Congress asked to stop export of doomed horses

[douglas9]

Source: San Antonio Express News

WASHINGTON — Animal-rights activists launched a major campaign Thursday to pressure Congress for legislation that would prohibit the export of horses to Mexico and other countries for slaughter.

The campaign, months in the making, includes grisly video of horses crammed into cattle trailers and hauled to a Mexican plant where they are slaughtered with knives.

"This is not how Americans want their horses treated," said Nancy Perry, a vice president with the Humane Society of the United States.

The Humane Society distributed the video and other materials to lawmakers in the House and Senate, where efforts to pass anti-horse slaughtering legislation has stalled in the past.

Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA100507.01A.HorseSlaughter.34c30f5.html

[damntexdem]

1. That's not how animal-rights nutcases want horses to be treated.

They'd rather keep beating dead horses.

[Duppers]

20. "animal-rights nutcases" my ass

I'd rather be labeled that than one without compassion and empathy, which are the bedrock emotions of all REAL dems, 'sir'!!!!

[kestrel91316]

2. We need to keep the horses here.

We are gonna need them for alternate transportation in the pretty near future, I suspect.

[MasonJar]

3. Excuse me! I hope that was sarcasm. The rights organizations are

right; we Americans do not want our horses slaughtered. Hopefully we stopped the slaughter here, but that was not to ship the horses to some other country to be killed. What kind of people have we become?

[spotbird]

4. What do you want done with

the horses? Why is their slaughter worse than the slaughter of beef?

The horses are costly to maintain, who do you suggest pay for it?

[CottonBear]

6. Horses are not raised for human consumption.

Almost every supplement, vaccine, wormer and medicine that I give my horse is labled "NOT FOR USE IN ANIMALS INTENDED FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION."

The Europeans and Japanese can eat their own horses if they so desire. (I wish they didn't.)

[spotbird]

7. What do you want done with them?

Who should pay for it?

[CottonBear]

8. Horses w/ untreatable/inoperable illness and injury are humanely put down and buried.

I had to have my horse put down because he had a ruptured colon. It was humane and painless.
He had suffered too much and nothing could be done to save him. I was very, very sad.


My current horse is insured for medical care and mortality. Obviously, I will and can do everytning in my power to keep her healthy and live a very long life with me.

We care for our pets in a humane way. We wouldn't slaughter and eat our dogs and cats and we don't slaughter and eat our horses.

[spotbird]

9. And the others

which are too old to be adopted? Who should pay for their care?

[KathieG]

13. If a horse is too old to be "adopted"...

The horse OWNER is responsible for euthanizing the animal. It generally costs less than $200 to have a horse euthanized, and buried, or taken away for disposal, or rendering. For too long the slaughter plants have been used as a convenient disposal method for owners that would rather put a couple of bucks in their pocket than do the humane thing for an animal that has been a pet, and companion.

[spotbird]

14. And those wild horses

whose owner is the federal government? You agree they should be euthanized, but buried respectfully?

[KathieG]

15. The BLM handles mustang capture, adoption, and...

does send horses on to slaughter after a horse has been offered unsuccessfully for adoption 3 times, but wild mustangs make up a very small percentage of the horses sent to slaughter. The vast majority are domestically bred pets, sport, and recreational stock. The mustang issue is in a class by itself...a whole other ballgame.

[spotbird]

18. link

Cooperation From Public Land Ranchers

The BLM has contracted with former cattle ranchers to operate long-term holding facilities in Kansas and Oklahoma. Wild horses removed from the Western range are transported by the thousands to these facilities; operators receive $1.25 a day per horse. The transfer of these horses is costing millions of tax dollars a year.

Competition with private cattle for public land forage is often the cause of these relocations. AWHPC believes the BLM could contract with public land ranchers as it currently does with holding-facility operators, eliminating the stress and expense of round-ups and shipping cross-country: the horses would be left where they are and public land ranchers whose allotments include wild horses could be granted a tax-credit or paid a per-horse fee (presumably lower than the fee paid to holding-facility operators), eliminating the need for long-term holding facilities. Ranchers would be expected to allow the horses to enjoy range improvements (for which they receive government range improvement funds) such as water pumps in drought areas, to the same extent as their cattle (with fair compensation for any increase in their utility bills).

However, without independent oversight and incentives to ensure ranchers will provide long-term care for the horses, initiatives such as BLM’s partnership with the Public Lands Council to simply sell captured horses to ranchers for a nominal fee are not acceptable solutions.

Cattle fencing on public lands is often the cause of high wild horse mortality during drought episodes, as recently reported in Nevada (see AWHPC Investigation). In such instances, cooperation from public land ranchers is also necessary to avoid wild horses being kept from water sources by cattle fencing.




http://www.wildhorsepreservation.com/solutions.htm

[Vidar]

16. Euthanizing our government might be the right place to start.

[flvegan]

26. That's twice.

Twice you referred to "who should pay for their care" in this thread.

Glad that money matters more to you than humanity.

[doodadem]

10. Cottonbear is absolutely right

We seem to have this argument here about once every 3 months. Horses are not meat animals, they are not raised for human consumption. They are companion animals. My horses are all big pets, as intelligent, and affectionate as my dogs or cats.

Last I heard, the Japanese had banned the importation of US beef again. The FDA is not doing their job, too many downed animals, probably with Mad Cow, getting thru. Mad Cow disease is linked to Alzheimer's in people. Johne's Disease in cattle is linked to Crohn's Disease in people. Japan is probably thinking our horses are safer than our beef.

Just like there are too many backyard breeders, or indiscriminate breeding of dogs and cats in this country, you have far too many people that think--Oh, I have a mare, if she's not fit for riding, I'll breed her. This is a HUGE mistake. They do no analysis of bloodlines, give no thought as to what kind of genetics they are passing on, both conformationally, performance-wise, and mentally. We have two beautiful Warmblood mares, one that is an exceptionally well-bred, double branded Hanoverian mare. I'm not about to breed either one. First of all, breeding is always a crap shoot--you never quite know what you're going to get. It's way smarter to invest your money in a young horse that you have a much better idea of how it's going to turn out. It also does not put our older and much loved mares at risk to carry a foal to term.

That would solve a huge part of this problem, the same way it would for dogs and cats--STOP breeding them! But regardless, exporting these poor creatures to other countries for an inhumane death is morally reprehensible.

[spotbird]

11. The horse problem results

from wild horses breeding on federal lands in the west. The horses compete with cattle for grazing land, the cattle owners hate the horses. So the federal government moves the horses from areas where they take care of themselves at virtually no cost to the taxpayer and pays ranchers elsewhere to care for them.

It's insanity.

[doodadem]

17. This is not a "horse problem"

This is a cattle problem! Ranchers lease huge tracts of land from the government--that would be us--to graze cattle for profit, while they pay very nominal fees. Then the ranchers want to kill off every other living animal they THINK is competition--wild horses, deer, buffalo, wolves. Why should they be allowed to control the environment on OUR land for their own interests? And the horses aren't even much competition, compared to thousands and thousands of cattle.

As someone else said, mustangs are a small percentage of the slaughter situation. Perhaps the answer would be legislation similar to dog breeding here in Calif. You have to have a breeder's license to advertise animals over a certain age which have not been neutered.

[spotbird]

19. It's win-win for the

cattle ranchers. In the west the ranchers don't have to compete with the wild horses to graze their cattle (for next to nothing) on federal land. The federal government in turn pays to move the "nuisance" horses to private ranches and then pays for their upkeep.

It would be like letting someone stay in my house for free so I could rent one elsewhere at my own expense. It's a genuinely mind boggling waste of public funds and land. All the while we can't afford heath care for poor children.

[Hawkowl]

27. Charge market rates for cattle leases

End ranch welfare and let the horses be.

[dysfunctional press]

24. pigs are more intelligent than dogs or horses-

i assume you favour outlawing pork for consumption?

[Hawkowl]

28. Debateable

It is not clear that pigs are smarter than horses. However, by definition, morons are smarter than idiots. Should we only slaughter idiots or Iraqis for profit?

The reality is that most of the people posting on this thread have only interacted with horses via televison. Horses are as exotic to most Americans as gorillas. Not only are horses pets, they are responsible for the advancement of civilization more than any other animal. Anyone who has owned a horse will tell you that they are incredibly emotionally intuitive. They empathize and adapt to humans needs and feelings. They are also incredibly intelligent.

It just strikes me as incredibly republican, to take humanity's former partners in civilization, and butcher them. Not for food, but for money. Regardless of either the horses feelings, or the feelings of their human advocates, regardless of humanity's debt. We as a species need to progress.

A SOCIETY'S MORAL PROGESS IS BEST JUDGED BY ITS TREATMENT OF ANIMALS--Gahndi

[NickB79]

22. Aren't we talking about wild horses here?

All the horses above carrying capacity that roam the US Southwest? :shrug: If so, they don't have any man-made supplements, vaccines, medications, etc in them.

[pookieblue]

25. a lot of these horses

were raised on farms. former race horses, horses from the rodeos, show horses.

a quote from the article about what goes on at some of the auctions...


" Proponents of the legislation say many horses taken to Mexico for slaughter are purchased at auction, with the original owner unaware that the animal is destined for a brutal death and a foreign dinner plate.

Rep. Ed Whitfield, R-Ky., said he witnessed the sale of horses in New Holland, Pa., where owners were not told the purchase was for slaughter, and abuse of the horses began immediately."

So...someone sells their horse at an auction..thinking that horse is going somewhere..where he will be taken care of. but instead the horse is going to a slaughter house.

and those who have seen the videos...know the shape of the horses after they are shipped 100's of miles shoved in a very cramped trailer. no food no water.

I've watched another video..where the killers will outbid other buyers at auctions.

again, as I said..most of these horses are not wild horses.. but instead, domestic horses, that were breed and trained for racing etc. I bet more than a few of those horses are from the race track or rodeo.

[Javaman]

32. Read up sometime on what cows ingest. LOL nt

[KathieG]

12. People need to reduce breeding...THAT is the root of the problem...

The main culprits are back-yard breeders, and large breeding operations (QH remudas, TB racing breeders etc.) I have personally seen truck loads of nice young QH's go straight to feedlots without even being offered for sale to the public. Large remuda's will breed everything in sight, then pick out the "keepers" and dispose of the rest.

[Duppers]

21. Amen! nt

nt

[Vidar]

29. Oh, it might be the 50 or 100,000 years of faithful service as our primary mode of

transportation. It seems to me that debt entitles the current generations of horses to one hell of a grandfather clause.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

5. "we Americans do not want our horses slaughtered."

Clearly some Americans do, otherwise they wouldn't be exporting them for slaughter.

[burrowowl]

23. Cutting the throat with knives

is quicker and more humane than our industial procedures that hang the animal up where they spend minutes or more in shear terror.

[bklyncowgirl]

31. It's considerably worse than that--horses are stabbed in the back to sever the spinal cord

Naturally this takes several tries. Imagine trying to stick a knife through a horse's spine while the animal is struggling and rearing to get away from the torture. I suppose the idea is to prevent the horse from kicking the guys who are about to shackle and hang it.

When the animal finally collapses in agony it is paralyzed but still fully conscious. It is then hung upside down, still fully aware, and it's throat cut.

Getting away from the argument that horses deserve special treatment, no animal whether it's a horse or a cow or a pig deserves to be tortured like this.

I'm a horse lover and horse owner but I've never been a big supporter of a US slaughter ban because I was pretty sure that killer buyers would start shipping horses to Mexico where there is little or no regulation. Sadly, the practices there appear to be far worse than I had imagined.

[Snarkturian Clone]

30. Time to invest in Horse Cemeteries! NT