This quote from the story below says it all: "The amendment permits the sale of wild horses that have been rounded up and are more than ten years old or that have been unsuccessfully offered for adoption three times. Lawmakers buried the language in the 3,000-plus pages of the FY 2005 Omnibus Appropriations Bill that President Bush signed into law last December."
Not only are the politicans cowards for burying it in a some other bill, they're also allowing incredible wild horses to be slaughtered simply for people to eat.
And I thought Bush loved the country and horses. Apparently not. Sick, sick stuff.
Animal Rights Activists Campaign to Stop Horse Slaughter
by Ron Chepesiuk (bio)
With new legislation making wild horses in the
This development has outraged animal rights activists. "The amendment's passage now opens up the floodgates," said Michael Markarian, executive vice president of the Washington, DC-based Humane Society of the
The amendment's passage is the latest controversy in the long-running campaign of animal rights advocates to protect American horses from what they charge is indiscriminate and inhumane slaughter. US Department of Agriculture statistics show that humans slaughter tens of thousands of horses annually in the
"It's an American tragedy," said Karen Harkson, President of Equine Voices Rescue and Sanctuary in
The amendment affects some 37,000 horses and burros presently running free on public lands in ten western states as part of the Bureau of Land Management's (BLM) National Wild Horse and Burro Program. The BLM holds in captivity an additional 14,000 horses in
According to Markarian, horses on public lands are being targeted because they are seen as competition for forage by the cattle industry. "Cattlemen claim that the cattle are in competition with the horses and burros for forage because of recent droughts in the West in the recent years," he said. Markarian, however, pointed out that the approximately 37,000 horses and burros are sharing the same land with
Maxine Shane, a BLM spokesperson, told the press last November that at least 8,000 of the horses held in captivity are eligible for sale to the highest bidder. But as Patricia Stafford, a
Since the BLM began its adoption program in 1973 until September 2004, more than 203,000 wild horses and burros have been adopted. Historically, unadoptable horses have been returned to the range. "We believe that wild horses living on public lands should be left alone and not be made a part of the pipeline heading to the slaughter houses," Markarian said.
That is what's happening, though -- not just to the wild horses of the West, but also to horses of all ages and breeds. Losing race horses, sick and disabled horses, surplus riding school horses and foals that are used in the Pregnant Mare Urine industry, which produces the estrogen-replacement drug Premarin, are slaughtered for their meat. The national Humane Society reports that many of the horses its investigators have seen purchased for slaughter were in good health and bought for just a few hundred dollars.
What is remarkable is that most of this thriving slaughter industry occurs at just two plants in the
Little is known about the two plants in
The horsemeat is shipped to
"The fact that horsemeat is considered a delicacy in some parts of the world is helping to fuel the horse slaughter industry," Brown said.
The slaughter of horses continues in Texas, although state law has prohibited the sale, possession, transport and export of horsemeat for human consumption since 1949, and horsemeat is not legally consumed anywhere in the United States. The two
Forced closure of the slaughter plants is opposed by several prominent horse and veterinarian groups, including the American Horse Council, the American Paint Horse Association and the American Quarter Horse Association, some of the world's largest organizations for horse veterinarians and owners.
Animal rights activists counter that the inhumane treatment of the horses is endemic to the industry. On its website, the Humane Society of the
Often terrified horses and ponies are crammed together and transported to the slaughterhouses in double-deck trucks designed for cattle and pigs. The truck ceilings are so low that the horses are not able to hold their heads in a normal, balanced position. Inappropriate floor surfaces lead to slips and falls, and sometimes even trampling. Some horses arrive at the slaughterhouses seriously injured or dead.
At the plant, the horses are shuttled through a chute where electrified pins zap them in the forehead, ostensibly to stun them. They are then hoisted to the ceiling where their throats are slit and the blood collected in the buckets on the "killing floor." The bodies are then stripped for the meat.
Horse slaughter opponents have lobbied for the passage of the American Horse Slaughter Act (HR 857 IH), which several legislators have introduced into the house. The act will prevent the slaughter of horses in the
© 2005 The NewStandard.
1 comment:
Perhaps you didn't read my post. I'm against them entering the food chain at all!!! That's the whole point! So, if they don’t enter the food chain, then there won't be any slaughter. Right?!
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