sitaangel | Texas oilman kicks up dust over horse slaughter.

Texas oilman kicks up dust over horse slaughter
SUZANNE GAMBOA
Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Texas oil tycoon Boone Pickens is galloping into a
congressional fight to end the slaughter of horses for consumption overseas.

Pickens, founder of BP Capital and Mesa Petroleum, issued a news release
Friday saying he was launching an attack against "foreign-owned horse
killing plants."

He called horse slaughter "America's dirty little secret."

Two of the nation's three horse slaughter plants are in Texas and one is
in Illinois. Most of the meat from the slaughtered horses is shipped
overseas where it is sold as a delicacy.

"The brutal slaughter of horses for consumption by wealthy diners in
Europe and Japan cuts against our moral and cultural fiber - it's just
plain un-American," Pickens said in the news release.

House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said Thursday the House will
vote when it returns from its summer recess in September on a bill
seeking to end horse slaughter for human consumption by outlawing the
transport and sale of horses for slaughter.

Pickens will testify at a hearing on the bill Tuesday before a
subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Texas
Republican Rep. Joe Barton of Fort Worth chairs the full committee.

The bill is sponsored by Reps. John Sweeney, R-N.Y., John Spratt, D-S.C.
and Ed Whitfield, R-Ky. Similar legislation is being sponsored in the
Senate by John Ensign, R-Nev., who is a veterinarian, and Mary Landrieu,
D-La.

"T. Boone Pickens ... appears to be a nontraditional ally, and those are
the best allies to have in a fight on animal welfare," said Wayne
Pacelli, Humane Society of the United States president. "I think his
emergence on this issue will cause people to do a double take and will
attract many more supporters to our cause."

Pickens is a top contributor to Republicans, most recently providing
money for Republican congressional races, Bush's 2004 inauguration and
the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, a group that campaigned against
presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry.

His support for the bill sets up a duel with another Texan, former
Democratic Rep. Charles Stenholm, who lobbies for the plants and
Livestock Marketing Association.

"One of the big issues on this is private property rights. T.Boone has
been a big advocate for private property rights for land he's
purchased," Stenholm said. He said he supports horse owners who don't
want to slaughter their horses, but those who do have a constitutional
right to do so because the horse is private property.

Congress voted overwhelmingly for legislation eliminating money in the
U.S. Department of Agriculture budget this year for salaries and
expenses for horse meat inspectors. But USDA worked with the plants to
establish a fee system for inspections.

The plants are Beltex Corp. of Fort Worth; Dallas Crown Inc., based in
Kaufman, Texas; and Cavel International Inc. in DeKalb, Ill.

The Kaufman zoning board voted in May to order the Dallas Crown plant to
close because of concerns about health and safety. That decision is
being appealed.

Pickens has been listed by Forbes as one of its 400 richest Americans.
His news release said he and his wife, Madeleine, are animal lovers and
charted a jet to airlift cats and dogs stranded by Hurricane Katrina,
which hit the Gulf Coast last summer.