30 | November | 2011 | Howling For Justice

Thanks To Obama and Congress, Horse Slaughter Is Again Legal In US…

Is there no end to the damage this Congress and President Obama will inflict on innocent animals? In the middle of one of the worst recessions/depressions in the nation’s history, it seems the only thing Democrats and Republicans can agree on is reinstating slaughter of America’s horses.

There is a parallel between what is happening to horses and wolves. A lack of empathy and coldness has pervaded government. With Democrats in control of the Senate, they once again came up short to protect horses. In my mind there is no longer much difference between the two parties.

First it was the wolves and the wild horses, now it’s our domestic horses, who’ve been slated to die in cruel and barbarous slaughterhouses.

On the campaign trail in 2008, Obama made this statement:

“Federal policy towards animals should respect the dignity of animals and their rightful place as cohabitants of our environment. We should strive to protect animals and their habitats and prevent animal cruelty, exploitation and neglect…. I have consistently been a champion of animal-friendly legislation and policy and would continue to be so once elected.”

During the campaign Obama co-signed a bill banning horse slaughter in the US and was asked, “Will you support legislation …to institute a permanent ban on horse slaughter and exports of horses for human consumption“? He answered in the affirmative.

Now, just a few short years later, he has gone back on his campaign promise and signed on to reinstating horse slaughter in the US. What’s going on with this Congress and President?

“In a bipartisan effort, the House of Representatives and the United States Senate approved the Conference Committee report on spending bill H2112, which among other things, funds the United States Department of Agriculture. On November 18th, as the country was celebrating Thanksgiving, President Obama signed a law, allowing Americans to kill and eat horses. Essentially, one turkey was pardoned in the presence of worldwide media while in the shadows, buried under pages of fiscal regulation, millions of horses were sentenced to death.”

Forget that 70% of Americans are against slaughtering horses for human consumption. We don’t eat our pets, this meat is going to be shipped overseas to countries like Japan and Belgium, who eat horses and the American people will foot the bill for the inspection of the “meat”. In other words we are going to pay to have our horses tortured in slaughterhouses, so foreign countries can benefit. What??

And how did this sneak through, with very little coverage? By politics as usual, back room wheeling and dealing.

“The bill that effectively changed the policy was a huge spending bill covering several different agencies and departments such as the USDA.

Rep. Jim Moran, a Virginia Democrat, got an amendment passed in the House Appropriations Committee in May to continue the ban on funding inspections. But a few lawmakers stripped out the amendment before the bill was finalized, passed by both houses this month and signed into law.”

And what’s the lame excuse for lifting the ban on horse slaughter in the US? Well there are just too many dang neglected and unwanted horses don’t cha know? It’s our duty to drag these terrified animals to horrific slaughterhouses, so they can have a bolt shoved into their brains, which half the time doesn’t even kill them. Then they’re strung up to be cut into pieces, some are still alive when this happens. Yes that will be the fate of unwanted, neglected horses. It’s simply outrageous. Anyone who understands horses knows they are a prey species and are extremely fearful. Can you even imagine the panic they would feel going through this barbaric process? It’s unimaginable.

“Simon, with the Humane Society of the United States, took issue with the argument that the domestic slaughtering ban has led to more cases of neglect and abandonment of horses, saying that the recession was the main cause. All types of animals are abandoned in economic downturns she said, because people can’t afford to take care of them.

“The vast majority of American horse owners would not choose this practice,” she said.

Moreover, she said, horses were transported long distances within the United States before the ban.

Simone Netherlands, founder of Respect4Horses, questioned the fiscal justification for opening up horse slaughter plants.

“In this time when the focus of Congress is supposedly on reducing spending and creating jobs, it is a ludicrous measure to spend tax dollars in order to reinstate an inherently cruel predatory business, from which Americans stand to gain nothing. Horse slaughter plants operating until 2007 have never created a total of more than 178 jobs,” Netherlands said.”

Cynthia Armstrong, Oklahoma state director of The Humane Society of the United States, spoke out clearly against this madness.

“Americans don’t eat horses.

“And they don’t want them inhumanely killed, shrink-wrapped and sent to Japan or Belgium for a high priced appetizer. Where and how one makes a living isn’t an issue here. In our culture and in our hearts, the horse holds a lofty place. And it’s not on the barbecue grill,” Armstrong said.

Graham said Americans just need to talk and find a viable, humane solution to the issue.

“Many people think this will be humane euthanasia and they think of Fido getting put to sleep on the veterinary table. That’s not the way it is,” said Graham.

“Horses are sensitive animals and you cannot tell me the horse at the slaughter plant cannot smell the blood on the other side of the pen. They’re freaked out. They know death is coming,” she said.

This is the “humane” solution for unwanted horses? I guess those in Congress, who pushed to reinstate horse slaughter in the US, forgot or didn’t care to do their homework on how truly nightmarish a “solution” this is.

“In most countries where horses are slaughtered for food, they are processed in a similar fashion to cattle, i.e., in large-scale factory slaughterhouses (abattoirs). Unfortunately that results in a less than acceptable rate of effectiveness rendering the horses unconscious with a captive bolt gun, due to the difference between trying to get an accurate shot on an unrestrained horse vs. an unrestrained cow. In addition, horses’ brains are set further back, so even when the shot is in the correct spot, it sometimes doesn’t render them appropriately unconscious. In the UK a captive bolt is rarely used. They are usually killed using a free bullet from a bell gun. The skull is too hard to use a captive bolt the bell end to the gun prevents the bullet ricocheting and injuring the slaughterman. They are then killed by being exsanguinated (“bled out”) by severing the jugular vein or carotid artery while suspended by the rear leg by a heavy chain shackle.” Wikipedia

Apparently the new paradigm in Congress is ramming through unpopular policies. by burying them in appropriation bills. They brutalized our wolves with this underhanded method and now history is repeating itself.

This is what passes as leadership in Congress? We need term limits and we need them badly. If it wasn’t for gerrymandering we could boot these self-serving politicians out of office.

Thanks to Congress and President Obama, horse slaughter is once again legal in the US, condemning 120,000 to 200,000 horses to a terrible death each year.

Pro-Horse Slaughter Arguments Do Not Make Flicka Burgers Tasty

By Sylvia Cochran | Yahoo! Contributor Network

Wed, Nov 30, 2011

COMMENTARY | Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., spouts pro-horse slaughter arguments. Trying to sell the electorate on ending a “misguided ban on domestic horse slaughter,” he cites “sad cases of horse abandonment” and promises a return of “jobs shipped to Canada and Mexico,” according to his website.

I am surprised Sen. Baucus has not seen fit to also insert the ubiquitous “for the children” argument, which legislators usually slip into taxation schemes. But then he is not selling a new indebtedness but rather a way to profit off horse slaughtering.

As a carnivore, with only a short stint of vegetarianism under her belt, I appreciate a juicy steak as much as the next person. Even so, there are some animals I won’t eat out of principle, and horses (as well as donkeys) make the list.

Call me sentimental if you like, but then tell me why it is a good idea to consume meat that was not bred for slaughter. “None of the products that we routinely use on our horses has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use on horses intended for food,” the Equine Protection Network explained when American horse slaughter was still ongoing.

The pro-horse slaughter arguments citing deplorable equine neglect also fail to hold water. The Animal Law Coalition studied the cause and effect relationship between slaughterhouse closings and increases in horse neglect. “On the question of whether the closings were the cause of a pronounced increase in abuse we find that neither the cause nor the effect actually happened,” the researchers concluded. (If you follow Sen. Baucus’ logic to the end, you would have to make a case for the mass slaughter of dogs and cats.)

Peeling away the layers of sanctimonious rhetoric gets us down to business: Cold, hard cash. The Meat Trade News outlined in 2009 that a “good commercial horse” can be sold for $500 to the meat trade. Multiply this by 9 million — the estimated number of horses in the U.S. — and you are looking at a “multibillion dollar industry.”

In its 2011 publication, it cheers a proposed Nebraska institution of a state meat inspection agency — right after wondering “who gave these money grabbing animal rights bastrads (sic) so much power.” See, the pro horse slaughter arguments really do not care about horse welfare; it’s the almighty dollar that counts.

Just be honest about it.