American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act (S.311/H.R. 503)

[douglas9]

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and Reps. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) and Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.), chief sponsors of the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act (S.311/H.R. 503), joined The HSUS at the news conference to emphasize the critical importance of this legislation. The three lawmakers called on colleagues to swiftly pass the bill this year. If enacted, this law would prohibit the export of American horses for slaughter. Additionally, it would impose a federal prohibition against any resumption of domestic horse slaughter.

http://www.hsus.org/press_and_publications/press_releases/senator_landrieu_representative_schakowsky_call_for_passage_of_american_horse_slaughter_protection_act_100407.html

[damntexdem]

1. What a waste of legislative time when there are important issues before Congress.

Besides, the entire horse never gets exported -- all the horses' asses get sent to Congress.

[demodonkey]

10. Look at this...

and tell me you still think this is a "waste of time." If so, shame on you. The horse made this country; served us in war and peace. If we can't find the time to pass legislation to prevent helpless animals from suffering like this, how can we expect to have a just and peaceful society to help our fellow human beings?

(warning: graphic)
http://s147271628.onlinehome.us/HorseSlaughter.wmv

http://www.sharkonline.org/?P=0000000528

http://www.manesandtailsorganization.org/media.html

[Mojorabbit]

14. What do you have against horses?

you post the same kind of thing on several threads about this. Just curious.

[Man_in_the_Moon]

2. Why are horses special?

Why do they need protection?

[CottonBear]

3. Because horses are companion animals and are not raised for food.

Almost every required veterinary product (vaccinations, wormers and medicines) for horses are labeled "not for use in animals raised for human consumption."

We don't eat horses in the USA.

The Europeans and Japanese can eat their own horses if they so desire. They don't need to eat ours.

[Man_in_the_Moon]

5. What If...

I wanted to raise a horse for slaughter?

Or hunt a wild horse for food?

[CottonBear]

13. It is illegal to hunt wildhorses and a domestic horse must have the wormers, vaccines and medicines.

It would be cruel and inhumane not to give the horse the medications that it needs to survive and those vaccines which are required by law to prevent the contraction and spread of diseases.

[Man_in_the_Moon]

19. Again why are horses special?

Why are wildhorses protected from hunting?

All livestock take medicines, not just horses. So why couldnt they be raised for food?

Why are horses special compared to cows?

or pigs?

If you are going to allow cows and pigs to be slaughtered why not horses?

or

If you are going to protect horses, why not cows and pigs?

[CottonBear]

24. You obviously have no compassion for our equine companions . n/t

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[spotbird]

20. Who should pay to keep them? nt

[michaz]

38. Many people would be glad to keep them!

[spotbird]

41. Huh.

OK. If they do it your way, you agree that the federal government shouldn't spend even one thin dime paying wealthy ranchers to keep them. After all, since they're all adoptable the money the federal government spends to keep them alive is wasted. Right?

[CottonBear]

16. Horses enabled mankind to advance, they toiled for us for eons for work and war.

Now we keep them as companion animals. We owe them safety, comfort, good care and affection for all they have done for us.

[Freddie Stubbs]

4. What does it propose we do with all of these unwanted horses?

We can't kill them for food here. This bill would propose banning shipping them out of the country for food.

Perhaps this:

[Yellow Horse]

6. Slaughter Industry Lies. The number of "unwanted" horses is very small.

But many beloved family horses have been stolen and sold for slaughter by criminals looking to make a few hundred bucks. That OK with you?

[Name removed]

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[demodonkey]

9. LOL YOURSELF. I had one stolen once. IT IS NOT FUNNY.

My JJ was later found dead, and didn't go for slaughter, but those days were among the worst of my life.

http://www.yellowpony.com/losthorse/

DON'T MAKE FUN IF YOU HAVEN'T LIVED IT.

:grr:

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[CottonBear]

15. You are being cruel. n/t

[Name removed]

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[CottonBear]

23. You cannot compare a stolen car to someone's abducted beloved pet. n/t

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[demodonkey]

26. I bet it was happy to get away from your ownership.

I bet it hardly even felt the pain as it was getting its tires pulled off and seats torn out. Kinda like one of those horse-things when they get a knife stabbed into their spinal column while being slaughtered. No biggie.

:sarcasm: :puke: :sarcasm: :puke: :sarcasm: :puke: :sarcasm: :puke:

[Yellow Horse]

8. TAKE ACTION HERE & stop this barbaric practice.

https://community.hsus.org/campaign/FED_2007_horseslaughter_notcosponsor

[Name removed]

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[spotbird]

22. If the horses are slaughtered

the people who make millions at taxpayer expense keeping them will have to get into another, less lucrative, line of work. OH THE HORROR!!!!!

[Name removed]

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[spotbird]

33. Yep,

there are people making millions off the horses that aren't allowed to be slaughtered now. It's a Republican "sacred cow" so to speak, another wasteful boondoggle.

[Name removed]

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[spotbird]

42. Hey, they've

succeeded this long and there is no reason to think it will stop soon.

[spotbird]

43. 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.



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

and making a few people rich.

[Breeze54]

25. The horses are slaughtered while they are still alive!

Summary of Facts & Stats

http://www.stophorseslaughter.com/slaughterinfo.htm

Snip-->

The slaughter itself is also inhumane. The chutes that hold the horses are made for cows. Horses are much more flexible with longer necks. They are also more intuitive than cows and have a skittish nature in stressful unfamiliar environments. They thrash about making the captive bolt operator's job very difficult. The operator often has to stun a horse 3-4 times before rendering the horse unconscious. Sometimes the horse is slaughtered while still alive. USDA considers a 95% rate of unconsciousness before being butchered very acceptable. That means that 3,300 horses (at best) were slaughtered last year while they were still fully alive. The captive bolt gun is used to stun the horses. It's like a spike on a leash. It is shot into the horse's head and then retracts back in to the gun. It can be a humane method of a killing a horse (much like a well placed bullet), but the assembly line fashion that these horses are run through makes it nearly impossible.

more.....

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[Breeze54]

32. read the article.

[madmunchie]

46. Just because YOU don't give a fuck about horses does not mean

that horses have to suffer because of it. If there are more of us that care and love horses, than there are of you not giving a flying flip, than YOU lose. Pure and simple.

And by the way, we don't have to justify WHY we don't want horse slaughtered, we just have to try to do something about it.

People like you obviously have the heart of a rock so I personally don't care about what you think because your "type" of person (and I use that term loosely) don't exist in my world of friends.

[spotbird]

50. Saving the horses is fine

but it should not make ranchers rich at taxpayer expense. It's an outrageous boondoggle, tragic really.

If someone wants to start a charity to pay for this, great, but the way it is done now is horrific.

[tulip]

37. saddened

It saddens me to no end that our value for one of our most cherished animal companions has left our society. Thank goodness that there are still politicians who understand the plight of horses in this country. What have we become that there are people here who would suggest that this issue has no value?

[spotbird]

49. If only the lives of

children were as important as the lives of horses to those in power. At least they have priorities, they just are nothing close to mine.

[pookieblue]

44. if I am reading this right...

some of these horses are still alive at they are being butchered?

I saw this article

that says that the horses can regain consciousness about 30 seconds after the captive bolt is applied. They are feeling the pain when they are shackled and lifted. And it goes on to say that they are aware of being butchered alive.


How can anyone be okay with this?

here is a link to the article..

http://www.manesandtailsorganization.org/captive_bolt.htm

[demodonkey]

45. You read it right.

Captive bolt guns are designed to slaughter cattle, which do not have the same anatomy of their skull and neck or the same flight-response and temperament as horses.

Sometimes they near-miss with the captive bolt and the poor desperate horse wakes up as his or her throat is being slit and the skinning begins.

It makes me sick just to think about it.

Please sign the action alert and SUPPORT HR 503 / S 311.

https://community.hsus.org/campaign/FED_2007_horseslaughter_notcosponsor

[pookieblue]

47. I already have....

and have forwarded the message to my friends.

[michaz]

39. Glad to have signed this!!

[backscatter712]

18. I'm sure the GOP's flatly opposed to this.

How would the expect to get a supply of horse's heads to leave in Democratic Congressmen's beds if this bill passes?

[spotbird]

21. Hardly

The truth is the wild horses make some GOPers very, very wealthy. This is all about money.

[Igel]

27. Sounds like they wanted to produce one effect by making

the obvious aesthetic problem--domestic horse slaughter--illegal. "They" wanted to "save" the horses by telling others to do the job for them.

However the others didn't behave as the proponents of the first bill wanted, loving and caring for their horses. So now they have to go back and re-do the process to get the results they want: Horses that are loved and cared for by others.

Easy solution: All unwanted horses are to be collected and maintained by Congress on the Mall. Any days Congress isn't in session the members of Congress can function as companions and stable-folk, and when they're in session they can have their pages and aides do the job. The can get volunteers--or PETA-folk--to substitute, of course. Funding will come from the budget allocated for Congress (with pay-go in effect) and donations, lest there be accusations of horse-barrel politics.

[tulip]

35. Thank you!

Thank you for reminding us of this issue.

[L. Coyote]

36. What Horsesh*t. What next? Monkey? What if you like eating horse meat or monkey?

Here we go again, with important issues out there, scamming big bucks contributions from special interests, like the monkey lobby. :rofl:

[michaz]

40. I own one of these horses that was going to be sent to slaughter!

She was 5 a year ago and has turned out to be a fantastic animal! Most of them are great horses. It is sick to kill these horses for food when we don't even allow eating horse meat in this country. The countries that do can kill there own horses then. If they don't know enough to stop it then that is their problem, we can't do anything about that. We can do something about it here in this country.

[nam78_two]

48. K&R-thanks for the alert

:thumbsup:

[pookieblue]

51. the more I read about this...

the sadder I felt. some of these horses were former race horses. There was a newsvideo at one of the links about a Kentucky Derby Winner that was sold to a breeder, to be put up at Stud. It was later found out that the horse was sent to a slaughter house.

some of these horses served and trusted humans. rodeos, race tracks, show horses, and some were just part of the family.

These horses that are being sent to slaughter were NOT raised for food. These were working horses, that for whatever reason...didn't serve the purpose of their owners. or in some very sad cases were horses that were stolen from their owners.

Watching the videos... (if you haven't watched it..please try..but they are very graphic). The treatment of these animals in very inhumane. shoved in overcrowded trailers...shipped several hundred miles, with no food no water.

One part of the video shows the truck stopped in 100 degree weather in the sun for at least an hour. the horses were shoved in that trailer. some were bleeding from injuries. All were probably extremely thirsty and suffering from the heat.

Then the way they show the slaughter... in mexico, they use a dagger to the spine. sometimes several times to make sure the horse is dead.

the bolt, I saw the person hit the horse with it several times. The bolt does not kill the animal.. it only is supposed to knock them out.

They then hang the horse and while it's still alive...Slit it's throat to let it bleed out. The horse is bleeding to death. Very nice way to die ain't it?

another part shows where a horse wasn't killed by the first try..to the person stabs it in the heart a couple of times.

Sorry to be so graphic in this post. but I do think that some here, aren't really getting why some of us are so upset. This is how we treat the animals who trust us? Depend on us?

Seeing this...has really turned to my stomach to meat all together. I'm sure the other slaughter houses work in the same way.