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When I first heard of horse slaughtering I was disturbed. I’ve always been taught that horses are noble creatures that we respect and honor. Sort of the old “cowboy way” that my father and community taught me. I did a little research and found that my congressman Chet Edwards had voted AGAINST H.R. 503.
I have a friend in town (College Station) who worked for Chet’s campaign recently and I asked him for an unofficial answer to why Chet had voted AGAINST this bill along with a majority of the others in Texas. I figured it would be just the opposite. I was wrong.
His answer was something along the lines of: many farmers and ranchers who own horses have no other way of getting rid of horses other than taking them behind the barn and shooting them. Most of the ranchers support these horse slaughter farms, and have asked Chet to make sure they can still send their horses to them.
Those were not his official words, nor Chets, but the idea is pretty simple.
So I found myself on the fence once again. I can understand the euthanasia of animals. It’s unfortunate, but I can understand. However, it is not euthanasia, it’s slaughter. No dignity. No respect. No humanity.
There are two questions you must ask yourself when heading this issue (as I see it).
I say “no” to both questions, but some of you may say “no” to only the first. I have found some pretty interesting facts you may want to take a look at.
I am however, going to contact Chet’s camp/office and see if I can get a direct answer about this and I would like to encourage everyone here to see how your congressman or woman voted.” Sometimes jumping to conclusions from one side of the story is as bad as not knowing anything to begin with.
Cody Marx Bailey
superphly@gmail.com
Great post Cody! I checked out the links and I have to say I know more now! I feel that the information shows that for these reasons alone the slaughter should stop….
1. “Existing slaughter plants are foreign owned, and pay no corporate taxes or export tariffs.” Well that there is one very good reason alone to stop the slaughter because it is slaughtering more than just horses.
2. “Horses are transported to Canada and Mexico for slaughter.” This sounds like an exportation that needs to be stopped. Again another slaughter to American job market(although we do not want this job here int he US.) These are American Horses, being sold to foriegn countries and no telling of there methods of cruelty.
3. “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. For obvious reasons the meat of old or sick horses is not acceptable for human consumption.” What are they doing killing healthy horses? What are they doing Killing any horses, I do agree there is a time and place to put an animal down that is in tremendous pain but do in a prper manor.
4. Neglectful and abusive treatment during transportation and our government sets the standard that appoved it.
5. “horses are still conscious when they are shackled, hoisted by a rear leg, and cut across the throat” WHAT !!! This is crazy, there is no reason in this, why or how is anyone allowing this to happen!
6. “The existence of horse slaughter plants seems to be directly related to increased horse abuse and theft.” Wow they have proven this is a bad idea and wrong yet our political representation refuses to buck the good old boy favorite system and vote for what they know they should and stop this insanity of slaughter.
Again thanks Cody for all the information. I look forward to more post like this on this site and the google group too!
Education of the masses is the only way to stop the cancerous mass that is our government today!
I’m now in Asia and having a tough enough time keeping these folks from stealing my dog off the leash and putting him in a bowl.
Fact is, folks in third world countries (and I include France and Japan on the list) have to develop a culture of conservation or there will be nothing left,
no fish,
no sharks,
no whales,
and probably in our lifetime …
no wild horses.
“The ’surplus horse population’ is a myth,” eh?
I’m a bit confused by this. We kill 94,000 horses per year. Is the myth of the surplus population taking that into account? Do we know what the horse population would look like and how we would handle it if we were to not kill those 94,000 horses that we now kill yearly?
There were two amendments to the legislation in congress that would have made my previous point moot (one of the amendments would, at least.).
“Amendment sought to provide that the Secretary of Agriculture must certify that sufficient horse sanctuaries exist to care for unwanted horses before the law will take effect.” — REJECTED
The bill has been set up for failure now because if the legislation passes, there will be no provision to make sure sufficient horse sanctuaries and the surplus population will be a fact.
Good job, congress. You had a wonderful opportunity to do a good thing, but now you set it up so that you can vote against this bill saying, “Well, I would have voted for it, but there was no provision for handling the horses!”
You just set yourself up for success by setting up a GOOD piece of legislation for failure.
Bravo.
Bravo.
94,000 slaughtered a year? Sufficient horse sanctuaries? How many of these animals are being breed for slaughter each year is a more important question!!!!!!!!!!!!! Stop breeding for Slaughter!
Obviously horses are being bred for slaughter, precisely because there IS a market. Only heatlhy horses are going to be killed for human consumption. Keeping horses is not a poor man’s endeavor. First you need plenty of land to maintain them. And you have to feed them until it’s time to take them to market. This is not something being conducted in the backyards of crack houses. This is being done on substantial pieces of property in rural areas all over Texas. Cattle ranchers are probably the major horse breeders since it probably props up their cattle-raising business.
A bunch of city folks complaining about horses being slaughtered and sold to foreign countries isn’t going to amount to a lot of pressure on them to stop, nor are congressional representatives going to be swayed when the ranching lobby is so deeply entrenched in Texas political culture. How many people who are opposed to the concept of horse slaughter in 2006 have ever even ridden a horse? Or been to a rodeo or horse show? We need to enlist horse-loving ranchers and those who raise horses for pleasure or porfit (non-slaughter profit)to join the fight against an industry that lines the pockets of politicians. We need to involve the horse assosiations, like the American Quarter Horse Association, American Paint Horses Association, National Cutting Horse Association, Appaloosa Pleasure Horse Association, etc. All these organizations have Texas chapters. Then there is the Texas Equestrian Trail Riders Association. Let’s get these people involved and vocal and organized and then maybe, we will have a serious constituent base from which to get someone’s attention. You have to have stakeholders involved or else no one will listen.
Support your local public horse stables with your patronage if you can. Ride a horse. Take riding lessons. Attend a rodeo or horse show. The more we show we value horses alive, the less value they will have dead.
Our governments problem is their belief that nothing can exist without governmental control, and some beaurocrat to run numbers on it.
Let them roam wild..why is that a problem? These animals roamed free for thousands of years before we came along.
Why not ask the American Indian reservations to help manage the surplus?
(Hoping for the day that I can complain that a wild horse just ate the shrubs)
If we breed cows for slaughter, I don’t see how horses are that different. Horses have a more romantic image and are more useful in other ways, but that doesn’t really justify having a double standard for horses compared to how you treat cows.
I’m on the fence with this horse slaughter hoopla. I’m an animal-loving-meat-eating-business man, so I can comprehend the concerns of all sides. But I too have asked the question many times, why cows and not horses? Where does it end? I need more information but would rather see the energy spent on other issues. I just posted this to encourage discussion.
I’m on the fence too. But only about the legislation. It’s a well known fact that horses are much more aware and, in a sense, smater that bovine. However, I’m unable to find any documentation with a quick search on google. If someone can spend more time on that and prove me wrong, I’ll be glad to reconsider.
I found this bit of info that shows graphic videos of what goes on inside Dallas Crown. The horses are lead through cattle chutes, which MOST are not used to. They are spooked and scared right off the bat.
Once they are in line, they can see what is going on with the horses in front of them. I don’t know if a horse can put two and two together that if the 3 horses in front of them are getting killed… “Hey, I’m next!”
So basically, if these horses were treated with respect, and killed in an appropriate matter - I think we’d be looking at a totally different animal here (pun intended).
The legislation that Erik was talking about in the third post is very key to this issue. Now that legislation is at the federal level. A level that we only have a handful of accountable representatives and senators. The battle does NOT have to stop there. We can pass legislation here in Texas.
As it stands now, there is NO LEGISLATION IN THE STATE slated for debate. If we can organize, plan, and activate our numbers we can make change.
The way I see it, we can start by asking for legislation for better treatment of these animals by doing research and talking to veterinary medicine folks. I live in College Station, home of a very nice vet school.
Once we decide as a group what needs to be done next, we can band together and start to move forward.
Ideas?
Gosh …now I’m on the fence too…that Poodles looking tasty!
I Voted Agianst Chet mostly for our money going to A supposed Drug Program Preventing drugs getting around (Though as everyone knows nothing works to stop drugs being on the streets.).
His Vote agianst H.R. 503 does not surprise me.
Well horses aren’t bred for slaughter and with proper management you would not have a lot of the problems that exist. One example, some people keep horses for the sole purpose of producing one foal after another the brood stock never have a break. These people never ride they just feed and breed.
Texas Monthly the December issue just hit the book stands, very good read by Karen Olson, They Slaughter Horses, Don’t They? The Humane Socity has a wealth of information on the subject.
Do some research and if it doesn’t get you off the fence then by all means go get your horse burger and by all means slaughter it yourself…
Letter from Wayne Parcelle President and CEO the Humane Society of the United States.
On Friday, Jan19,after years of litigation,the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit finally upheld a 1949 Texas law banning the sale of horsemeat for human consumption. The Humane Society of the United States had filed an amicus brief in the case in March 2006, arguing in favor of the state law banning horse slaughter.Two of the three existing horse slaughter facilities in the United States are located in Texas, and as soon as the rueling goes into effect, Illinois will stand alone as the last state where American horses are slaughtered for foreign diners.
Last week, U.S. Reps. Janice Schakowsky (D-IL), Ed Whitfield (R-KY), John Spratt (D-SC), and Nick Rahall (D-WV), and U.S. Sens. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) and JohnEnsign (R-NV0 Introduced H.R. 503/S.311, the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act. This legislation would ban horse slaughter in the U.S. and stop the export of horses for slaughter across our borders. Take action to help protect American horses forever!
iNTHE 109TH cONGRESS, THE U.S. House voted five times and the U.S. Senate voted once to stop horse slaughter, but time ran out before legislation crossed the finish line. Now, at the beginning of the 110th Congress and with this major Texas court ruling, we are poised for a big push to protect all American horses from this horrable fate. We are coming at the horse slaughter industry from all directions, and they are operating on borrowed time.
We want to shutter these plants for good but we dannot do it without your pledge to be involved every step of the way. We’ll need your action, so please be on the lookout for our updates. With your continued phone calls and emails, Congress will get the job done and save 100,000 horses per year from this grim and painful end. Let’s start now by encouraging lawmakers to cosponsor H.R. 503/S. 311 to build support for a permanent ban. With your help, we can make this a historic year for horse protection.
And don’t forget to tell your friends and family to let their legislators know that it’s time to end the brutal slaughter of America’s horses.
actions will not only make a difference, they will help make history. Help us end horse slaughter in the United States forever.
The Dallas Morning News Sunday January 21 2007 had a excellent coverage by Jim Getz Staff Writer on who did what, when, where, why and to who it’s worth looking up he covers it very well.
Suggested reading BEAUTIFUL JIM KEY The Lost History of A HORSE and A MAN Who Changed the World by MIMI EICHLER RIVAS IBSN 0-06-056703-1 Copyright 2005, well worth reading it tells the sory of a horse and a man that started a dramatic shift in the public mind that made kindness to animals a cornerstone of mordern civilization and helped launch the animal rights movement this was a century ago… my don’t we just keep backsliding…
If I had to guess why any politician would vote against ending the slaughter of horses, I would surmise that they did so because they didn’t actually consider the issue. For example, one of the large groups driving for “comprehensive immigration reform” (i.e. tax payer funded access to cheap alternatives to American workers) is the horse industry. All aspects of the horse industry, but primarily those raising horses for sports.
Apparently, this is a substantial, well financed lobbying source, particularly in the western states.
These interest groups use the same lobbyists as other similarly situated interest groups (i.e. Chamber of Commerce, Business groups and associations, advocacy groups, etc…,) and the lobbyists then bundle all of the constituent concerns to present a homogeneous front to legislators.
That being the case, for the sake of expediency, I’m sure that more than a few lawmakers simply consult the “bundled concerns of the most vocal of particular interest groups”, rather than scrutinize the substance of the legislation or analyze the impact on the broader citizenry.
Big money interest groups, with paid lobbyists always beats the concerns of we, the rabble!
what some people fail to see is that many horses are actually STOLEN for slaughter. not only is stealing a sin, but it is against law because horses are most unfortunatly considered property. horses on the way to slaughter are always in fine contition, or otherwise they wouldnt be there. the reason you always see skinny horses going to slaughter is because they were neglected ON THE WAY TO SLAUGHTER!!! did i mention that 56% of the workers at horse slaughter plants are ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS? that should give you lot something to talk about. horse slaughter makes the country look like shit to the world because we are letting other countries kill something loved by nearly all americans, in the country. and we actually pay for it with our taxes.
It definitely seems weird to me that people are slaughtering healthy horses for meat. But when horses are suffering from lack of care from their owners and are already in bad condition, I see no reason to oppose sending them to a slaughterhouse.