of horse slaughter plants. In addition, tell them that taxpayers do not wish to pay millions of dollars to subsidize horse slaughter.
Picture: "A rifle to his head, this lively and healthy pony was sold to slaughter because his young rider outgrew him." Killers have more money than another kid or parents have so he ended up slaughtered.
And I plan on discussing pro horse slaughter legislative activist, Sue Wallis, in my next article. You won’t believe her reaction nor that of her cronies. I’ll give you a tidbit. Are people that are pro horse slaughter heroes? Have we gone mad?
The Old Gray Mare writes for www.DressYourHorse.com and her Blog sites.
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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)Hi Heidi.
First off, let me just say that I am totally against the slaughter of horses and I am against eating them as well. But ... just as for dogs and cats, horse owners need to be careful about letting their horses procreate. While that particular problem is not as great as with cats and dogs, it is still a consideration. Also, the production and use of Premarin should cease. It promotes the creation of many new horses that have no purpose (HAD no purpose other than to keep the mare pregnant so they can harvest her urine for the estrogen substitute) ... then the problem is what to do with them. The whole things is really messed up.
Now and then I have a problem with eating any animal, but there are some that I would never ever consider eating: rabbits, dogs, cats, guinea pigs, pigs in general, to name a few and horses top my list. Argh!
Hugs to you and your horses,
DianneHi Dianne,
I've picked up on this subject again because there are people that just can't seem to leave it alone. It has been out for over 5 years now at least in our country. The very idea of it. Horses have been killed but this specialty in killing horses and the rush and hurry to mass kill has problems in itself such as animals not being stunned properly or worse. I wholeheartedly agree with your comments. For me to see a possibility of horse meat being in the grocery store is over the top. I thought they had come up with synthetic premarin? Horse owners are also at fault. The beautiful pony ketting killed in the article was no longer wanted so he was sent to the sale. People are not buying horses like before at the auctions and the killers have more money for buying so, the pony was bought by the killers. If the horses were not discarded, they would not so readily be available. People need to know about all the stuff people give their horses, too. I would not want to eat meat with wormer in it. And so on.
Thanks for reading. It's controversial but it needs to be told. .You know, I don't know for certain that they are still making Premarin the "old fashioned" way. But they were still doing that up to about five years ago when A friend rescued a stud from a Premarin farm.
And what you said about wormers and such is really true for all meats except for wild caught fish or animals you kill in the wild. I have a number of acquaintances that go hunting regularly and eat no commercially raised meat. I'm not quite that extreme. But I do buy organic eggs produced by cage-free chickens. And other than that, I eat very little meat.
So, anyway, you can never talk about horse slaughter too much as far as I am concerned. The more it's put out there, the more people will become aware and maybe something will be done about it.Thank you so much. Think I'll do a story about hunting that occurred just yesterday on my own road. I got really incensed. Need to do it before I mellow out again.
The slaughter thing is outrageous - not because the horses are getting slaughtered - that's been happening all along it's just now there's been so much more of it and it's being sent foreign for human consumption. What outrages me is that it has been fought. The inspectors were pulled from the human-intended plants. No one was inspecting the meat and, therefore, the places across the country were shut down. Now this Wyoming "supposed horse welfare supporter rep" (not mentioning her name because I don't want to give her any publicity of any kind even bad) and a few of her chronies have brought the whole thing back. They just won't leave it alone. I tell you I wish I had people that were hot for one of my issues like that! I get too stressed out now to fight these kind of battles. Sticking a horse in the brain with a spike is not my idea of "welfare for a horse". Stunning them isn't either because half the time the animals are not out. What horse in his right mind is going to stand still so these brutes can kill him? He's got a long neck and uses it and long legs to try to flee or fight. It's total insanity on this witch's part to think welfare, put them out of their misery etc. Sorry Dianne. It's my frustration with inhumanity coming through.You're not the only one who gets frustrated with inhumanity. I totally understand.Thank you. Sad but true.
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