Needless Equine Slaughter Continues.
Jun. 26th, 2006 09:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sitaangelMOUNTAIN VIEWS: NEEDLESS EQUINE SLAUGHTER CONTINUES
By John Hanchette
OLEAN -- Newspaper editors and columnists would like to think that in a
perfect world and enlightened democracy, the way it works is this:
Columnist writes impelling column on some cause or problem. Reading
public responds and pressures politicians. Politicians draft
legislation. Legislation passes and is signed into law. Problem is solved.
This, of course, is a forlorn hope. It rarely happens that way. The
politicians, though, often go through the motions.
And so it is with the previously covered subject I seek to update in
this space -- the widespread slaughter of horses for human consumption.
Most Americans still seem blissfully unaware that more than 65,000
horses are slaughtered here each year in three United States butchering
plants and shipped overseas so that well-to-do European and Japanese
gourmands can eat them at $15 to $18 a pound.
When I first wrote about the subject late last year, the response was
overwhelming. The Niagara Falls Reporter got letter after letter of
appreciation for being informed on a little-covered subject, of outrage
that the situation still exists, and of inquiry as to how the reader can
help.
What has happened since to save American horses from such a grisly end?
Ummm, how about nothing?
Well, not exactly nothing, but nothing good from the standpoint of
federal action.
Perhaps when you watched the Kentucky Derby last month, you saw NBC
sports commentator Bob Costas sipping a mint julep from a commemorative
cup -- and telling the viewers that for the first time, the traditional
Churchill Downs race-day drink cost him $1,000 a pop.
That, he explained, is because the money from those expensive libations
goes to establish Greener Pastures, a new humane retirement program for
thoroughbred racehorses.
That's because the racing community, along with the general public, was
shocked to learn that along with draft horses, farm animals, everyday
plugs and wild mustangs, some of the most celebrated racehorses of all
time -- including 1986 Kentucky Derby winner Ferdinand, and Exceller,
the only horse in history to beat two Triple Crown winners -- have ended
up on foreign dinner plates. In fact, racehorses are preferred for
butchering and eating for their lean, tender, muscular cuts that contain
lower cholesterol.
Ellen-Cathryn Nash, president of a horse-rescue group called Manes and
Tails Organization, says she has already saved from foreign devouring a
son of the great Seattle Slew, a grandson of the famous Secretariat, and
a great-granddaughter of Secretariat.
Members of Congress, at least those who pay attention to their
constituents, tried to do something about all this in the 2006
Agriculture Appropriations Act by simply refusing to provide new funding
for the federal Agriculture Department meat inspectors who by law have
to assure the health, hygiene, absence of toxicity and safe edibility of
U.S. horse carcasses exported for human consumption.
Even that was no smooth sailing as Texas Republican congressman Henry
Bonilla furtively tried to strip the denial-of-funding language from the
appropriations bill during the closed conference committee negotiations
that reconcile House and Senate intent preceding final draft. He was
thwarted only after the National Horse Protection Coalition exposed him
with an expensive full-page advertisement in The New York Times.
President Bush signed the act.
But as bureaucrats do, bureaucrats in the Ag Department figured out a
way to ignore the public will and the intentions of elected
representatives in Congress. They simply accepted an offer from the
slaughterhouses to pay for their own horsemeat inspections in a "fee for
services" scheme that would use business funds instead of taxpayer
monies -- a clear violation of congressional intent that Congress
doesn't seem to give a hoot about.
Despite knowledge of the residues of carcinogenic drugs that are used on
many racehorses, all the USDA twisted rules provide for is a rubber
stamp on an export certificate of health signed by a veterinarian who is
paid, when all is said and done, by monies from the owners of the
killing plants. Talk about a system just begging for corruption.
There are three horse-slaughtering plants in the United States --
Beltrex Corp. in Forth Worth, Texas, Dallas Crown in Kaufman, Texas, and
Carvel International in DeKalb, Ill. Among them, they do about $50
million-plus in sales a year. The locals have put more pressure on them
than the feds. A move by the state attorney general in Texas to shut
down the two Texas plants under state agricultural codes failed three
years ago when high-priced Washington attorneys successfully argued
federal law supersedes state law.
The Dallas Crown slaughterhouse in Kaufman has been ordered closed by
the Texas Board of Adjustments after residents complained about the
abattoir for years. The Kaufman zoning board declared the plant a public
nuisance and health and safety hazard last year. The Belgian owners of
the plant have filed a suit to appeal the board's decision.
Three months ago, a federal court in Washington, D.C., rejected the
Doris Day Animal League's request for a temporary restraining order that
would have extended the temporary ban on horse slaughter in the United
States occasioned by the congressional appropriations action.
The killing plant owners claim only legal "humane methods" are used to
end the horses' lives. You judge. Here is how it happens, according to
Jill Starr, founder of the wild horse-rescue organization Lifesavers,
Inc. in Lancaster, Calif.:
"Depressed and confused, (the horse) stands nervously on the cold,
slippery floor. She is edging through a funnel-like chute and into a
large wooden stall. Suddenly, her depression turns to terror. Her acute
sense of hearing and smell, both way beyond human development, forebode
her fate. (The horse) begins to tremble violently. She urinates on
herself. She smells death.
"A worker appears, wielding a strange mechanical instrument. He brings
it down with brutal, unyielding force. The retractable four-inch bold
fractures the horse's skull, driving bone fragments deep into her brain.
Again and again the bolt violently thrusts. But it does not kill. (The
horse) collapses, writhing fully conscious, still alive, still aware,
onto a conveyor belt. From somewhere, another contraption snares her
leg, lifting her upside down, her head dangling towards the floor.
Terror and pain bulge from the innocent mare's brown eyes.
"Then, the blade appears. With one vicious swipe (her) throat is sliced.
Her heart continues to beat as her blood -- her life -- collects in a
thick red pool on the floor. ... Tomorrow, she will be sold for dinner."
There are currently two bills in the congressional hopper --
collectively called the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act -- which
would effectively end the killing of American horses for foreign
consumption. They are numbered Senate 1915 and House of Representatives
503. It is unlikely they will become law unless you raise pluperfect
hell with your elected officials in Washington. Even then, it's a longshot.
By John Hanchette
OLEAN -- Newspaper editors and columnists would like to think that in a
perfect world and enlightened democracy, the way it works is this:
Columnist writes impelling column on some cause or problem. Reading
public responds and pressures politicians. Politicians draft
legislation. Legislation passes and is signed into law. Problem is solved.
This, of course, is a forlorn hope. It rarely happens that way. The
politicians, though, often go through the motions.
And so it is with the previously covered subject I seek to update in
this space -- the widespread slaughter of horses for human consumption.
Most Americans still seem blissfully unaware that more than 65,000
horses are slaughtered here each year in three United States butchering
plants and shipped overseas so that well-to-do European and Japanese
gourmands can eat them at $15 to $18 a pound.
When I first wrote about the subject late last year, the response was
overwhelming. The Niagara Falls Reporter got letter after letter of
appreciation for being informed on a little-covered subject, of outrage
that the situation still exists, and of inquiry as to how the reader can
help.
What has happened since to save American horses from such a grisly end?
Ummm, how about nothing?
Well, not exactly nothing, but nothing good from the standpoint of
federal action.
Perhaps when you watched the Kentucky Derby last month, you saw NBC
sports commentator Bob Costas sipping a mint julep from a commemorative
cup -- and telling the viewers that for the first time, the traditional
Churchill Downs race-day drink cost him $1,000 a pop.
That, he explained, is because the money from those expensive libations
goes to establish Greener Pastures, a new humane retirement program for
thoroughbred racehorses.
That's because the racing community, along with the general public, was
shocked to learn that along with draft horses, farm animals, everyday
plugs and wild mustangs, some of the most celebrated racehorses of all
time -- including 1986 Kentucky Derby winner Ferdinand, and Exceller,
the only horse in history to beat two Triple Crown winners -- have ended
up on foreign dinner plates. In fact, racehorses are preferred for
butchering and eating for their lean, tender, muscular cuts that contain
lower cholesterol.
Ellen-Cathryn Nash, president of a horse-rescue group called Manes and
Tails Organization, says she has already saved from foreign devouring a
son of the great Seattle Slew, a grandson of the famous Secretariat, and
a great-granddaughter of Secretariat.
Members of Congress, at least those who pay attention to their
constituents, tried to do something about all this in the 2006
Agriculture Appropriations Act by simply refusing to provide new funding
for the federal Agriculture Department meat inspectors who by law have
to assure the health, hygiene, absence of toxicity and safe edibility of
U.S. horse carcasses exported for human consumption.
Even that was no smooth sailing as Texas Republican congressman Henry
Bonilla furtively tried to strip the denial-of-funding language from the
appropriations bill during the closed conference committee negotiations
that reconcile House and Senate intent preceding final draft. He was
thwarted only after the National Horse Protection Coalition exposed him
with an expensive full-page advertisement in The New York Times.
President Bush signed the act.
But as bureaucrats do, bureaucrats in the Ag Department figured out a
way to ignore the public will and the intentions of elected
representatives in Congress. They simply accepted an offer from the
slaughterhouses to pay for their own horsemeat inspections in a "fee for
services" scheme that would use business funds instead of taxpayer
monies -- a clear violation of congressional intent that Congress
doesn't seem to give a hoot about.
Despite knowledge of the residues of carcinogenic drugs that are used on
many racehorses, all the USDA twisted rules provide for is a rubber
stamp on an export certificate of health signed by a veterinarian who is
paid, when all is said and done, by monies from the owners of the
killing plants. Talk about a system just begging for corruption.
There are three horse-slaughtering plants in the United States --
Beltrex Corp. in Forth Worth, Texas, Dallas Crown in Kaufman, Texas, and
Carvel International in DeKalb, Ill. Among them, they do about $50
million-plus in sales a year. The locals have put more pressure on them
than the feds. A move by the state attorney general in Texas to shut
down the two Texas plants under state agricultural codes failed three
years ago when high-priced Washington attorneys successfully argued
federal law supersedes state law.
The Dallas Crown slaughterhouse in Kaufman has been ordered closed by
the Texas Board of Adjustments after residents complained about the
abattoir for years. The Kaufman zoning board declared the plant a public
nuisance and health and safety hazard last year. The Belgian owners of
the plant have filed a suit to appeal the board's decision.
Three months ago, a federal court in Washington, D.C., rejected the
Doris Day Animal League's request for a temporary restraining order that
would have extended the temporary ban on horse slaughter in the United
States occasioned by the congressional appropriations action.
The killing plant owners claim only legal "humane methods" are used to
end the horses' lives. You judge. Here is how it happens, according to
Jill Starr, founder of the wild horse-rescue organization Lifesavers,
Inc. in Lancaster, Calif.:
"Depressed and confused, (the horse) stands nervously on the cold,
slippery floor. She is edging through a funnel-like chute and into a
large wooden stall. Suddenly, her depression turns to terror. Her acute
sense of hearing and smell, both way beyond human development, forebode
her fate. (The horse) begins to tremble violently. She urinates on
herself. She smells death.
"A worker appears, wielding a strange mechanical instrument. He brings
it down with brutal, unyielding force. The retractable four-inch bold
fractures the horse's skull, driving bone fragments deep into her brain.
Again and again the bolt violently thrusts. But it does not kill. (The
horse) collapses, writhing fully conscious, still alive, still aware,
onto a conveyor belt. From somewhere, another contraption snares her
leg, lifting her upside down, her head dangling towards the floor.
Terror and pain bulge from the innocent mare's brown eyes.
"Then, the blade appears. With one vicious swipe (her) throat is sliced.
Her heart continues to beat as her blood -- her life -- collects in a
thick red pool on the floor. ... Tomorrow, she will be sold for dinner."
There are currently two bills in the congressional hopper --
collectively called the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act -- which
would effectively end the killing of American horses for foreign
consumption. They are numbered Senate 1915 and House of Representatives
503. It is unlikely they will become law unless you raise pluperfect
hell with your elected officials in Washington. Even then, it's a longshot.
