Tornado Causes Damage at Churchill Downs The National Weather Service confirmed that it was, in fact, a tornado that hit the Churchill Downs stable area on Wednesday night; the aftermath left 6 ½ barns uninhabitable, displacing horses and frazzling nerves but injuring neither human nor equine. “That to us is miraculous when you see the damage… Continue Reading.
GAO Report on Horse Processing Released The demise of the horse processing industry in the U.S. has not prevented horses from being sold for slaughter and has contributed to a rise in equine neglect and abuse incidents, according to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report issued Wednesday (June 22). The GAO is an independent nonpartisan agency… Continue Reading.
June 19, 2011 – Chicago (EWA) – A long overdue Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on the effect of closing the US horse slaughter plants is scheduled for release on Wednesday, June 22. Although the report’s contents are to be kept confidential until released, slaughter supporters have been indicating for months that they were leaked the report and have now orchestrated an “Unwanted Horse” teleconference late in the day of the release, presumably to promote the report’s findings.
The teleconference, called “Ask a Vet” is being presented by The Horse, the magazine of the American Veterinary Medical Association, a long term supporter of horse slaughter, and features veterinarian Tom Lenz, the former Chair of the American Horse Council’s “Unwanted Horse Coalition (UHC)”. The UHC, supposedly founded to propose solutions to the excess horse problem, has instead concentrated on promoting the phrase “unwanted horse” to take the focus off of overproduction, which slaughter actually encourages, and imply slaughter horses are somehow unusable except as meat.
Pfizer Pharmaceuticals sponsoring a teleconference on solutions to the “unwanted horse” problem is beyond brazen. Pfizer owns Wythe Pharmaceuticals, the producer of a line of hormone replacement therapy drugs made from pregnant mare urine and is one of the largest producers of excess, poorly bred and untrained foals in North America.
With roundup season starting up again, it is imperative, now more than ever, that we all raise our voices in support of our wild horses and burros. BLM is still soliciting comments for their planned roundup in Divide Basin, a larger herd in southern Wyoming near Rock Springs. We ask that you submit your own comments regarding the Environmental Assessment (EA) for the Divide Basin Herd Management Area (HMA). There are gross inadequacies and faulty data utilized in the scope of this EA which will come as no surprise. What is a bit more surprising is the rush to create a non-reproducing herd as an alternative, which is what they want to do to in White Mountain and Little Colorado! If a roundup is conducted this summer, the herd will be reduced to only 415 horses on over 700,000 acres with many of these horses being non-reproducers! The Cloud Foundation’s comments for this EA are available online here. Read on for a sample format!
Comments need to be submitted by Monday, June 20th, no later than the close of business at 4:30 PM Mountain Time. Comments can be submitted via mail at:
Divide Basin EA Comments
BLM Rock Springs Field Office
280 Highway 191 North
Rock Springs, WY 82901
On June 9, 2011, Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA) and Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) reintroduced S. 1176, the “American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act of 2011” that would end the slaughter of American horses here and – most urgently – would stop these horses from being exported for slaughter. The sponsors, who have long championed the cause, have bipartisan support from 16 colleagues who are co-sponsoring the bill. This bill is identical to the version that passed out of the Senate Commerce Committee in 2009.
Earlier today on the House floor, Representative Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) offered an amendment to strike the prohibition on fee-for-service in the defund language. This would have allowed for slaughterhouses to pay the USDA for part of their inspections and resume operation. She claimed people should be able to pay for their own inspections and it wouldn’t cost taxpayers anything. Of course, that isn’t true. Individuals wouldn’t be paying for these inspections, the foreign owned plants would. Furthermore, even a fee-for-service program costs federal tax dollars. The slaughterhouses would only pay a small portion of the USDA inspector’s salary. The taxpayer would pay most of their salary, benefits, training, etc… As horse welfare champion Representative Jim Moran noted in his speech in opposition to the amendment on the floor, it would also pull critical inspectors away from our own food safety oversight. Fee-for-service is basically another taxpayer subsidy for corporations.
After debate on her amendment was concluded, Representative Lummis withdrew it from consideration and the House moved on to the next item on the agenda. We can be assured horse slaughter proponents are not going away on this issue. Their arguments persist and have become very emotional therefore horse owners and those concerned about the welfare of America’s horses must continue to contact their legislators in support of a permanent ban on horse slaughter.
Thankfully, Representative Jim Moran (D-VA) and Representative Dan Burton (R-IN) were on the floor to talk about overwhelming support for the full ban. AWI commends them for their continued leadership on this important issue.
Chicago (EWA) – United Horsemen (UH), a 501c3 non-profit organization that promotes horse slaughter, has launched an advertizing and editorializing campaign that defies credulity. The campaign is an obvious attempt to derail the Rep. Moran (VA) amendment to the agriculture budget that continues a policy of defunding horse meat inspections.
Horseback Magazine <http://horsebackmagazine.com/hb/archives/9390/comment-page-1> has recently run a series of these self-contradictory articles from the group that has stunned readers. The most glaring inaccuracies are those on food safety. U.S. horses have no production records since they are not raised or regulated as food animals and often contain prohibited substances.
The spin started by calling horse slaughter opponents “anti-horse” and then by firing off euphemisms like “horse processing” and slogans like “taking back the reins of the horse industry”, it pirouettes into a frenzy of reality bending distortion not seen since Alice ventured down the famous rabbit hole. In many cases, a paragraph directly contradicts the preceding one.
The articles claim that slaughter opponents have misrepresented a recent European Union (EU) report on drug residues in horses. It then sites the wrong report as proof. The sited report was for drug residues found in European raised horses under their strict micro-chip based “passport” system for tracking medications.
June 13, 2011 – This week, the House of Representatives will decide whether or not to save taxpayer dollars and protect horses from slaughter for human consumption.
On May 30th, the House Appropriations Committee approved an amendment to the FY2012 Agriculture Appropriations bill that prevents your tax dollars from being used to fund inspections of horse slaughter facilities. This bipartisan language has been included in every Agriculture Appropriations bill since 2005. Without this important provision, foreign investors will be able to reestablish horse slaughter in the U.S. at the expense of taxpayers, our own food safety, and the welfare of horses.
At a time when Congress is dramatically cutting back federal spending and eliminating wasteful federal programs, it is disappointing that some in Congress want to allow the reestablishment of a taxpayer-subsidized federal program that existed solely to support foreign-owned horse slaughter facilities that inflicted tremendous suffering on American horses.
WHAT YOU CAN DO: The full House of Representatives will vote on the FY12 Agriculture Appropriations bill this Wednesday, June 15. An amendment may be offered to remove the Committee-approved language prohibiting the USDA from spending your tax dollars to inspect horse slaughter facilities. Maintaining the USDA language defunding inspections of horse slaughter facilities as currently included is vital to protecting our horses. It is critical that you call TODAY and urge your legislator to strongly OPPOSE ANY amendment to restore horse slaughter.
Washington, D.C. (June 9, 2011) – A bill to ban horse slaughter was reintroduced in the United States Senate today. Sponsored by Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA) and Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), the “American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act of 2011″ will end the slaughter of American horses here and, most urgently, will stop these horses from being exported abroad for slaughter. The sponsors, who have long championed the cause, have the bipartisan support of 14 colleagues who are co-sponsoring the bill.
“As a lifelong horse lover and rider, this practice is appalling to me, and more importantly, the majority of Americans oppose it. We raise and train horses to trust us, perform for us, and allow us on their backs, and as such, they deserve to be treated with human compassion. When horse owners are faced with the sad reality of having to put their animals down, it should be by humane euthanasia,” said Senator Landrieu. “I intend to work with Senator Lindsey Graham from South Carolina and my other colleagues to get this bill passed and permanently end the slaughter of our American horses.”
The legislation comes at a time when horse slaughter no longer occurs on U.S. soil, but each year approximately 100,000 American horses are hauled to Canada, Mexico and beyond. Reports show that horses regularly travel for hundreds or even thousands of miles to the slaughterhouses on double-deck cattle trucks without food, water or rest. At some Mexican slaughterhouses horses are stabbed repeatedly in the spine until they are paralyzed, after which they are butchered while still fully conscious. This country’s three remaining horse slaughter plants – two in Texas and one in Illinois – were shut down in 2007 under state law.
Dear Friend and Supporters,
Mustang Monument: Wild Horse Eco-preserve made history yesterday! I’m going to try my best to begin to let you know the power of Mustang Monument.
Yesterday, we were blessed with the arrival of the first truckload of the Paiute mares and foals. These are the lucky mustangs that were rescued days from slaughter last December.
During the unloading process there was such a huge windstorm that kicked up. Luckily the dust started to settle as the mares and foals were unloaded into a temporary round pen built with bales of hay. Then, we opened the gates to set them free in one vast, but still fenced off area.
Literally hundreds of acres were theirs for the taking.
As they saw the gate was open, they each were looking around, and very gently the lead mare floated forward with her mane and tail flowing in the wind. Each of the other horses happily followed her lead. They were all now at their forever home. The sight was truly overwhelming. It was so emotional for me with tears of joy and relief streaming down my cheeks.
I cannot aptly describe the experience, but this is definitely a mission driven by God. He has blessed us all with this wonderful gift. I felt that the wind storm was so poignant to this situation, because when God created the earth and man, there was a mighty storm. It’s rather like a birthing. We are so lucky. I am so lucky. I’ve been surrounded by so many supporters and friends and I can’t thank you all enough. I am overwhelmed, speechless, and very fulfilled. It’s a new beginning.
